Was Eve justified in eating of the tree of knowledge?
[SIZE=2]I know that most consider Eve disobeying God as what lead to the so called fall of man and some say the first sin.
First, since Satan was already cast from heaven and appeared in the garden as the talking snake, I would say that sin was already in existence before Eve ate of the tree of knowledge. Also, the evil tempting by Satan was also before she ate.
Further, the tree of knowledge contained the information of all sins and things evil so God must have known of these sins before hand. Jesus said that all one need do to sin is think about it. The thinking being more or less as bad as the sin itself.
If God is to be the epitome of all things then He would not only be the personification of good but also of evil. Perhaps this is why Christians can say that He is love while at the same time knowing that He is capable of great destruction/evil and genocide.
If Eve had not eaten of the tree of knowledge then man would be as morally bright as any of the lesser animals. This would not be good.
Without the knowledge of good and evil, it is impossible for mankind to form a moral sense.
I do not think that this would be God’s plan. To keep mankind ignorant of morals seems just to silly to contemplate.
Those who believe we fell from Eden must then believe that we are not to have moral sense. Please justify if possible.
Literal scripture says that God wanted obedience without question. As a moral leader, it is difficult to see why He would not want Eve to know, morally, why she was to follow. This would also not give her free will. Something some believe God gave us. I believe that freedom is taken, not given.
We can know that Eve did gain moral sense from the tree of knowledge because right after eating of it she hid and made to cover her nakedness.
[/SIZE]
Deuteronomy 32:4
He is the Rock, his work is
perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
[SIZE=2]To believe that Eve fell, we would have to wonder about the above quote. If God created Satan perfect and he somehow could thwart the perfection that God built into him then one can say that that perfection was imperfect because it did not remain so. The same would apply to Eve. Perfection cannot turn to imperfection because that would mean that God Himself might some day become imperfect.
If Eve was perfect then she would have made the perfect choice. Did She?
Should man have a moral sense?
Did God want to deny us a moral sense?
Did Eve do the right thing by reaching out for it?
If the snake was under Satan’s control then why punish it instead of Satan?
As In Job, was Satan just acting as God’s loyal opposition?
Why bring Satan to Eden and pit this supernatural deceiver of all men against a young innocent Eve. She would have no chance at defending herself?
The idea of a fall in Eden just does not want to wash for me. It would show God as a trickster and one who would deny mankind a moral sense. It would also show His perfect works as not worth much if Satan and then Eve and all of us can thwart this perfect programming so easily.
Thoughts.
Regards
DL
[/SIZE]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
