That ol' Tree

[Pestilence]

trying to start from the begining to better understand thingsone of my first questions are

(Genesis)
why the knowledge of good and evil are forbidden
is this because there are types of knowledge too risky for us to have?
and is the serpant the way of saying its not our fault

thanks if you clear my mind on these

lataz

 

[the_malevolent_milk_man]

Might be the wrong forum for this but oh well, bombs away.


Knowledge of Good and Evil makes you god like.
Gen 3
4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman.
5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
23 "And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever."


It's because people think they are as good as God. Basically because God says so, also see above.


The serpent is most likely just a literary device to give Eve a motivation to eat the apple, unless you believe in a literal reading. The bible gives no indication that she wanted to be like God, just that she wanted to be smarter and the fruit looked yummy.

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.


In a nutshell it goes like this.
Snake "Hey Eve, why don't you eat the fruit?"
Eve "God said not to."
Snake "So?"
Eve "Duh... ok!"

Eternal damnation and suffering incoming.

 

[armed2010]

God sounds like a dictator, he doesnt want his creation to have too much power.

 

[Meatros]

God sounds like a dictator, he doesnt want his creation to have too much power.

Ah, but shouldn't he have been smart enough to know better?

 

[Late_Cretaceous]

So lets see. Eating of the tree will make you "like God", so in order to keep Adam and Eve from becomming like Him, God lies and says that eating from the tree will kill then. The serpent tells them the truth, and they eat the fruit. Neither one dies. Also, neither one becomes "like God" but then on the other hand they were created in the image of God - therefore no change was necessary. Nevertheless, GOd punishes them (but not the snake). Why the heck was the tree put there in the first place anyways?

At least that is the sense I get of trying to read Genesis in a literal manner.

 

[if_i_only_had_a_brain]

They did in fact die didn't they? The word die by the way is translated from a hebrew word that means dying, or continual death. So they did die eventually. Furthermore if you know anything about the structure of man you know that you have a mind, will and emotions. These things are incompassed in what God likes to call your soul. Your soul is in a tug of war between 2 things, your flesh and your spirit. Well what happens when you accept Jesus Christ into your heart? Well the bible says you are born again, well what's that mean to us? It means that the spirit of God revives something that is dead. I mean if we are to be born again that means something must have been dead. The spirit of man died the day adam ate of the tree of knowledge. God didn't lie, we as people just don't stop and focus on what's important and we want to look at what can profit our flesh, by reading verses like that and taking our own man made interpretation we get the wrong interpretation. Before you condemn God you need to seek the truth, and the truth is that we really don't know much. Concentrate on what's important and what is true. The bible says that the things that you see are carnal and will perish, but the things that are unseen are eternal. You can't see your soul, but it exists, you can't see the spirit of God, but it exists. The point is that Satan will be punished and man was redeemed and given a second chance. So now that you know the truth why dwell on the fall of man, but look onward to the grace of God. For God so LOVED the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosover believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. That sounds pretty good to me, I don't know about anyone else but that is just beautiful.

 

[Late_Cretaceous]

Time for some humor:

God said unto Adam "I will create for you a companion, who will every thing you could possible hope for in a companion. One thing however, it will cost you an arm and a leg - literally."
So Adam thinks about it and says "Hmm. An arm and a leg? No way. What can you give me for just a single rib?"

 

[the_malevolent_milk_man]

Cretacious

Actually he did punish the snake.
14 "So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, Cursed are you above all the livestock
and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel."

God made the snake crawl on his stomach (took away their legs?), eat dust (uh, what snakes eat dust?), and made people hate snakes (them being deadly and poisonous has nothing to do with our hating them?).

 

[JohnR7]

(Genesis)
why the knowledge of good and evil are forbidden
is this because there are types of knowledge too risky for us to have?
and is the serpant the way of saying its not our fault

As soon as you have knowledge of good and evil, then you have a choice between good and evil. I have a five year old son, and he heard the pastor say that we have a choice. So he was trying to figure that out. He said what if I choose to hate God. But then he thought about it, and there really is no way he could hate God. So, actually, he has no choice. He just learns what we teach him, and he accepts that as being true.

Many people on this board were christians and never gave that a thought. They had to learn how to be unbelievers. They had to allow doubt and unbelief to enter into their thinking. We then have a choice, to believe, or there is doubt and unbelief. You can be holy or unholy, righteous or unrighteous. We live in grace or disgrace. We have that choice.