Why is it okay when God kills people?

[SteveII]

I wouldn't say there was hidden evil already within Adam and Eve. It was potential evil because with free will, the potential will always be there regardless of whether one choices to do wrong. Once they disobeyed, the understood a lot more about that then they did before "there eyes were opened" and they understood the the difference between good and evil. 

Isn't the tree just a metaphor for the act of disobedience (I'm not saying there wasn't a tree)? I don't think the tree was magical, it just represented the only choice to disobey God in those circumstances.

If evil is inherent in free will then there can be no free will in heaven. [1]

No matter how you interpret reality, you cannot have an omnipotent, omniscient god who is not responsible for that reality. Nor is there justice in punishing Adam for doing what he was created to do. [2]

The problem is, you're trying to take a book that was written at a time when people were at the mercy of nature and blood thirsty gods were revered, and shoehorn it into a time when that is no longer he case. As a result, you have to come up with all kinds of  explanations. None of which really justifies what has already been written. [3]

1. Free will does not logically mean evil--just the potential. I believe that being in the actual presence of God makes any possible choice of evil impossible because of the situation not because of a logical impossibility.. I don't know though--just a theory developed to answer the question.

2. God is very much responsible for allowing us to choose (because without that ability, we cannot love anything--including him). Adam was punished, yes, but the real question was it worth creating him (including knowledge of his eventual fall and punishment)? I think it is clear that God would say yes to that. Adam would say yes to that (I certainly am glad of it personally). To flip it around, would you say it would have been better to be created without free will--which would include no ability to love? What would be the point? 

3. I don't think that's the case. When you don't take it/discuss it piecemeal, the basic doctrines fit together without much trouble.