Expert: Glenn Hansen - 8/29/2010

Question
I've recently started reading the bible from the beginning, ten chapters at a time and was hoping you could answer some questions for me/clear a few things up.

1. Did God create Adam first or all the animals on the 6th day as there seems to be some discrepancy between Genesis one and two. For example on Genesis 2 it mentions God creating a suitable mate for Adam which I always assumed was referring to Eve but in Genesis two it talks about creating animals to keep Adam company. Wouldn't God have known that Eve was the kind of mate Adam needed if in fact animals were created to keep Adam company? It's all supposed to flow together but I just can't make sense of what came first; Adam or all the animals.

2. What was the point of even creating the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Wouldn't God have known that Adam and Eve would give in to temptation?

3.Why was Canaan cursed or rather what did his father Ham do wrong?

4. In later parts of Genesis, God tells Noah he regrets creating human beings so why did he? Wouldn't he have know how things would turn out?

5. Why was Cain's offering not accepted by God? What was wrong with it?

Thanks a million for taking the time to reply when you get the chance.

Vienna

Answer
Vienna,
Most of your questions can be answered by reading the book Patriarchs and Prophets by Ellen G. White. Not necessary to read it all, just the chapters dealing with the issues you raised. Here is a link to the online book:

http://www.whiteestate.org/books/pp/pp.asp