Expert: Thurman C. Petty, Jr. - 3/4/2007

Question
Which leaves the question,could god have sent his son jesus to die for adam and eve there and then? Wouldn't that have cleared up the situation,instead of thousands of years later.
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The text above is a follow-up to ...

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Hi thanks for your reply
Reading this seems a little like catch 22 for Adam and Eve.
When God ceated them did he install any sense of what's right or wrong? If he didn't, then how can Adam and Eve have made proper decisons regarding what's good and what's evil?
For example, would you give a young child, who can't read, a bottle of bleach to play with, even though it's got a warning label on it, and then be shocked when the child gets poisoned?
God says "Don't eat the fruit or you will die!! Adam and Eve nod dutifully "yeah ok!". Then God walks off and leaves them. "Whats death?" Adam says,Eve replies "Hmm not too sure".
Correct me if i'm wrong but there was no death before the fall, so how would they have known what death was like?
It's seems to me god just plonks them there without a clue except for don't do this and don't do that!
Satan: did god tell them that there was a bad dude out to get them? if not why?

hope this makes sense
cheers
 

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The text above is a follow-up to ...

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Hi
When God created Adam, why didn't he create Eve at the same time? He obviously knew Adam would need a mate later on and just killed two birds with one stone and created two people out of the same dust.
And why did he chose the rib? there are 200 bones in the human body.
Also when Eve was being decieved by the serpent, wouldn't a talking snake be a bit suspicious? She could have told Adam or God "Hey i found a talking snake what do think,i thought animals couldn't talk".I know if a serpent started talking to me i think i would freak out a bit.


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Dear Dimitre,
There are two lessons, among others, that God wanted to teach mankind when He created them.
1.   He did not make people to live alone, but made them to be together. That doesn’t mean that everybody has to be married, but everyone needs to have someone as a friend, etc., to whom he/she can be close. We were created to be social beings.
2.   God took a rib out of Adam to show that woman was to walk by his side as his equal. God didn’t take a bone out of Adam’s head, because woman was not to rule over him. He didn’t take a bone from Adam’s foot because man was not to rule over woman. God created man and woman as equals.
The snake. The talking snake. Maybe I need to give you a bit of background here.
There were two trees in the middle of the garden.
Gen 2:9  And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground--trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Eating from the tree of life would make it possible for man to live forever. After man had sinned God explained this quality about the tree of life:
Gen 3:22  And the LORD God said, "The man . . . must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." (God didn’t want immortal sinners!) But the tree of the knowledge of good and evil spelled trouble:
Gen 2:16  And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;
Gen 2:17  but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
So one tree makes you live forever and one tree makes you die. God did this to test man’s loyalty to Him. You know, you have to have something to decide between in order to form a character. So God gave Adam and Eve the opportunity to make decisions. When they went to the tree of life, there, nearby, was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So they were choosing to live. But if they should go to the tree of knowledge of good and evil, there, nearby, stood the tree of life to remind them that they could choose life instead of death. That, in itself, should have been enough to stimulate them to make the right choice.
You see, God set the whole thing up to give them the opportunity to make choices so they could develop characters. But He made it much easier for them to make the right choice than to make the wrong choice. After all, He filled the whole garden with trees that had fruit on them. It’s not like they would go hungry. They had no need to eat of either tree. But God required them to eat the tree of life to live forever. But He required that they stay away from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, because it would kill them. See the choice? Good or evil. Same choice we have to make today.
So Eve, one day, got close to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and heard a voice speaking to her. It came from the tree, and when she looked more closely she saw that the voice appeared to come from the snake. (The devil was the first ventriloquist) She knew: “Snakes don’t talk! What’s going on here?”
Eve had a scientific mind, and was curious about a talking snake. And her curiosity got the better of her. Rather than “freak out” like you and me would do, Eve wanted to know more about this talking snake, and went over to the tree to investigate. And rather than call out to Adam or to God (as she could have done; neither were very far away), she went to the tree ALONE (“it is not good that man should be ALONE,” remember?) and began having a conversation with this snake—in the wrong tree! (bad decision!!!)
What happened next is clear to see. The snake made a bold-faced lie, and Eve believed it instead of what God had told Adam. She took the fruit from the serpent’s mouth and ate it. Notice one thing, though. God had said that they must not eat of the fruit of the tree, but Eve had made up her own “hedge” to keep herself from eating of the tree:
Gen 3:2  The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,
Gen 3:3  but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and YOU MUST NOT TOUCH IT, or you will die.'"
God didn’t say anything about not touching the fruit of the tree. But when the snake gave her a piece of the fruit, she felt she had already broken God’s command (but it was really only her “hedge” she had broken), so she gave up and ate the fruit. She must have felt a thrill come over her—you know, like when we did something Mom told us not to do, a shot of adrenalin—and she thought she was entering a higher sphere, becoming like god, like the serpent had said. So she took the fruit to Adam.
Here was Adam’s turn to make a choice. He could refuse the fruit and call for God to help Him. In that case He would have lost Eve, whom he loved dearly. But to disobey God and eat the fruit she had in her hand would mean that he would die with her. What a terrible choice! If Adam had only called God to help him, he would have saved us all this trouble. I’m sure God could have made him another woman to be his wife.
But Adam blew it! He ate the fruit, knowing what he was doing! And the rest is history.
Thanks for your question. Feel free to ask others, only it would save both of us time if you wrote directly to my address (I’m in the country and have only dial-up). I’d also like to invite you to visit my web page where I’ve posted 40 Bible lessons, over 100 Bible questions answered, and 16 of my books, etc.
Thurman C. Petty, Jr.
petty@hyperusa.com
www.PettyPress.com

