Was it all a part of God's plan?

Question

Let me start by saying I am a christian. The Bible says that Sin entered the world when Adam and Eve ate the fruit God forbade. I wonder why God put that tree in Eden in the first place? Did he know that they would get tempted and eat the fruit overtime?
What if they ate the fruit after they had children, would we have been cursed?

Thanks for all the great answers. So I guess the only difference between Eden and our world in its current state is that we have death and more tendancy to sin than Adam and Eve.

God truly is a forgiving father for giving us his son and laws to obey to get a second chance or a shot at heaven. It's all about the choices we make. Free will is a precious thing, I don't think life would be interesting without it.

While I was thinking about this, something came to mind. What about influences?
Some people are given more opportunities to sin than others. For example, child soldiers in some parts of Africa take orders from war lords to indiscrimenantly kill people. Or the unfortunate group of mentally ill people who have poor judgement.

I guess it all comes down to the question:
Is life really fair?

Answer 1

God put the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden to give Adam and Eve a choice – to obey Him or disobey Him. Adam and Eve were free to do anything they wanted, except eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:16-17, “And the LORD God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.’” If God had not given Adam and Eve the choice, they would have essentially been robots, simply doing what they were programmed to do. God created Adam and Eve to be “free” beings, able to make decisions, able to choose between good and evil. In order for Adam and Eve to truly be “free” – they had to have a choice.

There was nothing essentially evil about the tree or the fruit of the tree. It is unlikely that eating the fruit truly gave Adam and Eve any further knowledge. It was the act of disobedience that opened Adam and Eve’s eyes to evil. Their sin of disobeying God brought sin and evil into the world and into their lives. Eating the fruit, as an act of disobedience against God, was what gave Adam and Eve knowledge of evil. Genesis 3:6-7, “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.”

God did not want Adam and Eve to sin. God knew ahead of time what the results of sin would be. God knew that Adam and Eve would sin, and would thereby bring evil, suffering, and death into the world. Why, then, did God put the tree in the Garden of Eden and allow Satan to tempt Adam and Eve? God put the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden to give Adam and Eve a choice. God allowed Satan to tempt Adam and Eve to force them to make the choice. Adam and Eve chose, of their own free wills, to disobey God and eat the forbidden fruit. The result – evil, sin, suffering, sickness, and death have plagued the world ever since. Adam and Eve's decision results in each and every person being born with a sin nature, a tendency to sin. Adam and Eve's decision is what ultimately required Jesus Christ to die on the cross and shed His blood on our behalf. Through faith in Christ, we can be free from sin's consequences, and ultimately free from sin itself. May we echo the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 7:24-25, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Recommended Resource: Basic Theology by Charles Ryrie.

Answer 2

God doesn't want us to love Him because we HAVE to. He desires our Love because we WANT to! God is a gentleman, He won't force Himself on anyone. The tree was put there to give us a choice to love and obey Him. We all love our spouses enough to never do something to hurt them, even with all of the choices out there, same thing with our Lord and Savior.
I heard a real good debate about when Cain and Abel were born. There is good argument that they were in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. This is something that must be searched out .

Answer 3

I ask myself the same question many of times. It just seems kind of unfair, right? But, I can tell you what I was told. God put the tree there to test their loyalty to His commands and that God knowing the choice they would ultimately make, did not influence the choice in any way.

It still is hard to get the mind around it, but hope that helps a little.

Answer 4

God knew exactly what would happen before He put the Tree in the Garden. But He, by placing the Tree there, allowed them - and by extention all who came after them - the choice to choose whether to follow God's ways or not. They made the wrong choice, but He still offered them the choice.

Answer 5

God wanted to give them a choice which is why he put the tree in the garden so that they could choose to turn away from him if they wanted to. Without the tree Adam and Eve wouldn't have had free will. God knew that Adam and Eve were going to turn away from him, he knows everything.

Answer 6

It was a test. They failed.

He wanted them to prove their loyalty, their trust. Adam was His friend (not just his creation). Adam and God chatted in the garden as friends do, but he yielded to the fleshly desires and here we are today.

I find Question 3 interesting. I have never thought of this before. We probably would have been cursed. I base this on the fact that whenever a family or group (later on) committed sins God particularly hated, He would destroy the entire race or family to prevent their corrupting the rest of people.

Answer 7

God is all knowing.

However, we are finite and God is infinite, why God chose to work His mystery of providence the way He did, is beyond our figuring out, perhaps one day when we are in heaven, many of these mysteries will be revealed:

The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. - Deuteronomy 29:29.

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! - Romans 11:33.

Answer 8

It was not the tree that caused them to sin, but satan's influence on their own selfish nature. If Adam and Eve had resisted the temptation, surely somewhere along the line someone else would have slipped up. And we'd still be in the same situation we're in now.

Answer 9

According to Islam the lesson which God wanted to give for all of humanity was that of Original Forgiveness rather than Original Sin.

This act of Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit is labeled by Christianity as the Original Sin. They say that because of this Original Sin, all people born afterwards were born in sin. The newborn baby according to Christianity is a sinner. Islam however goes on to give us a deeper lesson from the story.


It is learnt that after eating from the forbidden tree, Adam repented and God forgave him for God is Most Merciful. This is the lesson given to all Mankind by Quran. It is not of the Original Sin but of Original Forgiveness which shows the Merciful nature of God.


Man is by nature bound to commit sins either of small or major magnitude. God knows this nature of man because He is the Creator. God on the other hand is Most Merciful and is there to forgive man when he sincerely repents. The lesson derived from the Quran is much more complete and gives us a better picture of the nature of God. For forgiveness, all man needs to do is to turn towards God, repent for the wrong he did and promise not to repeat it. God who is Most Merciful then forgives the creation and on the Day of Judgment, this act will not be held up against him.


Thus the lesson which God wanted to give for all of humanity was that of Original Forgiveness rather than Original Sin. Islam teaches us this lesson and informs us that all newborns are without the burden of any sin on their shoulders. They are innocent. From the story the theme is easy to understand. God created man – Man committed sin – Man turned towards God for forgiveness – God forgave man for indeed God is Most Merciful.

Check: http://islam.thetruecall.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=300

Answer 10

The story is also prophetic. The law did not come until Moses and man could not live up to God's righteousness. The law in effect became a death sentence for man. God did foreknow that Adam would eat of the tree and that man could not live up to God's righteous law. There were two trees in the midst of this garden one was God's law which brought death to man.
The other tree is the tree of life.
After man failed to be perfect and righteous under the law God himself paid the penalty of death for those who accept the atonement. God gave man the law knowing it meant death to man and demonstrates our need for him our savior.
The law demonstrates that man's nature is sin it did not cause sin but revealed to us our nature and our need for God who sustains us.

Answer 11

When my children were very young we told them not to stick their fingers in the light sockets. But we also put safety caps over the sockets just in case. The children were too young and too innocent to understand electricity and death. As parents it was our responsibility to take care of them.

And if the unthinkable had happened and they did stick their fingers in the socket - we would certainly not be so cruel as to kick them out of the house.

That's called Parental Love.