(August 26, 2015 at 3:19 pm)Wyrd of Gawd Wrote: Maybe the tree of knowledge of good and evil simply represented the Emperor's laws, like Hammurabi's. The local yokels were expected to follow them without deviation and when they decided to make their own laws they incurred the wrath of the big wig. Remember, in the fairy tale there's a story about a time when men were free to do as they saw fit without anyone bossing them around.
One of the main themes in the Bible and in the Koran is that people are not free to make their own rules. They have to follow those laid out by the Big Wig or else he will gut and roast them for being uppity. Look at the rules Jesus spewed out. He doesn't give a damn if you are a good person without following his rules. He's going to toss your butt in the lake of fire because you rejected his set of rules and followed your own, even if your own rules make you a better person than his rules will.
The doctrine is: comply or die.
Who would have been the Israelites emperor?
God's ways are ways of life.
John 8:31-32 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
It is follow or die because God's ways are life and freedom and so the opposing ways would be death and captivity. God even calls himself Life (john 14:6, John 5:26) so if you go against Him then you would be on the side of death.
I don't know a great deal about the Qur'an but I have been looking into their religion for the past couple of days and their religion has a different view of man and sin and how to be made right.
