Expert: Edward Bode - 9/6/2004

Question
Ok God made Adam and Eve. They messed up in the garden of eden, and because of this we are all supposedly born into sin, hmmmm! Now am I to believe because of one man and woman, the rest of the world is born in to sin? Now God knows the beginning before the end. Now if he knew this would he have let this happen? Doesn't, knowing the beginning before the end mean that he knows that if you go a certain way he knows what the outcome is going to be? I guess you see my questioning. Now there are many bibles. Many have been retranslated to what people want them to say. Now the bible says everthing is from the inspiration of GOD. So does this mean evil too?
I believe in Jesus Christ and his Father in heaven. Is Jesus Christ and the Father the same. There are a lot of descrepancies that people say that cannot be explained by me. I am trying to help out a friend of mine who used to believe but no longer does. He says since man did not know where they came from, this is why they invented the bible. This friend of mine was baptized when he was around 2. He is now fifty. He finds a lot of things to make the bible seem unreal. These questions I have asked you come from him. Please answer whatever you can. Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer
Nice of you to try helping your friend.
There is a great difference between personal sin [moral evil] committed by a person and original sin committed by Adam.  Because of the first man, his posterity lost the special and supernatural gifts that God had given.  God's "original" plan was rejected by the free will of a man.  So, God took that mistake to generate a second plan, which included reconciliation with God and a renewed access to the supernatural gifts through the work of God's Son, Jesus Christ.  God's new plan might be described as better than the original.
Obviously, here we are speaking according to human understanding about the perfect God, whom we cannot completely comprehend by our imperfect human mind.  Our imperfection is what makes understaning God's knowledge difficult to fathom.  The relationship of God's knowledge to human action is a deep philosophical adventure.  Here, suffice it to say that God's knowledge is not the cause of man's actions.
In short, God knew what He was doing and He knew what human beings would do; what humanity does comes about because they will it not because God knows it.
The bible states that scripture is inspired by God; the bible teaches truths revealed by God.  That does not mean that God directly wills evil but He does permit it.  Given that God created humans with free will, He would be contradicting Himself if He stopped every person from committing a moral evil.  God respects the free will that He gifted to humanity.
While the bible was written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, scholars today are in basic agreement about the translation of the texts into modern languages.  Many editions contain footnotes explaining some difficult words and phrases.
Jesus Christ is the second person of the Triune God.  The Father, Son {Jesus}, and the Holy Spirits are three distinct persons in the one God.  The Father is not the Son.
All the above is theology based on the revelation of God.  The basic assurance comes from the resurrection of Jesus.
I hope that these thoughts are a beginning to help your friend.  Let us pray for him.
If you would like to hear more, please feel free to write again.
Best wishes, Brandon.

I received your rating.  Thanks.  However, your comment was trancated.  
When I spoke of a first and a second divine plan, I was speaking in human terms.  You were correct to detect that there was and is only one plan, which did envision the response of Adam and the subsequent salvation history.