RE: Is Eve in Hell right now?
May 27, 2014 at 1:07 pm
(This post was last modified: May 27, 2014 at 1:09 pm by Tonus.)
(May 27, 2014 at 12:57 am)Godschild Wrote: Scripture says God can not lie, this seems to indicate He is incapable of lying, scripture also says God can not do evil or sin (both I see as the same), this to me means He is incapable of these actions.I understand what you are saying, but it just diminishes god in my opinion. God is conceivably the most perfect being in existence. Thus, while god is not restricted from doing something (such as lying) he is not tempted to do so, as there is nothing to gain from wrongdoing. To be limited in any way is to be diminished in some way, is my view of it.
Quote:No I do not think so, obedience and love go hand in hand, this is a theme throughout the scriptures, the scriptures show them to be locked together. The tree was not meant as a stumbling block, it was there to show love through obedience.But you can obey someone even if you do not love them, and you can show love through many other ways than obedience. A person may obey out of fear, or out of self-interest. God would have known that Eve loved him because he can read the hearts of men.
Quote:Agreed the tree did symbolize God's sovereignty over man, I'm not sure God would say that should be enough for man, He did create us with feelings such as love and it is love He desires from us. So choice has to be a part of the relationship or it is just sovereignty.I think that there were many ways to do that, though. If god did spend time with Adam and Eve, then they had many ways to show how they felt about him. Doing the assigned work to the fullest of their abilities, or enjoying the world given them and the time spent with him. The tree stood outside of the relationship, in that they could have had the same with or without it. The only use I can see for it is giving them a way to express a desire to separate themselves from god.
Quote:No additional information is given, I do think it is implied by the walks they took, regardless the story doesn't tell us one way or the other.The story confirms that the serpent's claim (that they would be like god, knowing good and evil) comes true, as god himself expresses this concern. The question would then become- what is meant by knowledge of good and evil? Is there some other meaning to it, and does the Bible provide an answer?
I look at it this way, parents do not tell there children not do do something unless they know that child understands going against their will is wrong.
Quote:So in the end I believe Eve knew that to disobey God meant she was not giving Him all of her love.I think it is not unreasonable to assume that she at least understood that god would not be pleased. So it becomes a question of what she thought she was gaining, versus what she thought she was losing. If she believes the serpent, then she thinks she will not die and that she will gain some kind of knowledge that god withheld from her. Did she think it would put her on equal footing? Or was she so overtaken by curiosity that she did not consider any other consequence and just wanted to know?
Quote:Regardless what she was thinking I believe the serpent knew he had her on the right track to tempt her, not with the death want happen, but that there was power in that fruit which would make her like God. I believe she thought of only good things happening because she did not know what evil resided in the knowledge she would receive. Children who disobey their parents know there's a punishment coming (or at least I did and knew it would be very unpleasant, the worse part was waiting to find out what would happen), they how ever like I did, convinced themselves that the pleasure gained was worth the punishment.Right, this is kind of what I am thinking above. Eve must have considered that there was something to gain that was more valuable than what she stood to lose. She stood to lose god's approval, at the very least. She might have to deal with an angry god, one who had told her she would be killed for eating the fruit. If she truly understood the concept of death, she must have believed the serpent when it said she would not die. So I wonder what she learned about god that made her confident enough to accept the serpent's word and eat the fruit.
Quote:No not at all that choice was determined by what Adam and Eve did, the consequences of disobedience. Sin made man imperfect, once it was introduced into creation it would be hard to fix, the fix cost God more than it has cost man.I think it was within god's power to deal with it differently, at least where their descendants were concerned. Adam and Eve had broken a clear rule with a clear consequence, but that was spread to everyone. If god gave them that command, then there is the implicit understanding that humanity was capable of sin. So god had already put the pieces in place to deal with the possibility of people turning away from him. Why the plan that requires millennia of human suffering and even god himself being tortured and killed in human form? Is it that Adam and Eve were the first humans, and there were no others who could continue the line of perfect people after them?
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould