This may be a dumb ?, but...

[SumMer88]

In the bible, the story of how the serpent decieves Adam and Eve.... they only had knowledge of good and evil AFTER they were deceived by satan...

So if we have knowledge of good and evil, does that mean we let ourselves be deceived as Adam and Eve were?
If that's true, thats how I came to know Christ... which kind of confuses me. You know like after i had a relatinship with Christ, I can objectively see good and evil in the world...

Any thoughts on this?

 

[snoochface]

It's not a dumb question

Romans 1 says:

18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

Since the creation of the world, men - including Adam and Eve - had the ability to recognize and see God, so there would be no excuse for rejection of him. They knew they were not to eat the fruit of that particular tree, and they did it anyway. Eve was deceived, Adam was just flat-out disobedient.

I think we do deceive ourselves, especially before becoming Christians. I know I thought I was a pretty good person, that my good outweighed my bad, and that I did enough "good things" to get me into heaven, if there was a heaven. For a long time, I didn't believe in God at all. Looking back now, I see how much I was deceiving myself, conveniently ignoring the bad things I'd done and just looking at the good, convincing myself that God didn't exist even though when things were bad I still prayed. What was I praying to if God didn't exist? I was lying to myself.

 

[OpenDoor]

From my understanding the tree only lets people THINK that they have the knowledge of good and evil (like God).

Christ allows for us to see it more clearly and take it to heart.

Hope that helps

 

[SumMer88]

Thanks for the message I got with the site about the "Temptation and the Fall"

Yeah so I guess it all goes back to the commandment of having "no other Gods before me" and just acknowledging that Jesus Christ is the only way, and that we are humans... and not letting satan tempt us into thinking we could gain something by going an alternate way?

Snoochface, I don't know if you were lying to yourself. Indeed it's a lie to not believe in God, but just because you haven't felt the Holy Spirit's presence yet, doesnt mean you lied to yourself. I think God was with you that entire time, it was only till we allow ourselves to feel God's existence, and surrendering everything to Him, is when we realize the magnitude of His love for us.

But i totally did the whole "yeah I am a good person, God loves good people (whatever that meant) so if there's a heaven i dont see why i wouldnt go to it." Heaven is such a generic term now a days everyone thinks they have a "right" to it, or at least a chance. But until a relationship is formed, how can some one even know that their desire is to go to that place where the God, they dont yet have a relationship with, is.
CS Lewis said that joy is a glimpse into where we want to be eternally, that keeps us desiring for that place our entire lives on earth. I never felt that joy, and no one does, until they have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Sorry to get off topic, but yeah, I was just confused cause before I began my real walk with Jesus, before when I was pretending to be a Christian, as far as I knew i was one.. But before my life with Him really began, I didn't really have knowledge of good and evil... so thats why I was wondering if in order to have a relationship with God, we had to be tempted first to know the knowledge of good and evil?

Anyways im kinda confusing myself now, you clarified a few things about my question at least. If anyone else has anything to share about it please do ... its an interesting subject...

 

[ephraimanesti]

In the bible, the story of how the serpent decieves Adam and Eve.... they only had knowledge of good and evil AFTER they were deceived by satan...

So if we have knowledge of good and evil, does that mean we let ourselves be deceived as Adam and Eve were?
If that's true, thats how I came to know Christ... which kind of confuses me. You know like after i had a relatinship with Christ, I can objectively see good and evil in the world...

Any thoughts on this?

MY SISTER,

It appears to me that the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil" offered Adam and Eve the opportunity to arrive at, and act upon, their own choices regarding what they considered "good" and "evil." Before this Fall, they had unquestioningly followed God's directions and promptings through the Holy Spirit, NOW, as a result of eating the fruit, they could make their own choices separate from the will of God--and therefore separate from the TRUTH. We can see the outcome of our human choices regarding "good" and "evil" in the world around us which is set on a course of self-destruction, all the while convincing itself that it is "seeking the good."

Once a person turns to Christ (keeping in mind that Jesus is God's TRUTH incarnate), reverses this course, and returns us to a life guided and controlled by the Holy Spirit so that then, and only then, can the REAL GOOD and EVIL be seen and, under the directions of the Holy Spirit, acted upon.

You are correct that this vision of GOOD and EVIL as seen through God's eyes is the OBJECTIVE TRUTH, whereas the "good and evil" seen through the sin-blinded eyes of our old adamic nature are only SUBJECTIVELY "true"--in other words, a carnal delusion. This is why sins always appear "good" at the time they are committed.

ephraim

 

[SumMer88]

Ahh so much better now!! Thanks for that explanation!

I know it's at the beginning and seems like an elementary thing to learn about, but my church always talked of Adam and Eve in relationship to sin/deceiving and not so much as a reltionship with God...(or in their case falling away from one)...

So we are born into a sin-bent world which is post- the snake deceiving humanity ... so the way back into "the garden" so to speak is what Christians do by surrendering all to Jesus Christ and beginning our walk with him...

Thank you for the explanation!!!

 

[TheCheat1]

In the bible, the story of how the serpent decieves Adam and Eve.... they only had knowledge of good and evil AFTER they were deceived by satan...

So if we have knowledge of good and evil, does that mean we let ourselves be deceived as Adam and Eve were?
If that's true, thats how I came to know Christ... which kind of confuses me. You know like after i had a relatinship with Christ, I can objectively see good and evil in the world...

Any thoughts on this?

We are decieved all the time, by the devil, the world, and by ourselves. One day, when Jesus gives us our new bodies, we will not have "knowledge of good and evil", and we will sin no more. We will know only God's goodness from that day until the end of eternity (which, of course, eternity never ends).

 

[heymikey80]

It may also be useful to think of, "knowing good and evil" as "knowing" in its Biblical use, like "Adam knew his wife Eve." That is, it's more than intellectual knowledge, it's an involved, committed experience of good and evil.

 

[TheCheat1]

It may also be useful to think of, "knowing good and evil" as "knowing" in its Biblical use, like "Adam knew his wife Eve." That is, it's more than intellectual knowledge, it's an involved, committed experience of good and evil.

Very true.