Why did God create the tree of knowledge of good and evil if . . . ?

Discussion in 'Calvinism & Arminianism Debate' started by 37818, Jul 29, 2024.

  1. 37818 Well-Known Member

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    About 21 minutes.

     
  2. kyredneck Well-Known Member
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    Can you tell us why so that we don't have to spend 21 minutes just to find out what this guy thinks?

    If you believe it tell us in your own words.
     
  3. KenH Well-Known Member

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  4. kyredneck Well-Known Member
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  5. KenH Well-Known Member

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    No. It is the answer I provided to the OP's question. It is a quote from one of the speakers at the Bible conference at Grace Baptist Church of Ruston about two months ago.
     
  6. 37818 Well-Known Member

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    In short.

    The Bible is silent on the answer.

    And Calvinist propose three different solutions.

    Supralapsarianism.
    Infralapsarianism.
    Sublapsarianism.

    The post is because of the video.

    And to.discuss the issue.
     
  7. 37818 Well-Known Member

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    Even though I reject those three Calvinist interpretations. It can be deduced we were chosen in Christ before the fall based on Ephesians 1:4, According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, . . .
     
  8. kyredneck Well-Known Member
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    Seven-eight syllable words that I don't know the meaning of (or forgotten), and not interested in knowing. Glad I didn't waste my time watching the video.
     
  9. canadyjd Well-Known Member

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    That doesn’t answer the question of the OP

    peace to you
     
  10. JonC Moderator
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    Not my answer but one from the Hebrew religion (an interesting idea, nonetheless):

    God planted the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil with the knowledge that man would eat of the fruit because of human nature (the fruit was desirable) and "become like God" in the aspect of knowing good and evil. This also demonstrates that man is less than God, and man's desires different from God's desires.
     
  11. Deacon Well-Known Member
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    Didn't watch.

    Some of my notes about the Tree of Good and Evil
    • It is’t the opposite of the tree of life.
    • It does not convey life.
    • In itself, it does not convey death (disobedience of God’s command brings about death)
    • Eating of it makes one like God (Gen 3:5)
    Select verses on Good and Evil in Scripture

    • Genesis 31:24 (NASB 2020) However, God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream of the night and said to him, “Be careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad.”
    • Numbers 24:13 (NASB 2020) ‘If Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not do anything contrary to the command of the Lord, either good or bad, of my own accord. What the Lord speaks, I will speak’?
    • 2 Samuel 14:17 (NASB 2020) Then your servant said, ‘Please let the word of my lord the king be comforting, for as the angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and evil. And may the Lord your God be with you.’ ”
    • 1 Kings 3:9 (NASB 2020) So give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, to discern between good and evil. For who is capable of judging this great people of Yours?”
    • Hebrews 5:14 (NASB 2020) But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to distinguish between good and evil.
    • 3 John 11 (NASB 2020) Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does what is good is of God; the one who does what is evil has not seen God.
    Rob
     
  12. 37818 Well-Known Member

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    One can only guess or be able to deduce the answer.
    That tree was placed in the garden per Genesis 2:8-9.


    The eternal fire for the Judgment was on account of the devil, per Matthew 25:41. From this later revelation.

    We know from after the fall the knowledge of good and evil was God's knowledge, Genesis 3:22. The serpent's lie, Genesis 3:4. The temptation, Genesis 3:5. And the serpent's reason, Isaiah 14:13-14, to cause them be partakers in the serpent's sin. And to murder them.
     
  13. KenH Well-Known Member

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    None of God's creation is like Him. Eating the forbidden fruit did not change that.

    Psalms 113:5 Who is like unto the LORD our God, who dwelleth on high.

    Psalms 71:19 Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high, Who hast done great things: O God, who is like unto thee!

    2 Samuel 22:32 For who is God, save the LORD? And who is a rock, save our God?

    Psalms 18:31 For who is God save the LORD? Or who is a rock save our God?

    Psalms 50:21 Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself.
     
  14. Deacon Well-Known Member
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    Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—”
    Genesis 2.22 ESV
     
  15. KenH Well-Known Member

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    Adam did not become God; he was still a created being and had now lost a lot of what he previously had.

    "This was after man was brought to a sense of the evil he committed, and to repentance for it, and had had the promised seed revealed to him as a Saviour, and, as an emblem of justification and salvation by him, was clothed with garments provided by God himself: wherefore the words are to be considered either as a declaration of his present state and condition, in and by Christ, by whose righteousness he was made righteous, even as he is righteous, though he had lost his own; to whose image he was conformed, now bearing the image of the heavenly One, though he was deprived of that in which he was created, having sinned, and come short of the glory of God; and was now restored to friendship and amity with God, favoured with his gracious presence, and having faith and hope of being with him for evermore; the eyes of his understanding were enlightened by the Spirit and grace of God, to know the good things which God had provided for him in Christ, and in the covenant of grace, a better covenant than that under which he was made, and which he had broke; and to know the evil nature of sin, its just demerit, and the atonement of it, by the death and sacrifice of the promised seed: or else the words are a declaration of man's past state and condition, and may be rendered, "behold, the man was as one of us"; as one of the Persons in the Deity, as the Son of God, after whose image, and in whose likeness, he was made; both as to his body, that being formed according to the idea of the body of Christ in the divine mind, and which was not begotten, but made out of the virgin earth; and as to his soul, which was created in righteousness and holiness, in wisdom and knowledge, and was like him in the government he had over all the creatures: and besides, he was in many things a type of Christ, a figure of him that was to come; especially in his being a federal head to his posterity, and in his offices of prophet, priest, and King; and being created in knowledge, after the image of him that created him, and having the law of God inscribed on his heart, he knew what was good and to be done, and what was evil and to be avoided: but now he was in a different condition, in other circumstances, had lost the image of God, and friendship with him, and his government over the creatures; and had ruined himself, and all his posterity, and was become unholy and unwise; for being tempted by Satan to eat of the forbidden fruit, under an expectation of increasing his knowledge, lost in a great measure what he had."

    - excerpt from John Gill's commentary on Genesis 3:22
     
  16. canadyjd Well-Known Member

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    God’s response only pertains to knowing good and evil. It is only that aspect of being “like God”.

    The deception of Satan, and of many people today, is that to “know good and evil” means a person always has the ability (free will) to choose the good and not the evil.

    The only thing that Adam realized when he “knew” good and evil was that he was evil for disobeying God and tried to hide from God’s wrath.

    God demonstrated mercy by removing them from the garden, lest they eat from the tree of life and live forever in a fallen state.

    Peace to you
     
  17. canadyjd Well-Known Member

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    I have heard it argued that God intended Adam to fall, otherwise He would not have allowed Satan in the garden.

    By falling into sin, mankind can understand pain and death.

    Adam knew God loved him, but he didn’t know that God loved him so much He would suffer and die to bring him back into a right relationship.

    peace to you
     
  18. percho Well-Known Member
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    Would Adam have eaten of it had not the woman been there? Thought
     
  19. 37818 Well-Known Member

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    What is key the knowledge of good and evil is our Holy God's knowledge.
     
  20. percho Well-Known Member
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    And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

    Why was the Son of God manifested?
    What was the Son of God manifested as?

    Where was the devil when God planted the garden and put the man he had created in the garden?