((( Did god cause the fall of Adam and Eve? ))) The question is was it the will of God that they walk down the trial of iniquity or the path of transgression? To really understand the truth to these questions, we must go back to the beginning. In the beginning, God created mankind in his image. {Gen 1:26} This means, just as God has the power of thought or intelligence and the feelings of emotions and God has the power of self determination or free-will. So did mankind created in his image. We were created with all the accessories faculties of free moral agency. All the necessary conditions to being subjects to his moral government. God created Adam and Eve morally innocent. And now they were free to determine for themselves what their character would be. if they would choose that which is good, they would form good moral character. If they choose that which is evil they would form evil moral character. So God created their constitution and gave them free-will. But they themselves would create their moral character are or by how they used their free-will. God can create beings with the potential for virtue, but god cannot create by fiat a morally upright person. He formed Adam in his own image, that is Adam was a sentient and rational being with the potential to be God-like in character through his moral choices. Since God created Adam and Eve capable of virtue and vise. God gave them a moral law to influence their choices. The moral law was not at all impossible for them to keep since they were created in the image of God. Now God gave them the opportunity to become obedient or disobedient by giving them a law. By forbidding the tree of knowledge, God gave Adam and Eve the opportunity of forming good moral character. See God didnt place them in the garden with the tree so that they would becomes disobedient, but so that they would have the opportunity to become obedient. By granting Adam and Eve by the freedom of doing what is wrong. God was actually giving them the freedom of doing what is right. God gave them this opportunity of doing what is evil, because he wanted them to do the right thing, and to form good moral character. a person only has good moral character if they could choose to do what is wrong, but they choose to do what is right instead. In this way temptation can be considered a good things. Thats why James 1:2 says we should count it a joy by when we are tempted. because James 1:12 says they is a blessing for those who overcome. So the opportunity to do what is wrong is a good thing, because every opportunity to do what is wrong, Or an opportunity to do what is right. Our most excellent Creator wished us able to do either, but actually to do only one that is, good, which he also commanded giving us the capacity to do evil only so we mighty do his will by exercising our own. That being so, this very capacity to do evil also good, good, I say, because it makes the good part better by making it voluntary and independent, not bound by necessity but free to decide for itself. But you say, God ought to have made us at first so that we should not have thought at all of such things. You who say this do not know what is free-will, and how it is possible to be really good., because under necessity is not really good, because he is not what he is by his own choice. Since therefore every ones freedom constitutes the true good, and shows the true evil, God has contrived that friendship or hostility should be in each man by occasions. But no, it is said: everything that we think, he makes us to think. Stop! Why do you blaspheme more and more by saying this? For if we are under his influence in all that we think, you say he is the cause of fornications, lusts, avarice, and all blasphemy. Cease your evil-speaking, you who ought to speak well of him, and to bestow all honor upon him. While God gave Adam and Eve the ability to sin by giving them a free-will, and God gave them the opportunity to sin by placing them in the garden to sin with the forbidding tree. It was not God who actually tempted them to sin. (in the sense of suggesting it to their minds) James 1:13 The lord doesnt temp anyone with evil. Luke 11:4 We should pray for God to lead us away from temptation. but God wanted them to have the opportunity of being generally faithful and loyal to him, us as God allowed satan to temp job. Not to destroy his character, but to prove his character. So, God allowed satan to temp Adam and Eve, not that they would do the wrong thing, but so that they would do the right thing. That they could form good moral character. It was the serpent in Gen. 3 who actually tempted them to sin, but the Bible says that God commanded them not too. And we know God is completely sincere in his commandments. He really did want them to obey him. God created Adam and Eve with the ability to sin or not to sin. Thus why God commanded them not to sin, and the devil temped them to sin. it would make no sense for God to command them to do what they could not do, or even for that matter, the devil to suggest they do something that which cannot be done. See god knew they were capable of obedience, and thats why he commanded obedience from them, and the devil knew they were capable of disobedience- thus why he tempted them to be disobedient. See neither God nor the devil could force man to do their will, because man was created free. Man was created as a moral being. See the devil has only the power of suggestion, thus why James 4:7 man has the ability to resist the devil therefore for those who are taken captive by him to do his will according to 2 Tim 2:26 are actually taken captive by their own will and consistent. Its important to understand that the decision of will caused by a free moral agent accrued after the motives and incentives that have been presented to ones mind and then considered and contemplated. When God and the devil wanted to influence mans decision in the garden of Eden. Both God and the devil presented motives and considerations to their minds. God motivated by his love sought to govern man by his truths. Gen 2:17 He warned man about the consequences of sin that he might influence him not to sin, but the devil- motivated by his selfishness- sought to govern man by his deception. Gen 3:4-5 satan lied about the consequences of sin, and literally made empty promises as to what would happen if they do sin. See there was a real war going on between god and the devil over the allegiance of mans will. thus when the devil wanted to influence the decisions of mans will, he had to tear down the influence that God had over their minds. See God is good and he wanted them to form good moral character just like he has. Therefore God put forth effort to get man to create good character, but the devil is evil and he wanted man to have an evil character just like he has. Therefore the devil put forth effort for man to create evil character. After putting man in the garden God warned man what would happen if he choose to sin. Thats because God didnt wont Adam to sin, so he brought to his conciseness the negative consequences of what would happen if he does. See the objective of warning is that the one being warned would make the right choice, and so by warning him of the negative consequences of sin- that sin itself would be avoided. Now God put forth effort to see that man not sin, but despite the effort and influence of God, man choose to sin anyways. Its not that God had failed man, its that man had failed God.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 17:38:34 +0000
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