this one always gets me... so you know the story of Adam and Eve.. God tells them not to eat the fruit of this certain tree, the tree of wisdom, but Eve gets tricked and gets her and Adam to disobey Gods orders.. they eat the fruit and know right from wrong and realize they are naked and become ashamed... my thing is, if they'd never eaten the fruit from this "wisdom tree", how would they have known it was wrong to disobey God in the first place? and what a story, man....
Like a child learns for the first time so did they. I can tell my son not to do something, he may listen or he may decide to do it. If he does it and he gets caught, he then sees the trouble he is in and understands right from wrong. They did not understand that this would upset God or that it would affect them. They were also misguided by Satan. Any more questions just ask away, I may not have the best answers, but I'll do my best to answer.
Does everyone heere take the Old Testament word for ord or do you beleive that i is abunch of symols and allegory?
i think the point of the story is that if they knew wisdom, they would have been wise enough to obey god. it just goes along with the whole "born with a sin nature" thing
Here's something I wrote a while back: This is an interesting question. Here's my understanding. Adam and Eve's state in the garden was one of innocents, or ignorance. It wasn't that they didn't know what good and evil was, rather they didn't know evil--they were completely ignorant of evil's existence. But then Adam and Eve would not have known that obeying the serpent was wrong? I think this is a little tricky, because not knowing good and evil, does not equate to not knowing what's right and what's wrong. While what's evil may always be wrong, what's wrong may not always be evil. (Yeah, I can just see everybody's blank stares)...let me attempt to explain it another way: I'll lay out the situation here: God created the heavens and Earth. This same God that created the heavens and the Earth, created all creatures within them. This same omnipotent Being formed man out of dirt and a rib! This same God gave the first man and woman dominion over all creatures of the Earth The first man and woman, had direct fellowship with the very Being that created not only them, but everything surrounding them! This was a God that not only loved them, but took care of all their needs. His commandment regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil only told them what they ought do, but it was up to them to demonstrate their faith by obeying His commandment. Imagine a little child who obeys her parents because she knows her parents are the ones who take care of her needs. The child may not know distinctions between good and evil, but she still knows that she ought listen to the ones who provide for her. If a stranger comes along and offers instructions contrary to her parents': "I know mommy and daddy tell you not to go with strangers, but it's very important that you come with me." She can demonstrate her faith in her parents by not following the stranger, or she can demonstrate her lack of faith by following the stranger. Either way, she's choosing a side, and her actions will bring about their own consequences which she is fully responsible for (since she's the one who made the choice). Now, of course once the parents find out about all this, they'll start a plan in motion to rescue the child ...but that's another story But back to Adam and Eve... Now, along comes a serpent who proceeds to give a suggestion contrary to God's commandment. Let me again lay out the situation: The serpent did not create the heavens or the Earth He did not create any of the creatures (including Adam and Eve) He did not provide for any of their needs--he did nothing for them! He had no authority. In fact, he would have been one of the very creatures Adam and Eve had dominion over! Adam and Eve had the option to follow their Provider, or follow the serpent. Whether or not they knew one option was "evil" is completely irrelevant--after all, evil is just what's contrary to God. They reached a fork in the road, and which route to take was a decision left up to them. Given God's resumé, the choice should have been a no-brainer, but I suspect many of the choices I've made should have been no-brainers as well.
but... God then smited them though they didn't know good from evil UNTIL they ate from the tree... it just seems too contradictory..
he did it because they disobeyed him and chose self indulgence over the grace of god. god probably would have given them infinite wisdom...otherwise there would have been no sense in free will. . either way we chose knowledge over wisdom and we were the worse off for it. anyway wasn't the story of adam and eve supposed to be a metaphore for temptation and sex and what not? because when we were taught it we were told it wasn't meant to be literal.
