Why were Adam and Eve punished so harshly?

  • Thread starter Thread starter TomS333
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
margaret42 said:
I can’t imagine that Adam and Eve weren’t able to come back to God; just as we turn our backs to God deliberately, and in the state of “mortal sin”, God always allows us to come back. When Jesus came, i believe
He “descended into Hell”; it is possible He went to save all those who wanted to repent, but either didn’t have a chance, or wanted to change and repent later.
Click to expand...
More than likely Adam & Eve weren’t even ready to repent at that time, IMO. They had set themselves onto a new path, with autonomy from God, the path we all inherit now here on earth. We’re here to learn the hard way, so to speak, of just what they lost, of how much we need God.
 
TomS333 said:
Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil even though God had told them not to. But before they ate how would they know that what they were about to do was wrong if they only found out Good and Evil by eating the forbidden fruit?
Click to expand...
They knew the difference. Their offense was that they wanted to ‘be like God, knowing good and evil’.
What this means is that they wanted to set themselves up as their own gods. Instead of trusting God to guide them they wanted to decide for themselves what they would call good and what they would call evil.
They knew this was wrong, and did it anyway.
 
TomS333 said:
… so why were they harshly exiled from Eden?
Click to expand...
They were in the garden on God’s pleasure. They had nothing to begin with, not even the shirt on their backs.

It was therefore not harsh … God just take back what was His when they broke the agreement (by disobeying).
 
Most of the campfire stories I’ve heard deal with relatively inconsequential matters. Genesis on the other hand relays profound truths about human nature and God’s revelation of himself. So while Genesis might have seen a campfire it’s not “just another” campfire story among many.
 
Because they had original innocence, they understood very fully that this act of disobedience was wrong. Their knowledge of the immorality of their act was not obscured by living in a sinful society, by being born with original sin, by having past personal sins. And any sin would cause the loss of original innocence, making any sin grave. So it was a particularly grave sin, for all those reasons.
 
Dear Tom,
They knew yes or no. God was giving them everything they needed. He showed them the tree of Life and tree of G and E. His command was clear. Once they disobeyed, they knew everything. They could see LOVE AND LUST. They could see naked and clothed. Naked b/c their eyes knew sexual thoughts now. There was no going back.
Knowing the punishment wasn’t necessary. Our nature has a tendency to sin. Eden was a place of innocence. We have our personal Edens when we are born. Our innocence is there till our first disobedient Act. We know our punishments, yet it doesn’t deter our sinning.
In Christ’s Love
Tweedlealice
 
goout said:
They disobeyed God’s command.
Click to expand...
Respectfully opinion only questioning, when examining, pondering :thinking:on, His Spoken Word, was God >commanding< Adam and Eve not to eat from the Tree of Good and Evil?

Did God punish Adam and Eve harshly?
or
Did Adam and Eve bring upon themselves their own harsh suffering, punishment, because of their own personal choices they made?

But God allows His own Creation to share in and with all that is his? To experience>>>>Free Will for ourselves?

To experience the freedom of Will and Desire>>>But God also makes it known, wants us to >>>known>>>we only will be held accountable and are responsible for our own choices we will reap the consequences, whether our choices>>>were good or bad>

Does God want us to >>>>Know>>that our Free Will choices, gives us the right to question, to examine, but what comes with Free Will, it also holds us all accountable, responsible, how are Free Will choices>>> effects>> the very Free Will and Freedom of others, right?
Thus>>> example Adam >>>>was effected by Eve’s>>free will choices right? >>>>
Click to expand...
Throughout the whole bible God, our Loving Father wants us to>> know<< for our own good?

Like any Loving Father, His Ten Commandments, gives his children, instructions, teaches us to >>know<<right from wrong, right? What is good and what is not good for us to do, right? Knowledge is given? Wants us to know?

Adam and Eve, could not blame or say>>God should of warned us of the danger, or consequences first? Children are rebellious are they not?

So did God command Adam and Eve>> to eat from the Tree of Good and Evil?

Or did God give them both knowledge, ( what was good to choose, or what was not good to choose?

