Hi Fatboys, while I can't disagree with the absolute uselessness of telling a baby to do well .. anything .. why would God chose to do that very thing in the case of our first parents (see
Genesis 2:16-17) if what you are saying about Adam and Eve's cognitive functioning is true (that they only had the mind of an infant)
What would be the point?
The fact is, an infant CANNOT obey OR disobey anything as they simply aren't capable of such a thing, but Adam was neither an infant, nor did he have the mind of an infant. Here is some of what went on in Adam's life (what he thought, what he said, the choices he had to make, and what he was expected to do) during the time you claim that he only had such understanding and reasoning abilities:
"The LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed .. to cultivate and to keep it". Genesis 2:7-8 + 15b
"The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” Genesis 2:16-17
"The LORD God said, It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him. Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, 'This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man.'” Genesis 2:18-23
You know there is more, including the decisions they both made to eat the forbidden fruit in the following chapter. Question, how much of what Adam did or said at this point in his life would your children have been able to do or say when they were infants? Does anything he did sound like something an "infant" would be capable of or expected to do?
Fatboys, Adam KNEW what he was doing, he KNEW it was wrong, and he KNEW he would die (and he was punished BECAUSE he knew and understood, not because he didn't ..
Genesis 2:16-17; Genesis 3:14-19).
If an unsupervised baby or toddler wanders too close to the bank of a river and drowns as a result, it is a great tragedy, but the baby didn't receive the "consequences of its actions", nor would we ever say that it did.
Adam and Eve had the necessary mental faculties needed to make a real choice in the matter that was set before them (
Genesis 2:16-17). And that they both understood what they did was wrong can be seen in their immediate choices to
1) hide from God ..
Genesis 3:8, and then,
2) when found, try to levy the blame for their sinful choices on someone else ..
Genesis 3:12-13).
Also, the consequences Adam and Eve received were "imposed" on them by God, and they received what they deserved because they knew better. If our first parents had nothing more than the mind of an infant to work with, God would have never given them a "command" to obey in the first place
Yours and His,
David
).
.. because if they're right, and the information and the understanding that Adam/Eve possessed when they sinned was not enough to condemn/punish them, how can God possibly hold anything against you?
