What are your thoughts on Adam and Eve's decision to eat the fruit?

[Phantasman]

You do mean the tree of knowledge?

Call it what you like. Eating from it allowed Adam (and Eve) to have their eyes opened by the true Father to see that they were imprisoned by forgetfulness of false Gods. What power would place such a tree there to begin with? An ignorant one. If the Father wanted Adam to remain forgetful, he wouldn't put a tree there to tempt him from the beginning.

"And the archons took him and placed him in paradise. And they said to him, 'Eat, that is at leisure,' for their luxury is bitter and their beauty is depraved. And their luxury is deception and their trees are godlessness and their fruit is deadly poison and their promise is death. And the tree of their life they had placed in the midst of paradise.
"And I shall teach you (pl.) what is the mystery of their life, which is the plan which they made together, which is the likeness of their spirit. The root of this (tree) is bitter and its branches are death, its shadow is hate and deception is in its leaves, and its blossom is the ointment of evil, and its fruit is death and desire is its seed, and it sprouts in darkness. The dwelling place of those who taste from it is Hades, and the darkness is their place of rest.
"But what they call the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which is the Epinoia of the light, they stayed in front of it in order that he (Adam) might not look up to his fullness and recognize the nakedness of his shamefulness. But it was I who brought about that they ate."-Secret John

 

[Ripheus27]

This is because we would never have knowledge of what's good or evil. We would have nothing to learn from.

Nowhere does it say that the only way to know good from evil is by eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Indeed no one tends to gain knowledge of such matters by eating from trees of any kind, unless they do drugs derived from plant matter and believe themselves magically enlightened above the divine (as some who use e.g. N,N-DMT aver). If Adam and Eve had not partaken of the one Tree, why assume that God would not have taught them righteousness in some other fashion?

In reality, the Edenic narrative is a metaphor for how to know right from wrong in the right way. Either we listen to the voice of the good within, or we defer to some outside source for insight. The former is the law of spiritual freedom and therefore of Christ and grace. The latter is mental slavery (deferring our judgments to society/peer pressure, undisciplined natural instincts, etc.--enslaving our minds to something else). Now if our standards of moral knowledge are corrupted--if we are enslaved to the testimony of corruption and not the Spirit of God wrought upon our very hearts--then all our particular choices between good and evil will be off-key, and thus through "Adam's sin" (the kind of sin Adam is depicted as having committed) does all other sin and evil derive.

 

[donfish06]

Eating from the tree of life was a "transgression", not a sin.
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Call it what you like.
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They didn't eat of the tree of life, they ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. That is all I was referring to, but your idea of God is very heretical.

 

[rstrats]

I've always wondered why they hadn't eaten from the tree of life at some point before they ate from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil? And if they had, I wonder if they would have lived forever even though they ate from the forbidden tree?

 

[Phantasman]

They didn't eat of the tree of life, they ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. That is all I was referring to, but your idea of God is very heretical.

Noted. But not out of ignorance. Heresy is merely not following catholic thought.

DrBubbaLove and I are having a chat on how people take the Bible literally on the other thread. Thanks for making my point.

 

[Sophrosyne]

I've always wondered why they hadn't eaten from the tree of life at some point before they ate from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil? And if they had, I wonder if they would have lived forever even though they ate from the forbidden tree?

I don't think they needed to eat from the tree of life as they were already immortal I believe to begin with due to their spiritual connection with God. This connection that renewed their spirit is the same one we get in heaven. If they had eaten of the tree of life then sinned the sin would probably undo the effects of the tree of life. I think the question would be what would happen if they had eaten of the tree of life AFTER they sinned? I would consider they would be immortal beings that were stuck with sin just like lucifer and his demons unable to be redeemed because they had already died (spiritually separated by sin) without believing (rejecting God). I think God has seen this as happening that is why he chose to create them in physical bodies that would not be immortal in themselves if they were infected with sin as a way of protecting us until we could know enough about God to choose or reject him (the Gospel).

 

[rstrats]

Sophrosyne,

re: "I don't think they needed to eat from the tree of life as they were already immortal I believe to begin with due to their spiritual connection with God. This connection that renewed their spirit is the same one we get in heaven. If they had eaten of the tree of life then sinned the sin would probably undo the effects of the tree of life."

So I wonder what the purpose was for the tree of life?

 

[Willie T]

While I've heard people say it was a bad thing, I'm grateful they did what they did. It was a good thing. If they hadn't we wouldn't be here. Adam and Eve would have remained in ignorant bliss forever. Because they would have never know what was bad they would have never known what was good.

What are your thoughts on their actions?

Not their best day.

 

[Phantasman]

A question that comes up is, suppose they had not "eaten the forbidden fruit"?

Where do you think man would be? Still Adam and Eve? Living blissfully in Eden? Just them for all eternity?

Or did a more loving, higher power know that it was a menagerie? And saved us from it?

The latter sounds more justified by a loving God.

 

[Sophrosyne]

Sophrosyne,

re: "I don't think they needed to eat from the tree of life as they were already immortal I believe to begin with due to their spiritual connection with God. This connection that renewed their spirit is the same one we get in heaven. If they had eaten of the tree of life then sinned the sin would probably undo the effects of the tree of life."

So I wonder what the purpose was for the tree of life?

One possible use for it would equate me wrong about our bodies being immortal in that after a certain time it needed to be renewed by eating from the tree itself. Adam lived over 900 years which could equate that the human body without the tree of life may only be able to live 1000 years at the most. This would explain a need for the tree of life and explain why the garden was blocked off but I am thinking that it is possible the tree of life could grant immortality of the body it is within... and a sinful body that never dies would be horrible when it ages imagine being 150 years old with cancer and other diseases that ravage your body but you can't die even if your heart stops and flesh starts rotting you are still stuck in the body forever dying.

 

[Sophrosyne]

A question that comes up is, suppose they had not "eaten the forbidden fruit"?

Where do you think man would be? Still Adam and Eve? Living blissfully in Eden? Just them for all eternity?

Or did a more loving, higher power know that it was a menagerie? And saved us from it?

The latter sounds more justified by a loving God.

I'm guessing if Adam and Eve didn't eat... they would have had children sooner or later someone would have eaten and sooner or later those who knew evil would tempt those who did not to sin also so nobody would be sinless.

 

[2ducklow]

While I've heard people say it was a bad thing, I'm grateful they did what they did. It was a good thing. If they hadn't we wouldn't be here. Adam and Eve would have remained in ignorant bliss forever. Because they would have never know what was bad they would have never known what was good.

What are your thoughts on their actions?

Eve was dupped, and Adam knew better but fell for a pretty face. Actually, Adam was afraid of loosing Eve, and he just couldn't handle that. I think most husbands can relate to that.
I"ve sometimes wondered what would have happened if Adam hadn't eaten of the fruit. It would have meant that his offspring would have been sinless. And that leads to some interesting possibilities.

 

[Sophrosyne]

Eve was dupped, and Adam knew better but fell for a pretty face. Actually, Adam was afraid of loosing Eve, and he just couldn't handle that. I think most husbands can relate to that.
I"ve sometimes wondered what would have happened if Adam hadn't eaten of the fruit. It would have meant that his offspring would have been sinless. And that leads to some interesting possibilities.

I've thought of it myself. But I think Adam did sin in the fact God in the Bible equates men as the head of the family so Adam was responsible for Eve's sin even though he didn't sin he apparently didn't think it serious enough to convince Eve to NEVER eat of that tree regardless and I am almost sure that the serpent was in the garden with Adam knowing it was there and he didn't keep his eye on Eve with it around. Was Adam just plain naive, I don't think he was I think he got lazy and let his guard down.

 

[LegacyJB]

You guys act like Adam and Eve eating the fruit was a bad thing. You realize we wouldn't be here if that doesn't happen right?

 

[LegacyJB]

Eve was dupped, and Adam knew better but fell for a pretty face. Actually, Adam was afraid of loosing Eve, and he just couldn't handle that. I think most husbands can relate to that.
I"ve sometimes wondered what would have happened if Adam hadn't eaten of the fruit. It would have meant that his offspring would have been sinless. And that leads to some interesting possibilities.

If we could be born had the fruit not been eaten we also couldn't die. That means nobody would live with God. This earth would be a place of never ending ignorance.

 

[pgp_protector]

While I've heard people say it was a bad thing, I'm grateful they did what they did. It was a good thing. If they hadn't we wouldn't be here. Adam and Eve would have remained in ignorant bliss forever. Because they would have never know what was bad they would have never known what was good.

What are your thoughts on their actions?

According to Genesis, God punished them for it, so He appears to disagree with your opinion.

 

[LegacyJB]

According to Genesis, God punished them for it, so He appears to disagree with your opinion.

Not exactly. I believe in what happened in the true sense of it. Sure, God punished them. The punishment was for transgression. I'm not stating opinion, I'm stating what I know is true. What if they never did what they did? We wouldn't be here. They were also commanded to multiply and replenish the earth. This couldn't happen except in a fallen state.

 

[drstevej]

You guys act like Adam and Eve eating the fruit was a bad thing. You realize we wouldn't be here if that doesn't happen right?

Disobeying God and yielding to Satan is not bad?

 

[LegacyJB]

Disobeying God and yielding to Satan is not bad?

The choice was more than whether or not they should eat the fruit. The choice was a vital part of God's plan. Had they not eaten the fruit we wouldn't be here. Disobeying God is bad but in this case it was a transgression of law given directly from God. They couldn't sin because they didn't know the difference between good and evil until after they ate.

Transgression doesn't equal sin.

I still see no response to this: we wouldn't be here if it didn't happen.

 

[drstevej]

Romans 5:12
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

And just how could anyone know what would happen IF they had not sinned?