-----Answer-----
Dear Dimitre,
Yes, God programmed them to know right from wrong. And He told them all about the evil dude who lurked around that dreadful tree. God had angels with them all the time teaching them what was right and what was wrong and helping the know what it was like to serve God faithfully. They knew what it was like to be happy, and the angels told them what it meant to die.
So God didn’t leave anything to chance. He covered every base, and so Adam and Eve knew what they were doing from the get-go. God told them what to do, but He left it up to them to decide what they were going to do.
We don’t know how long it was between the time that God created them and put them in the garden of Eden and the time they sinned. But it probably wasn’t very long.
Read the Bible all the way through and look at the instruction it gives us about how we should live. All the stories—both those that are good and those that are bad—teach us what happens when we do good and when we do bad. What happens when we are obedient to God, and what happens when we are disobedient. It’s an awful lot of instruction, but it’s no more than the instructions that God gave to Adam and Eve. Remember too, that Adam and Eve had never sinned. They lived in a perfect world where there was nothing that would ever hurt or destroy. Nothing would ever die in their paradise, unless they sinned, and, of course, you know what happened.
God knew that if Adam and Eve should sin, that He would have to come here and become a man, and then die for the sins of all mankind. So you can be sure that God did everything possible to make sure that Adam and Eve were thoroughly instructed about the difference between right and wrong, between the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God and the devil.
If you had been there, which would you have chosen? Just remember, every time we act in an unloving way toward any person or animal, we are casting a vote in favor of eating the forbidden fruit.
Thurman C. Petty, Jr.
petty@hyperusa.com
www.PettyPress.com


Answer
Dimitre,

We have come to the point where we are questioning God. God is the Creator, the One who made the world and the human race. He is the Creator of wisdom and is infinitly wise Himself. If we question His plans and ask if He did the right thing, we are treading on dangerous ground.

In order for us to be in a right relationship to Him we must come to trust Him, to trust that He knows what is best for us and for the whole human race.

In our present condition we are not in a right relationship with God. We have sinned--not just inherited Adam's sin, but have committed our own sins. In fact:

Rom 3:23  . . . all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Sin is lethal stuff:

Rom 6:23  For the wages of sin is DEATH, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So you see the playing field hasn't changed much. Sin still leads to death, and the only way to be really happy and to live forever comes from doing it God's way--receiving eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord: As a GIFT!

Jesus paid for the sin of Adam and Eve and for all the sins of all the people who ever lived or will live. There's nothing we can add to that. Not one good thing we do or say can add to what Jesus has already done. And all God asks of us is to have faith in what Jesus did--to believe that He really did it and that He did it for me! (and you).

Beyond that, we cannot question, because we are asking questions that only God can answer.

There is a mystery here that human wisdom and logic just cannot span--the mystery of Godliness. We cannot understand it while we live in our present world. We may not completely understand it when we come face to face with God in eternity. After all, we are the created and He is the Creator. Can a creature understand his Creator? Only in so far as the Creator chooses to reveal Himself to him.

So, Dimitre, I must stop at this point. If you have other questions about things that the Bible reveals, I'll gladly help you. But I must stop trying to explain God, for that gets into an area about which I know nothing.

Always be ready for Jesus to come.

Thurman C. Petty, Jr.
Petty@hyperysa,cin
www.PettyPress.com