K
Khalfan
Guest
Why Bible teaches both, No one will be questioned for others sin in Eze 18:20, and then the consequenses of sin affecting other people?Khalfan,
The Bible clearly teaches that Adam knew that he was supposed to obey God. God can therefore legitimately hold Adam accountable for his action. Genesis 2:17 says that God told Adam not to eat of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Sin is deliberate disobedience to God. Adam in fact sinned. He had free will and chose to abuse it by disobeying God. If he did not know that it was wrong to disobey God before the Fall, then he would not have needed a tempter in the first place. Adam would have simply eaten the apple on his own out of ignorance (just as he ate the fruit from the other tress without thinking about it).
If you want to know where the Bible says that Adam sinned, read Genesis 3:17, Romans 5:12-14, and 1 Corinthians 15:22 (to name a few instances). In Genesis 3:17, God holds Adam accountable for an action because Adam has willfully disobeyed God. An all-good, all-just God would not hold someone accountable for an action done out of invincible ignorance. How do I know this? How can I prove this from the Bible? While the Bible often speaks about the consequences of sin affecting other people besides the sinner, the Bible also teaches that God will only hold people accountable for the sins they themselves commit because God is a just God (see Ezekiel 18).
As other posts have indicated, the knowledge of good and evil received after the Fall was an experiential knowledge, whereas before it was mere intellectual knowledge. Adam already knew the obligation he to obey God, but he had never experienced evil until he sinned.