added). They had their origin in religious symbolism. Genesis 1:31 records: “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.” Scriptures clearly declare that everything God had created was not only good, but “very good.” Exodus 20:11 records that everything was created in the six days of divine creative activity; thus, nothing was created after those days. Your email address will not be published. It didn’t initially appear as if the first one went through. Because there was a promised consequence for his actions, there also was the fear of enduring this terrible consequence. Even in the animal kingdom, love cannot be forced. Man has continued in his endless search for ever more subtle, sophisticated, and convincing excuses that could set him free from his moral and/or spiritual responsibility. “And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. Therefore, all His actions toward man—from his creation to his redemption—were products of His love. Everything that God made, including the tree, was “very good” (Genesis 1:31). Among all the trees in the Garden of Eden, God identified two special trees: of life, and of the knowledge of good and evil. You might as well have given them a calculus test. You might as well have given them a calculus test. All I can do is to make some guesses. Hardly! The Tree Devotions. Thus, from that endpoint, we worked our way backwards to the freewill premise. Eating its fruit gave a person an extended life span. By eating from the tree of life, our original parents were to have the opportunity of expressing their faith in God as the One who provides and sustains life. I will make some comments, but some of your questions are not easy to answer--especially the ones about why Adam and Eve or why God did something a certain way. God wanted a relationship with us! That is why He gives us free will – it’s our right to make our own decisions. We sin, he opens up his box of evil and lets a little more into the world to “teach us a lesson.” That is not the way scripture describes it. No longer could he even contemplate eating from the Tree of Life. In today’s world, we find that plants often have some healing properties (e.g., aloe). Why Did God Make the Tree Good? Think of it more like contaminating a sterile environment, or decay. If the tree was not there, then there would never have been an opportunity to choose obedience to God over anything else. Love can only be given freely. He didn’t want to create robots. We don’t really know, but we can be sure that it didn’t have a 10-foot diameter. I think there will be, but nobody is going to take that door. That’s the mental gymnastics required to make sense of things. God is love. So wouldn’t it be a net-win for God as well? Hi, Hillary. And Christ wouldn’t have had to come and die! Is there obedience without choice? Without free will to choose, Adam and Eve would have been mere puppets. Simultaneously, of course, having the command in place paved the way for the possibility of freely choosing to either obey or to disobey such a command. As one writer suggested: This verse may be interpreted as if God also created evil.... Often believers affirm that all good comes from God, and evil comes from man, [but] it seems that at the moment of reading the Bible they forget that the same God who created the good, also created evil.... [W]hat necessity did God have to plant this tree whose fruits were fruits of evil? Thank you for the dialog. However, as noted earlier, God is love (1 John 4:8); and this trait of God, as exhibited in the tragic story of Eden, is shown in His providence for man. However, if you want to leave, that is the door.” Adam and Eve were told not to eat of the fruit. It was a morally sterile environment, and it would remain that way, unless another being used their “free will” to open the door. The tree of life is represented in several examples of sacred geometry and is central in particular to the Kabbalah, where it is represented as a diagram of ten points. I would love to hear your thoughts on how you think would be a better way to achieve the goal. by Hillary Morgan Ferrer | Blog, Essentials, Hillary Morgan Ferrer, Historical, Most Popular, Novice, Uncategorized, Worldview, A few weeks ago, our church’s 3rd-5th graders were learning about the creation story from Genesis, and I was brought in to the planning process to help address common science misconceptions that the kids will encounter as they get older. The presumption that God was real was always there. But the thing is, the argument of evil is supposed to address exactly that, and presupposes it on its own. One evening my daughter, who was about six at the time, took the microphone and said, "I thank God for trees." (1999), Diccionario Expositivo de Palabras del Antiguo y Nuevo Testamento Exhaustivo (Colombia, Editorial Caribe. I think the freewill argument fills the gap because we started with the endpoint that the Christian God is the one true God and worked our way backwards to the freewill premise. In both it symbolizes ongoing provision for physical life. Genesis 2:16-17, “And the LORD God commanded the man, … The tree of life appears in both the opening and closing chapters of the Bible (Genesis 2-3 and Revelation 22). Joey asks "If God knew that Adam & Eve would eat off the Tree of Knowledge, why did he put it in the Garden of Eden?" Among all the trees in the Garden of Eden, God identified two special trees: of life, and of the knowledge of good and evil. "And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. Now you owe me your life!” I have heard adult atheists profess this kind of understanding of the redemption plan, and it is better to nip this line of thinking in the bud because it reflects a poorly-informed understanding of the nature of love. Now, some might object to God’s method’s by asking, “Did God give Adam and Even enough information to make an informed decision? So, let me try to unpack that and explain how that is. The tree itself was not “of good and evil”(i.e., that it did not contain good and evil). Thank you so much for your comment. This providence is carefully placed within the account of Genesis 2—although it is a type of providence that many people cannot see (or do not care to acknowledge). ” Adam and Eve chose, of His will that mean God can no longer he! Face DAILY and that he is both choice, and he made easier! Has not changed much since then Gen 2:17 ) scenario, God went lengths. 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