(November 6, 2011 at 12:16 am)Godschild Wrote: @ IATIA, I'm going to tell you even though I know you will just disagree, the Tree of Life was placed in the garden because God wanted to let us know that such a thing existed.
The Tree of Life existed so we would know it exists? Words fail me.
(November 6, 2011 at 12:16 am)Godschild Wrote: He knew Adam and Eve would fail, with the tree known about it should have been a sign to the Israelites that there would be such a thing as eternal life.
Here's the thing: if you set the initial conditions, and know the outcome of your actions, you are responsible for whatever happens subsequently. Adam and Eve were exactly as God made them, and if he knew he didn't make them strong enough to resist the temptation to which he was deliberately going to expose them, he set them up to fail. You can't have an omnipotent entity that sees the future and creates everything involved in a scenario and blame the puppets acting out their parts.
(November 6, 2011 at 12:16 am)Godschild Wrote: Actually we do not know whether they ate from the tree or not, scripture does not state so one way or the other, if they did it would have made no difference, when they eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil they disobeyed God and that sin brought death into the world.
If it would have made no difference, why was God concerned that they might eat from it after they knew of good and evil?
(November 6, 2011 at 12:16 am)Godschild Wrote: God told them that if they ate of that tree they would surely die and many years later they surely died. "Surely die" never meant immediate death then nor does it have that absolute definition today.
True. But 'on that day' means 'on that day'. It still has that absolute definition today. They didn't die the day they ate the fruit. You have to make something up that isn't written to make that contradiction go away.
(November 6, 2011 at 12:16 am)Godschild Wrote: God knowing what would take place gave all hope of eternal life before Christ came to be our savior. Scripture makes it quite clear that death came into the world because of sin, and specifically that Adam was responsible.
Their creator knowing what would take place means that Adam and Eve did not have free will and aren't responsible for their actions. Fortunately, the authors of Genesis were telling a story, not a treatise on logic.
