Why did God put the tree of knowledge in eden if he didn't want Adam and Eve to touch it?

Question

What was the point?

So basically it was a test? So christians are supposed to have faith and not question but god can question their faith all the time? Where's his faith in the christians? That's kinda hypocritical.

Champaign200221, if the angels have no free will why was Lucifer able to go against god and try to take over heaven?
And if Adam and Eve didn't know good and evil before eating of the tree how were they supposed to know it was wrong to disobey god? They didn't know right and wrong/good and evil until after they ate the fruit.

RIF, first I'm not a dude. Second I used to be christian so I do know what I'm talking about. And why should someone have faith in god if god doesn't have faith in them? And who's "you people"?

Answer 1

probably because he wanted to trick them so that they'll sin and he'd have something to hold over them until he sacrificed himself to heal their sins that he tricked them into to begin with.

also, don't forget, this is the same god that gave men nipples.

Answer 2

Have you ever notice that all children are born with all the "parts" in place for sexual activity? But they lack the physical and emotion maturity to know how to user them, or even to realize that they have such a function. They will eventual serve an important part in that child's life providing pleasure and intimacy.

So it was with the Tree and its Knowledge of Good and Evil. Man was created with a free will (the ability to make moral decisions), but he was not yet mature enough to use it or to even understand its function. He was suppose to do a lot of maturing and spending time with God first. He was suppose to learn all about the world and how it functioned, and what the consequences would be for different decision before he starting making those decisions himself.

Like a child needs to experience family life, and the love between their parents, and see how to handle arguments, and how to love each other, and how treat a spouse, before they are ready to enter into a marriage of their own.

Had they waited until the right time to eat from the Tree, they would have been physically, emotionally and spiritually ready to handle moral decisions. They would have had the knowledge to always make the right choices, and the maturity to understand the consequences of their decisions.

Rather, they ate before it was time. And just as a child who has sex forced on them before they maturity enough for it is scarred and damaged for life by the experience, so man (and all his descendents) were harmed by having moral decisions forced onto them before they were mature enough to handle them.

So people have been making a lot of dumb, harmful, selfish and ignorant decisions since then. That is why the world is in the mess it is today. People are having to make moral decisions without the emotional or spiritual maturity needed to make them.

What was the point of the Tree? It was there for the time when man (and woman) was ready for it. It was something they would have grown and matured into over time. There would have come a day when they would have been ready to eat of the fruit and take moral responsibilty for their world. Just as there should came a day when a "child" has matured to where they are ready to use their "parts".

Answer 3

The point is that we each have a free will. A gift which is truly remarkable. But this in itself would be no gift at all if there where not choices to make, and consequences for those choices.

He does not test us with evil, but offers us a way to do what is good. He has no need to test us, because he already knows who will choose to do what and when. So we will never surprise or disappoint him, he loves you regardless. But just as a good parent knows that it is bad for the development of a child to constantly shield it from the consequences of its actions, so too our heavenly father allows us to experience the consequences of our actions.

Through the poor choices I made in my life, I have come to understand just how unworthy I am of the provisions and gifts of grace that he has given to me. If I had not made those poor choices, perhaps I would never appreciate just how much he gave to redeem someone as undeserving as I am. Through this, I now understand what true love is.

Keep searching for him, and you will find him. Call on his name, and he will answer you.
Stephen

BTW: His name is Yahuwah, his sons name is Yahushua.

Answer 4

There are two schools of thought among those that believe this story. And a third school for those who find the story interesting if not believable.

One is called infralapsarianism. It means that God preordained the fall, and it was all part of his plan. The end consequence of this is that everyone who will ever be saved is already saved. That means that you can't save any new souls --oddly enough, the Jehovah's Witnesses are infralapsarians, so you have to wonder what they're trying to achieve with those pamphlets.

The other is that by God granting us free will, he was testing us to see if we would remain faithful to him. This is the predominant school of thought among theologians.

Myself, I believe the story was a parable, and it had to do with the shift is the ancient world from primitive to modern technologies, from hunter gatherers to agriculturists.

Answer 5

Not clear God didn't want them to touch it.

Why do we build roads, if we tell our 2 year olds not to go into them, because they will get killed by going there?

Why do we have knives in the kitchen if we tell our 4 year olds not to use them because they are too sharp, and they'll cut themselves?

Knowing the difference between good and evil was what made us truly human. Before then, we were content to be foragers in "the garden of eden" and eat what we found. Afterwards, we raised the food we ate.

Think about history...isn't that exactly how the history of humans goes? First we were simple, and foraged. Eventually we became fully human, and we became farmers and hunters.

Sounds to me like the Bible has its own way of explaining exactly what really happened.

Answer 6

It was to remind Adam as a son of God that he was a dependent creature . It wasn't so he would fail, it was so he could PROVE his obedience by refraining from touching it.

Oh and champaign, angels have free will too. That is why some chose to side with Satan and became demons.

Answer 7

It's actually a parable using an idiom common to Aramaic at that time and place.

To eat = to partake of
Tree = knowledge
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil = a somewhat redundant translation of the knowledge/concept of good and evil

Before Adam and Eve partook of it, they showed no shame, no anger, no fear, no blaming, no lying.

Afterward, they hide, get upset, blame others, fear God, and lie.

There are many such parables and Idioms the West has taken literally, ignoring the wealth of ancient Aramaic documents using these same parables or idioms.

It's similar to what happens when people from Japan, uneducated in English idioms, read about someone saying, "It rained cats and dogs".

A bit of knowledge about Aramaic goes a long way toward seeing the Bible in a new light.

Answer 8

Hello dear!
Poeple who use the content of their head to think and not just exercise their necks know that no god ever made any tree or Adam or Eve, or anything!
Those were created by certain rulers who wanted to guide the masses easily to certain directions and extend their rein over them!

Answer 9

He obviously knew they would, so my guess is He intended for them to do so. The bible speaks of the "mysteries of God" and of a future time when all things will be made known. The best that man's speculation can do is to surmise that Satan laid one hell of a challenge before God, and God being who and what He is took the fool up on it. Satan's been losing ever since.

Answer 10

It was a Test of Faith or he just didn't like Adam or Eve.

Answer 11

Free Will