B
Bezant
Guest
Why did God plant the Tree in the Garden?
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D
devoutchristian
Guest
It was necessary for Adam and Eve to choose to obey God’s command in order to experience the beatific vision. So it had to be something.
M
microvelo
Guest
God’s love is free. If God wouldn’t have put the tree in the garden then we would have been like robots. God gave us a choice to say no to him. He directed Adam and Eve and told them they could eat from any tree other than that one. Without the tree, we would not be able to love.
J
John_Martin
Guest
Satan said, “You will be like God, knowing good and evil”. It was only for God to know good and evil; the tree was for him alone because he alone could reject evil and do only good. He know that they would not have the ability to reject evil but would embrace evil.
Satan wanted them, as he himself did, to try to be like God without God, on their own, in the absence of the presence of God. To rescue us from that, now, Jesus came, who did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped (seized on your own) but humbled himself, taking on the form of a servant, one who would not take the fruit his Lord told him not to eat, and became obedient unto death, death by execution on a cross.
This just popped into my thinking; was it the Holy Spirit? I believe so.
John Martin
R
ricmat
Guest
IMHO -
As has been pointed out, love is a choice, and without a choice “not to love”, the idea of love is meaningless. There had to be a test to make Adam and Eve choose to trust in God, or choose to trust in God’s material creation (the fruit). We are tempted in exactly the same way today.
Genesis 1 makes it clear that EVERYTHING was “good” after the creation of the world, and “very good” after both man and woman were created (since only when they become one flesh/person, do they fully become in the image and likeness of God). If everything was good, then there was absolutely no evil for Adam and Eve prior to the fall.
So Adam and Eve had a lot of knowledge of good (although they had no evil to compare it to).
The only way to have knowledge of evil would have been to separate yourself from God, who is all good. And the way we (still) distance ourselves from God is by disobeying him. And like Adam and Eve, when we disobey and separate ourselves from God, we separate ourselves from “everything is good”, and we experience evil.
There is nothing special about “the tree” or “the fruit”. What God gave Adam and Eve was an opportunity to distance themselves from Himself. It might as well have been “Don’t touch those car keys”. And if they had, then I guess we’d be reading about the “car keys of the knowledge of good and evil.”
That’s my theory, in any case
As has been pointed out, love is a choice, and without a choice “not to love”, the idea of love is meaningless. There had to be a test to make Adam and Eve choose to trust in God, or choose to trust in God’s material creation (the fruit). We are tempted in exactly the same way today.
Genesis 1 makes it clear that EVERYTHING was “good” after the creation of the world, and “very good” after both man and woman were created (since only when they become one flesh/person, do they fully become in the image and likeness of God). If everything was good, then there was absolutely no evil for Adam and Eve prior to the fall.
So Adam and Eve had a lot of knowledge of good (although they had no evil to compare it to).
The only way to have knowledge of evil would have been to separate yourself from God, who is all good. And the way we (still) distance ourselves from God is by disobeying him. And like Adam and Eve, when we disobey and separate ourselves from God, we separate ourselves from “everything is good”, and we experience evil.
There is nothing special about “the tree” or “the fruit”. What God gave Adam and Eve was an opportunity to distance themselves from Himself. It might as well have been “Don’t touch those car keys”. And if they had, then I guess we’d be reading about the “car keys of the knowledge of good and evil.”
That’s my theory, in any case
I
Ion
Guest
I think God especially put the knowledge of good and evil in the tree, so in the event of the fall, the knowledge of good and evil will help to guide people back to him; doing the same with a regular tree with nothing special, giving this capability later would look like a prize
F
fhansen
Guest
396 God created man in his image and established him in his friendship. A spiritual creature, man can live this friendship only in free submission to God. The prohibition against eating “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” spells this out: "for in the day that you eat of it, you shall die."276 The "tree of the knowledge of good and evil"277 symbolically evokes the insurmountable limits that man, being a creature, must freely recognize and respect with trust. Man is dependent on his Creator, and subject to the laws of creation and to the moral norms that govern the use of freedom.
The tree symbolically demonstrates that man is a creature, obligated to consciously, willfully, trust and obey God, his creator. Man has the freedom to disobey God but not the right to disobey Him. It simply means to say, “Thou shall obey Me, God”, while acknowledging that God has given man the freedom to disobey Him.
Eating of the fruit=disobedience of God=the first instance of evil=separation from God, choosing a lesser good over the greater one, a net reduction of good in the universe, darkness entering man’s world; man, as a result, now already knew not only good, but evil as well. He would come to know even more evil in the brave new world he had exiled himself into, effectively free from God. As the Catechism teaches, man was now even divided within himself.
