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Genesis 3
1. By saying 'Us' in v. 22, is God making reference to the Holy Spirit?
"Then the Lord said, 'Behold the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil [...]."
2. God knew that Adam and Eve would sin, so why did He create the Tree of Life, which would make them immortal?
"[...] And now, lest he put out his hand and take also fromt he tree of life, and eat, and live forever - " (second part of v. 22)
3. God created man and woman physiologically different, even before the original sin, and He knew that Adam and Eve would sin, so why is childbirth part of the punishment?
"Then the Lord said, 'Behold the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil [...]."
2. God knew that Adam and Eve would sin, so why did He create the Tree of Life, which would make them immortal?
"[...] And now, lest he put out his hand and take also fromt he tree of life, and eat, and live forever - " (second part of v. 22)
3. God created man and woman physiologically different, even before the original sin, and He knew that Adam and Eve would sin, so why is childbirth part of the punishment?
Comments
GBU
Thanks jydeacon! I still don't understand the part about the Tree of Life though. They didn't have to sin, but God already knew that they were...
Gods foreknowledge of events does not mean He will interfere with the outcome. I'm sure it is better for us to exist even in a state where we must suffer and be able to have an opportunity to taste God then for us to have not been created at all. He gave Adam and Eve every tool they needed to live with God forever and in purity. The tree of Life would have been one of these "tools".
the tree of life is still there in revelation 22:2, we get to 'eat' from it in the 'new heaven'. it was not made without purpose, it is just waiting for us to be pure in order to eat from it when we are living forever with God in heaven.
qu 3, if you look carefully you will see adam and eve were both punished. eve has a uterus and is punished in that area and adam is punished because he will struggle and sweat to get food from the earth. so what is it that adam has that eve doesn't?
big muscles! so even though he has muscles he has to endure pain in them in order to feed his family. (obviously eve can dig too, but it looks like she spent a lot of time pregnant and populating the earth, so adam had to provide for her).
that bit about qu 3 is entirely my own thoughts, i never heard anyone preaching on that, so would be interested in the comments of others. so don't teach it in your sunday school class until you check it out! ;)
yes, we are suffering because of our sin, but why did God have to create us to begin with, knowing that we will sin? He gave us free will after He created us, but He didn't need to create us to begin with, so why? Do you kind of get what I'm trying to ask?
i see God's reasons for creating us as similar. He did not have to make us, especially knowing already all the ways we would sin and disappoint Him and go astray. but He loves us, and it was (in my view) His love, creativity, and compassion which brought us into the world, first through Adam and individually through our mothers. life is a wonderful gift.... and God has not only given us life in our lungs, but given us the chance to have spiritual life and reconciliation with Him, through His Son. again not because He had to, but because He wanted to.
Parents have children for several reasons: 1) Love for each other 2) Need to fulfill a desire to parent. God has given us that innate feeling as an incentive to have children (I read this in a published scientific paper). So humans have children out of need, but why did God create us? Why did He create the world? the universe?
There is no need in God, as you clearly explain. But we cannot take our own experience as a measure of God. If our own love is tainted by selfishness this does not mean that God's love ever is.
It is also the case that if the thought of creating mankind was in the mind of God then it was always in the mind of God, since God is outside and beyond time in His eternal present. There is a real sense in which He is always Creator since time is only something which we experience within creation as creatures of God.
The Divine Love is not a need. Love is the generous giving of oneself to another. God gives Himself to creation by calling creation into being.
The whole universe is made in love and for love.
Father Peter
I don't mean to be argumentative, but how does the creation show God's love for us?
Thank you so much for taking the time to explain this to me.
Thank you for your help!