Expert: Rev C.Brian Ross - 5/29/2010

Question
Hello Reverend Ross!  Hope all is well.  I am somewhat familiar with the Garden of Eden story in Genesis, but something about it puzzles me.  God instructed Adam and Eve not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Satan persuaded Eve to eat from this tree, and she gave some of the fruit to Adam.  God then banished them from the garden and prevented them from eating from the Tree of Life.  Here are my questions:

1.  Were Adam and Eve initially told not to eat from both trees, or just the Tree of Knowledge?

2.  Let's suppose that right after Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge, they ran over to the Tree of Life(before they could be stopped) and ate from it.  Then what would have happened?

3.  What would have happened if Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Life first, and then ate from the Tree of Knowledge afterwards....how would things have played out then?

4.  Why did God put those 2 trees in the garden in the first place?  How about an apple tree here and a pear tree over there and maybe a few orange trees?  In other words, why would God put a tree in the garden and then say "by the way don't eat from that one over there".....why not leave forbidden trees out of the equation altogether?

5.  Do you think God knew that Adam and Eve would eventually eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil as soon as he planted it there?  Or maybe suspected that they just might be tempted to do so?

I would be grateful for any insight you can provide!   Brad

Answer
Hi Brad!  Long time no hear - but you are making up for it with this quintuplet-question!!!

1.  Gen.1:16-17 tells us that "YHWH Elohim warned him [Adam], "You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden — except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die."

2.  That's one that is way beyond any level of expertise that I eithet have, or could ever hope to have!

3.  See answer 2 above!  You are asking me to speculate, and that isn't what I signed up to this site for!!

4.  You're asking the wrong person!  Deut. 29:29 is a useful little text!

5.  At last - something that I believe I can address!  This involves our human experience of time.  We see it from a fixed linear point that we refer to as "the present" (even 'though it could be argued that, just as a straight line cannot exist in a tangible, visible form (as soon as you draw it, it becomes a three-dimensional object!) so the 'present' is almost notional as the space between the past and the future!  

Anyway, Almighty God sees everything from an eternal perspective i.e. outwith time.  If you can imagine a big parade going along Broadway in N.Y.City.  I am standing on the pavement watching the parade go by.  All that I can see, at any one moment, is the float/band/whatever that is in front of me.  I know that there is much that has already passed; and that there is more still to come; but I cannot see them.

Now, imagine that you are a reporter for a local radio station.  The station has hired a helicopter for you and, from your vantage point, hundreds of feet up in the air, you can see the whole parade from start to finish.  There is, for you, nothing that has already passed, and nothing that is yet to appear.  All is revealed to you in the one instant of time.

It's only an analogy, but I hope that it helps.  Almighty God sees the whole of time spread out before Him as, in the analogy, you saw the whole parade.  You and I, as creatures of time (which does have a beginning and, therefore, may be expected to have an end) see just one float, or whatever, at a time.  So, God sees, simultaneously, Adam in the Garden; David defeating Goliath; the Children of Israel being taken into captivity in Babylon; the second temple being built; Jesus on the cross; Paul in prison in Rome; Columbus setting sail on his journey of discovery; the evacuation from Dunkirk, seventy of our years ago; me typing this answer; Jesus returning in glory.  For you and me, that is all a long time-line; for the One Who revealed Himself as "I AM" - it is all 'present'!

This is the sort of topic that I much prefer to deal with in a face-to-face situation, or in a lecture, but I trust that what I have typed will help you to grasp something of a mind-blowing truth.  If you can access the book "Mere Christianity" by C.S.Lewis, you will find the chapter entitled "Time and beyond Time" to be helpful.

Well, dear friend, that will have to do you for now!  As alwayss, if you require clarification of any comment/idea, please come back with a supplementary, and I will do my very best to assist further.

Blessings

C.Brian Ross (Rev)
P.S. you might also go to http://bloginterviewer.com/politics/the-crazyrev-page-c-brian-ross  and vote for me!!  You may keep returning, every 24 hours!  If you can encourage any friends to support me, as well, that would be great!!  CBR