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Aloysium
Guest
Your answer will be found as you deepen your relationship with God. At the basis of the question is the purpose of creation and the nature of God as a Trinity. Now you can get a lot of wordy replies that are likely to be unsatisfactory since you have to ask about what is ultimately to be found in the reality of our existence here on earth as eternal beings and in the reality of God Himself. You will know when you meet with Him face to face. Getting there, the question will hopefully spur you on to discover the Truth of what all this is about.
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Pugsly
Guest
You might notice that the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil…is not around at the end of the Bible. The Tree of Life is still there…but the Tree of Good and Evil is not mentioned. Why? Because it plays out.
Now what do I mean by “plays out”? God’s wisdom pervades all things. God looked into the vast sea of chaos…wherein there was every sort of admixture of good and evil: from things that were merely limited good…and slight imperfections…to things and situations that were abominations, absurd and blasphemous. But, within that sea of chaos…God saw you (a limited good) subject to death…along with the whole sea as it plays out.
The Bible ends with this curious phrase…“and there was no more sea”…and in another place…“the water that flowed from the throne of the City of God flowed down to the sea where it made the salt waters fresh”. This sea…is the same as the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil…it plays out.
When God created…He chose to only create the limited good…and the Bible tells us He “drew a circle on the face of the deep”…“and said to the proud waves…Thus far and no farther!”…but in the end all Hell will break loose and go to its eternal death. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was, therefore, an intrical part of God creating limited beings…yet God knew we would jump into that sea of death…taste that fruit.
This is why the Bible has so many references to being rescued from the water…why the Bible refers to the Devil as a sea serpent…Leviathan
T
Tyrion
Guest
Easy question!
For the very same reason that “loving” parents place a bowl of candy within easy reach of their toddlers, and sternly warm them not to eat those candies (since eating candy will adversely affect their teeth). Then the same “loving” parents hide in the next room, and peek through a crack in the door. When the kids succumb to the temptation, the “loving” parents come out, curse their children and throw them out of their home.
Is that not what you did to your children? Shame, shame… :tsktsk: God presents the “perfect” example, and you do not follow it. You talk the talk, but you do not walk the walk.
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Pugsly
Guest
I firmly believe that the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil…is…the sea of chaos from which we were created.
Here is a Scripture passage that shows how it will all be resolved in the end…
"Once more he measured off a thousand,
but there was now a river through which I could not wade;
for the water had risen so high it had become a river
that could not be crossed except by swimming.
He asked me, “Have you seen this, son of man?”
Then he brought me to the bank of the river, where he had me sit.
Along the bank of the river I saw very many trees on both sides.
He said to me,
“This water flows into the eastern district down upon the Arabah,
and empties into the sea, the salt waters, which it makes fresh.
Wherever the river flows,
every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live,
and there shall be abundant fish,
for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh.
Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow;
their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail.
Every month they shall bear fresh fruit,
for they shall be watered by the flow from the sanctuary.
Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine.”
Here is a Scripture passage that shows how it will all be resolved in the end…
"Once more he measured off a thousand,
but there was now a river through which I could not wade;
for the water had risen so high it had become a river
that could not be crossed except by swimming.
He asked me, “Have you seen this, son of man?”
Then he brought me to the bank of the river, where he had me sit.
Along the bank of the river I saw very many trees on both sides.
He said to me,
“This water flows into the eastern district down upon the Arabah,
and empties into the sea, the salt waters, which it makes fresh.
Wherever the river flows,
every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live,
and there shall be abundant fish,
for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh.
Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow;
their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail.
Every month they shall bear fresh fruit,
for they shall be watered by the flow from the sanctuary.
Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine.”
I
Ion
Guest
Tyrion, in your imagination God is supposedly the person that should make you feel good, no matter what. You stretch the things to make it look “bad”, because Adam and Eve didn’t “feel good”. Adam and Eve kids?
1.Adam and Eve were not kids, they were perfectly responsible persons.
2.There were plenty of other good and juicy fruits in the garden and Eve reasoned to eat the fruit.
3. Adam and Eve were prevented about the curse.
4. They were not throun out of their home because the whole Earth was their home; The whole earth become corrupted, including the Garden, the place they took care of; they were not allowed in the garden anymore to prevent them from eating the fruit of the Tree of life.
You talk the talk but you do not think the thought:shrug:
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