Had 2 choices>know>>along with consequences first right>>but the choice is your so make?
God letting Adam and Eve > know <>what was good and what was not good?

Did God punish Adam and Eve harshly?
or 🤔🤔
Did Adam and Eve, bring punishment harshly upon themselves?

Peace 🙂
 
Last edited:
Are you asking me a question in relation to my post? Or making a comment.
I’m sorry.
 
pianistclare said:
If God Himself tells you, how can you claim innocence?
Click to expand...
God Himself has told us many things, yet we continually disobey even with the knowledge that it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. shudder
 
Last edited:
TomS333 said:
Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil even though God had told them not to. But before they ate how would they know that what they were about to do was wrong if they only found out Good and Evil by eating the forbidden fruit?
Click to expand...
The point of the story is that they already knew what was good and what was evil: God had explicitly told them. They didn’t learn that they were disobeying God only after they ‘ate the fruit’. 😉
Isn’t there something whereby it’s only sinful if you know it’s sinful and deliberately commit the act? So Adam and Eve wouldn’t have known any better, so why were they harshly exiled from Eden?
Click to expand...
No – sin is sin, whether you know it or not. The distinction you’re raising is between mortal and venial sin. A mortal sin is one that’s serious, and which you have full knowledge of it being a sin, and which you deliberately choose to do it anyway.

And, yeah… that precisely fits the sin of Adam and Eve.
 
KevinK said:
Who witnessed these events to record them?
Click to expand...
Are you asking if Anderson Cooper was there with his camera and his tears?
Or what?
A stenographer?
How do I know you had a relationship with your parents? Where’s the witness?
 
Last edited:
Well, if it weren’t for their weakness, God would had never had Incarnated…
 
God gave them the choice which means they had enough knowledge to know not to go against God. God does not present us with choices that aren’t real.
They were directly in the presence of God and tried to lie to him through omission and hiding.
The sin committed in the garden is not one of knowledge in the traditional sense. They opened up the world to the rejection of God’s ways and in turn created the necessity for death. They caused a chain that altered their very being and in turn, gave the gift of Original Sin to all of their offspring. It was an actual physical change. There are serious consequences for serious action.
 
Just think about it for a moment.

If the Almighty God, creator of the Universe, appeared to you. Every evening you and God took a walk together, you are that sort of close to the Almighty, and He tells you that the whole of the earth is yours except for one thing. Just one, you can have your heart’s content of the entire rest of the beautiful world.

What sort of hubris would it take to simply deny God, your friend, in that one thing?
 
They weren’t punished harshly. If they’d been punishing harshly they’d have been sent to hell like the devil was and never seen again.
They didn’t just eat from the tree, they hid from God, when they hear him walking He has to call to them asking where they are. They chose first by free will to leave God before He expelled them from paradise. God was immediately merciful to them, after telling off the devil and sending him to hell He tells the devil a woman will crush his head thereby giving them a way back, ie He’d let the woman have her chance one day against the devil. They are then banished from the garden but given clothes and each other. I personally think that is pretty merciful, the woman is given the man as a partner in life, that’s not to shabby…certainly better than being alone. Yes birth pains are terrible but it could have been worse and even that would have been worse alone. They are given the land to work for their food, well that could have been worse too. Hard work, yep I think disobeying God and all you get is pain and hard work…for a prison sentence. And ‘death’, well that’s the toughest…separation from God, well they chose that one after the initial sin by hiding. So I don’t think it was harsh punishment…especially as they knew right there that it was to use modern terms…a prison sentence with the certainty of parole… or even release. God told them they would get back in His good books one day, and they did when Jesus saved the day, with Mary too. Anyway that’s my humble take on it all, sorry I am a bit wordy.
 
Last edited:
goout said:
Are you asking me a question in relation to my post? Or making a comment.

I’m sorry.
Click to expand...
Respectfully just asking for one stated they>> disobeyed God’s command, asking was it a command or letting them know what was good or not good to do before they choose for themselves, making them aware? Peace:)
 
I don’t believe in the literal translation of the Genesis. I have questions. Why was that tree even there? Why are we generations later punished for that sin? I don’t understand. I didn’t do it. I don’t understand the nature of God
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top