Garden of eden questions?

Question

Who lied, and who told the truth?
How were Adam and Eve supposed to distinguish between good and evil acts if they didn't understand the concepts until they ate the fruit?
Why did God put the tree in the garden in the first place, if not to tempt them?
Why didn't God know they were going to eat the fruit ahead of time?
Isn't all this sort of analogous to putting a dish of candy on a low table, then telling a 2-year-old child that they must absolutely not eat any? Would you really expect to come back into the room and find no candy gone?

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Answer 1

Great Questions, but as you can see, most will be ignored.

Christians tend not to think too deeply about what the knowledge of Good and Evil really meant.

They also don't really consider what 'All Knowing' means in reference to God, and they use 'Free Will" as a catch all excuse without stopping to consider that Free will can't exist without a choice and without sin. Which means that God created sin, if he provided free will, which means he isn't perfect, and the whole thing unwravels.

No matter how much dogma and doctrine is applied to the theory of an all knowing, loving Creator, the fact is that it cannot exist, physically, philosophically or logically. One must ignore one of the three traits of God in order for the rest to work.

Its like believing in the headless Leprechaun with the worlds biggest head. It can't exist, an its not worth fighting over because there is no tangible evidence for Leprechauns in the first place. No matter whether Pascal tells you have nothing to loose or not.

Answer 2

It was the serpent (not literally) that presented the first lie and made it look wonderful. Adam and Eve filled themselves with this knowledge, and now experienced the human emotions of guilt and shame. It is from the false knowledge that evil "seems" to have chiseled out a foothold, and so has the world (mortal thought) hypnotized into believing the lie. They were warned not to turn from truth because it was written in their hearts since from the beginning, but they disobeyed in their ignorance with temptation taking the lead in their thought.
God could no more create an evil serpent and give it some space to rule than He could turn against His creation and forsake us. In truth, it is we who are God's image (not in a mortal sense though). God knows all and knows what Man is capable of. but He has no knowledge of what is not created. So the question," Why didn't God know they were going to eat the fruit ahead of time?," is not a question, in truth, because the knowledge of evil was never made, and therefore could never be supported by God.

Answer 3

the original sin was the devil telling them virtually that God had lied to them and they really wouldn't die at all.
They were not like us. They were not made with inherited sin.
They were perfect and they understood what God was telling them. Adam had been in the garden a long time before Eve was made. He said, "at last bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh" So he waited a long time.
So they were far from 2 year olds.
It was not a hard ship they had plenty of food to eat from every other tree in the forest.
they realized it was a rebellion thing.
I remember a court case of a friend where the judge told him the hardest thing we have to do with you teenagers is to let you know when we pass a law we really mean it.
You broke the law and now your going to jail. He was caught drunk driving. God knew that if they were allowed to break the law they would continue doing it and we would have carious on the earth. We needed a society with laws.
Or else we would have killings and adultry and AIDS.
I just get the feelings sometimes people haven't learned to obey God's laws yet.

Answer 4

I can't pretend to know what was in the mind of God, but the relevance of the tree seems fairly straightforward to me...it was a test of obedience. God wanted them to choose life, they chose knowledge of good and evil instead. Did he know this would happen when he created us? I don't know for sure...though, being God, he had to know that there was a chance of if happening.

God didn't make automatons...he made people to be his friends. Friendship and love can't be bought with a gun...without free will, love is meaningless. Love is a CHOICE not a feeling! He created us in his image which means that we had to have the same freedom of choice that he had or any obedience and love we give him would mean nothing. He wanted us to CHOOSE to love him and choose to obey his instructions.

Without some symbol of disobedience, man would have had no choice to make...we would have been no more special than fish in an aquarium. You mentioned leaving candy on a low table and telling a child not to eat any of it...interesting analogy...but if I never brought any candy in to the house, how would I know if my son would obey me should the need for obedience ever arise. ...and if I do my job right, YES, I could put a bowl of candy on the table and my son wouldn't eat it...I can think of several specific instances when my son, as young as four years old, chose to obey me when I wasn't around despite all sorts of temptation to disobey!

Perhaps training is a better word than testing...ever seen the show with the British dog trainer...when she is teaching a dog not to steal food, she puts a steak on the floor in front of him! Without opportunities to disobey, no person (or other living thing) could possibly learn the value of obedience!

Answer 5

Replace the word tempt in your question with test. Then I think much will become clear to you. Adam and Eve were not 2 years old. They were old enough to be responsible for their actions. Every man or woman who does not cheat on their spouse has the level of discipline to pass the test Eve failed.

Look for the word touch. Touch is the word that Eve added into God's instructions which the serpent used to get what he wanted.

Answer 6

Satan lied by saying "Hath God really said?" (which by the way is the same lie you hear everyday from some unbelievers and fake "christians" that aren't really true Christians), and Eve was deceived and sinned. Adam was not deceived but still sinned by eating the fruit that was against God's command.

Disobedience to God is sin, therefore, it was evident what was evil before experiencing it firsthand. I don't have to become a cannibal to understand that cannibalism is evil.

God was testing them. If you prefer "tempting", that's your opinion, but it's wrong.

God knew ahead of time, but didn't cause their decision. Jesus is the cure to the sin problem anyhow.

Believe in Jesus, who is God, and all of this will make more sense than to the unbelieving, sinful mind.

Answer 7

The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was not placed in the garden to tempt man. And the man and woman were not tempted to eat of it until the serpent tempted the woman. God did not tempt man, the serpent tempted man.

God simply told the man that if he ate of the tree he would surely die. If you told your child not to breathe under water because he would surely die, do you really believe your child would try to breathe under water. Before you make an analogy, make sure the analogy is actually ANALAGOUS to the situation. Your analogy of the bowl of candy was way off. My analogy of breathing under water is more accurate. If you're going to spark debate on here, try to be a little more intellectually honest. Else, you're merely spewing BS!

Actually Adam and Eve did understand the concept: they understood that their fellowship with God was the meaning of their life, and they understood the difference between obedience of God and disobedience of God. And again, it was the serpent who lied to them, telling them they would not die, when in fact, they would.

Answer 8

God told the Truth.
Satan told some of the truth just so he could tell his lie.
Adam and Eve knew and trusted the Father...but had never met Satan since the veil was drawn.
God put the tree in the garden so that the fact that Adam and Eve had free will would mean something.
God did knew what they would do ahead of time and had already put into place to help them and all who came after them return home.

Hope that helps.

Answer 9

Try reading Genesis for yourself!

The serpent (satan) lied to Eve. Eve misrepresented to the serpent what God had said to Adam.

God wants people to love him. To do this we must love of our own free will. Adam and Eve were given the free will to obey or not. They chose to disobey, with catastrophic consequences. The result of the 'Fall' is that death entered the universe. If they had not sinned (disobeyed) then there would have been no death. The just penalty for sin is death. Since we are all descended from Adam and Eve we are all sinful and subject to the just penalty of death.

Fortunately God loves us so much that he sent his son Jesus to pay that death penalty for anyone and everyone that accepts him.

Answer 10

In order for the plan to work sin had to be introduced into the world so there would be a balance between good and evil. Before that time there was only good.

God knew exactly what he was doing when he gave conflicting commandments to Adam and Eve. He also allowed Luicfer to tempt and try them. He knew exactly what would happen afterall he is God.