Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!ukma!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: davidbu@loowit.wr.tek.com (David E. Buxton) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Adam and Eve have become as Gods? Message-ID: Date: 14 Apr 91 00:59:49 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 68 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article , sobarr@ucsd.edu (Carlos Saul Menem) writes: > > Just a little question. On the TV today, and in several > books, and in several discussions with several different religious > groups, I here that Satans big lie to Eve was that "in the day ye > eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as > gods, knowing good and evil"(Gen 3:5) But I find that in verse 22 > it says, "And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of > us (gods) to know good and evil..." > . . . First there is creation week and man is commissioned to be "fruitful and multiply". "Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multi- ply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." " -- Gen 1:28 (NKJ) Later they are warned about the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:16) after being commissioned to be "fruitful and multiply". And then comes the fall of man in chapter 3. Clearly the fall of Adam was NOT some blessing that made it possible for there to be children. Genesis chapter 1 makes it clear that Adam and Eve were to have had children before they were told about the tree and its temptations and before they sinned. Now let us turn to Genesis 3:22 and look at the whole verse: "Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"; "-- Gen 3:22 (NKJ) There are three ways, that come to mind, by which someone can find out about some new form of sin: 1) Sin can be learned by temptation and personal experience. 2) By observing someone else's sin, and yet not indulging in it yourself. You do not sin but you now know of the sin. 2) Theoretically, for example in our modern context of gene splicing and test tube fertility, there are new opportunities for sin that can be theoretically examined, and yet not personally indulged. God knows all about sin and yet He himself is sinless. Clearly Jesus knew a lot about sin and yet was sinless. He became like us in that He was tempted in all points just like we are, and yet without sin. In terms of knowing about sin, Adam and Eve came to know about sin from personal hands on experience with it. God knew about sin and yet was without sin. When Adam sinned, then both God and Adam knew about sin. Reading the last half of the text it becomes clear that the eating of the fruit itself was not what brought about death. They could have walked back and forth between each of the two trees, and continued to live for ever. As long as the tree of life was available to them, they were immortal. So, immortality was not inherent in them. It was a gift of God, provided through the tree. But they chose the other tree, which clearly was not a deadly instant poison. Satan told a half truth. He demonstrated that eat- ing the fruit was not instant drop dead death. He knew it instantly set them on a course for death. But deceit and half truths are his methods. It was the sinning that was the poison and not poisoned fruit that brought death. God could no longer allow them access to both trees. Since their immortality was not inherently theirs, the process of death set in as soon as they were barred from the tree of life. This tree is again made avail- able after Jesus 2nd Coming, but only to those who have chosen the tree of life, in the name of Jesus, and have rejected the tree of death that Satan has adorned with all the tinsel at his disposal. Verse 22 makes it quite clear that man has no immortality of his own. That Adam and Eve did not have it even before they sinned. It is God who offers this gift of eternal life, symbolic in the tree of life. Without this gift from Him, we are doomed to die a death from which we can never rise. Dave (David E. Buxton)