Adam and eve treated unfairly?

[latin_rite]

In the graden of eden God told Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of knowledge.
Now. If Adam and Eve had not eaten from the tree of knowledge thus learning how to tell the difference between good and evil, right and wrong. How would they know eating from the tree was wrong?

 

[ardis3958]

In the graden of eden God told Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of knowledge.
Now. If Adam and Eve had not eaten from the tree of knowledge thus learning how to tell the difference between good and evil, right and wrong. How would they know eating from the tree was wrong?

Technically they were never told it was “wrong”, only that they would die if they did it. It’s a simple “if/then” concept.

To get even more technical, only Adam was told; Eve heard about it through him.

 

[ConstantineTG]

In the graden of eden God told Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of knowledge.
Now. If Adam and Eve had not eaten from the tree of knowledge thus learning how to tell the difference between good and evil, right and wrong. How would they know eating from the tree was wrong?

They don’t know its wrong. They were told not to. Their sin is not doing whats wrong, but disobeying God’s commandment.

 

[RaymondJensen]

They don’t know its wrong. They were told not to. Their sin is not doing whats wrong, but disobeying God’s commandment.

actually Genesis 3:4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be* like God,* knowing good and evil.”

The original sin goes beyond disobeying God, it goes way past that to attempting to be like God. That’s the reason why God was so furious and wrathful. It’s because Adam an Eve were basically saying " ‘f’ You God we will be our own masters".

 

[LumenGent]

Keep in mind that the story in Genesis is supposed to convey a meaning. They knew it was wrong to eat from the tree and hence knew exactly what they were doing. The Scriptures do state once they ate, their eyes were open.

 

[poker10]

What does “die” mean to someone who has never seen death?

 

[dconklin]

We all understand this is a story and not history. God inspired the writer of this story to send us a message.

 

[latin_rite]

We all understand this is a story and not history. God inspired the writer of this story to send us a message.

Is it? Who decides what is a story and what is fact? I’ll take it as fact until Jesus tells me otherwise.

 

[passer_by]

In the graden of eden God told Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of knowledge.
Now. If Adam and Eve had not eaten from the tree of knowledge thus learning how to tell the difference between good and evil, right and wrong. How would they know eating from the tree was wrong?

I think you might in a way be trivializing the sin of Adam. There was an interesting talk I heard from Dr. Scott Hahn about it a long time back.

The idea presented in it was that Adam and Eve’s sin was because Adam did not stand up against the serpent and lay his life down for Eve to prevent her from disobeying the command to eat of the tree.

If you remember, in Genesis, only Adam is told by God not to eat of the tree of knowledge. Eve comes after. So it was Adam’s responsibility, as the spouse of Eve, to protect her from disobeying God (and of course not disobey God himself).

But instead, we see Adam, fearing death at the hands of the serpent, stayed completely silent while Eve was tempted and she ate the apple, disobeying God. If you think about it, where was Adam all this time? He was just standing next to Eve in silence. Worse, he eats from it too.

So in this view, the serpent is not just a tiny snake but probably something big like a dragon in Revelation. Apparently the original word used resembles that used in Revelation to describe a Dragon as well. So Adam and Eve giving in to the fear, decided to take the easy route of doing what the Serpent suggested. They didn’t even ask God for help.

In contrast, we see Jesus Christ, resisting the devil, and laying his life down happily for his spouse, the Church. At the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was probably tempted the same way to take the easy route and avoid his crucifixion. But Jesus shows what Adam should have done on that day when the serpent suggested to Eve to eat the Apple. He should have laid his life down for his spouse and done the will of God.

 

[TimothyH]

actually Genesis 3:4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be* like God,* knowing good and evil.”

The original sin goes beyond disobeying God, it goes way past that to attempting to be like God. That’s the reason why God was so furious and wrathful. It’s because Adam an Eve were basically saying " ‘f’ You God we will be our own masters".

I agree about going way past obedience and trying to be like God. I think the story has more to do with trusting God than it does with either of those. Passer_By alludes to this nicely in his well done post directly above.

Adam and Eve were face to face with the serpent. This was not the cute garden snake we see in the paintings - this was the dragon, satan, beelzebul, the devil, the father of lies himself. And the Father of Lies said, “Surely you will not die!” but he lied. But the fact is, whether they ate the fruit or not, they were going to die.

If they ate, they died spiritually, and they did. If they did not eat, the serpent/devil was going to kill them. And that is where Adam and Eve failed to trust God. They failed to trust that God would have raised them from the dead. As Passer_By put it, they didn’t even bother to ask God for help. Their failure to trust God - that God would ressurect them if they died - was the root of their disobedience and the cause of their sin. It was lack of trust.

Abraham was the first to trust God. He believed in the promise that God would create a multitude from his son, so when God said to kill the boy, he reasoned that God must be able to raise people from the dead. So he obeyed. This is why Abraham is the Father of Faith and not the Father of Obedience.

And Christ trusted God too, that God would raise him from the dead. Christ called out for God to help him, and guess what…

And that is the question that I think too many Christians don’t ask themselves. Do I trust God? Do I trust him to raise me from the dead if I die? We worry about obedience and discuss free-will and we fall on our faces over and over and over. But we fail to ask ourselves how much we actally trust God. Do we trust him enough to die for him? Do we actually believe in this thing called the ressurection of the dead and life everlasting? If we did, we would be afraid of nothing. We would walk up to Satan and say “F- You!” and spit in his face, like Adam and Eve should have done, and we wouldn’t care whether he killed us or not. We would be a world of fearless saints willing to die for Christ and satan wouldn’t stand a chance.

-Tim-