Some Questions about Genesis

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Hello Everyone,

I’ve recently begun reading the bible on my own as a supplement to my catechism studies. Already I’ve come across some things that are confusing when compared with what I’ve been taught so far about the nature of God. I was wondering if someone more knowledgeable of scripture or the faith can help me out.

Regarding the fall and original sin in the Garden of Eden, didn’t God being all-knowing not know that his creations Adam & Eve would disobey his instructions? Was he setting them up for failure?

And regarding Noah & the flood, why did God need to drown creation in the flood save for Noah and his kin? Did God make a mistake the first time? DOES God make mistakes?

Thanks!
 
No, God did not ‘set up’ Adam & Eve for failure. They had the free will to choose to obey God. Just because God may know the eventuality does not negate the fact that Adam and Eve made the choice to sin and the fault was theirs entirely.

God makes no mistakes. The mistakes that lead to the Flood were the mistakes of human beings who turned to sin and evil.
 
Also think about this:

How many times we tell our kids not to do this or that because it hill hurt them, or be a loss for them? And when they do it anyways, parents are not around. So although warned they still do.

Even on that “loss” we have a better Gain. You and I Exist :extrahappy:. something that would prob not had happened. From that moment God already planned how to save us.

But to your question, God respects our free will. He warned them :okpeople:
 
Human responsibility is not an attribute of humanity but rather the substance of our being. God created all creatures great and small without responsibility for their actions, but to man he gave free will. This does not mean that man’s will is random and people do things for no reason, but rather that man among all creatures is given the right to determine his own destiny.

God gave this amazing gift to man so that he would be able to choose freely to obey and worship God. However if man chose to not obey God would suffer no loss. Think about it, God is just, holy and righteous and worthy of all praise; therefore if man praises God then he in doing right gives glory to his Creator in doing that for which he was made. However if man should choose to sin then God in justice, suffering no loss to love or mercy because mercy is voluntary not obligatory, can judge man guilty and condemn him and be glorified for His justice.

So God, even knowing man would sin, creates man for His own glory and gives man a real choice. When man fell God lost nothing but rather increased His greatness by judging man in mercy. Remember God told Adam when he ate the fruit he would die, but God reversed that judgment and removed Adam from His presence but did not slay him and rather foretold of a coming Savior who crush the serpent’s head and undo what Adam had done.

As far as the flood remember that man had filled the Earth with violence but God’s Spirit contended with man preventing him from falling into total moral desolation. However as a holy God does not the LORD have the right to be grieved over the sin of man? Why shouldn’t God be angry that man murders his brothers especially given that the first sin man committed apart from the Garden was murder? As such isn’t God within His right to judge the whole Earth for its sin?

Even so God does not judge man wholesale but once again acts with mercy in His judgment to preserve a remnant out of the Earth to show not only His justice but also that side by side with His justice is His mercy and for that He is great and greatly to be praised.

You will also find this motif of justice with mercy in Sodom and Gomorrah, Sarah and Abraham with Hagar, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, and the last plague in Egypt when the Egyptians could escape by following the rite of Israel and do not. Over and over again God comes down to judge and yet does so in mercy.

And of course the supreme act of this is found on Calvary where God’s judgment is fully poured out and yet done so in unfathomable mercy upon the cross. God repeatedly acts in favor of His rebellious creature by mercifully judging what is right and wrong and we are so stiff necked and rebellious that we respond to this mercy by complaining that God was not merciful enough.

God Bless
 
Sincere thanks for all responses. Especially yours bogeydogg, for which I will meditate on.

God Bless!
 
DRR7799 said:
Hello Everyone,

I’ve recently begun reading the bible on my own as a supplement to my catechism studies. Already I’ve come across some things that are confusing when compared with what I’ve been taught so far about the nature of God. I was wondering if someone more knowledgeable of scripture or the faith can help me out.

Regarding the fall and original sin in the Garden of Eden, didn’t God being all-knowing not know that his creations Adam & Eve would disobey his instructions? Was he setting them up for failure?

And regarding Noah & the flood, why did God need to drown creation in the flood save for Noah and his kin? Did God make a mistake the first time? DOES God make mistakes?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
No, God doesn’t make mistakes. Both the fall of Adam and Eve, original sin and the great flood are not the end of God’s Plan. It is hard to understand the gift of free will. God knows everything but He allows us to take part in creation and share in creativity with free will.

The hope and purpose is that we give our selves and our will back to God because He freely gives Himself to us. God created free will which is good but with it we often decide to do evil which is bad but it is never God’s fault or mistake. He is Just and will carry out His Justice to the point of destroying the earth in the past by water and in the future by fire. God is also Merciful and by paying the price for us, the Death of His Son Who Is Innocent we are set free.

Yes, some and perhaps many will reject Him with the free will He has given them, but to those who come back to Him He give the gift to enter into His Life and Heavenly Kingdom.
 
Basic Catholic teaching **regarding relationship between God the Creator **
**and Adam the created **
is found in the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition, ISBN: 1-57455-109-4
Paragraphs 355-421.

The good news of Jesus Christ follows in Paragraph 422, etc.

One can put the word paragraph and its number in the Catechism’s search bar in link
www.scborromeo.org/ccc.htm

Entering topics is also very useful since the Catechism does expand on the basics and implications. Do check out the Index.

When one enters a paragraph number, like “paragraph 355”, and then clicks on the opening line, CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 355 the following is under the paragraph:

»
»Table of Contents
»
 
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