URGENT READ!

[xiankai]

God doesnt tempt people. That is perversion and exactly what satan does. For whatever reason God saw fit he had that tree and others too there. He told A& E not to eat it and they disobeyed. He said they would die and they did. Their glory left them, they noticed they were naked and within their hearts fear was birthed. They may not have died immediately physically but death came into their spirits and from there it spread from the inside out.  

[Gwyniver~Everstar]

MrJoeShoe

the way i see it..
God is PERFECT. which means He full well knows what is going to happen and why. That also means He is JUST, which means he will always do the right thing. Therefore, God does not struggle with deciding how He can be a good parent. He is the PERFECT parent and anything other would be to defy his nature.

Sometimes people accidently attatch fallible human attributes to how they view God's nature to be. (try to relate to Him on human terms so to speak.) Such as saying that God struggles with how to "raise his children" as the subject were. God knows how to love his children and will always consistantly do so. He won't wonder if He's doing the right, and just thing and await the outcome.

Captain_Theoretical

God says that if they eat of the tree, they will die. Of course when they do eat of the tree, they don't die. People say that they became mortal and so they would eventually die, but God really did tell them they would die immediately.

When God told them they would die immediately He meant it. The "Death" was eternal separation from God Himself.

SO WHY THEN, IF GOD IS LOVING, JUST, AND ALL-KNOWING, WOULD HE PUT THE TREE THERE?

To show man that he will choose to disobey God's loving instruction and give into temptation. That man is not perfect.

That is most of what i can grasp from my understanding. surprised

I agree with mrjoeshoe, you cant say that it was a case of bad parenting and dismiss it. the death it speaks of is not literal, and I don't think it was ever meant to be seen that way.
I have always felt that for god to be a loving god he would have to be a god of freewill (this is what I have against most Calvinistic theories), and that the whole point of the story of Adam and Eve was that they we're given the choice of, staying in gods will for there life or not from the very beginning. it was only after Satan convinced them they gave in and decided to seek it for themselves, before gods plans intended. they therefore faced a SPIRITUAL death. this has always been my idea of the original sin.  

[kita44]

Captain_Theoretical

I really like this theory.

It sort of goes along with something else I read.

God says that if they eat of the tree, they will die. Of course when they do eat of the tree, they don't die. People say that they became mortal and so they would eventually die, but God really did tell them they would die immediately.

I was reading something in which the author suggested this was a case of bad parenting, God told them they would die and then once they ate of the tree He gave in and just banished them instead.

How this fits in with this theory is that perhaps it wasn't bad parenting, but perhaps dysfunctional parenting. God told them they would die because He didn't want them to eat of the fruit yet, like telling your children their teeth will rot out of their head if they don't brush their teeth. Of course they will eventually, but not immediately like you implied. It is the same way with God telling Adam and Eve they would die if they ate of the tree. And banishing Adam and Eve from the garden was God's way of saying "If you're ready to eat of the tree you're ready to be out on your own in the real world." or something along those lines.

Just my thoughts.

I honestly don't think God ment immediately when he said that they would die. I believe that Adam and Eve were supposed to live forever.. God even came down and walked with them face to face, so why would they have to go into heaven? But when they ate the fruit, their punishment was to die, even if it didn't happen immediately.

Two things to think about:
1) Are Adam and Eve in hell, or heaven? The bible never says where they went.
2) Are we still eating God's forbidden fruit today? Who knows what kind of fruit it was, so it's quite possible that we're still eating it.  

[freelance lover]

Theories about creation stories are often difficult for me since I really take the stories as simple allegories for the fall of man. I don't take them literally.

But, I think the point of the story is this:
-God created man as perfect, flawless, and free of sin.
-God also gave man free will.
-Temptation has existed from the beginning. I don't know that God necessarily created it, but I think it's a by product of free-will. Is someone has choices there is always the possibility that they could pick a negative one. If I ask a child it they want broccoli or an apple, that doesn't mean there isn't the unmentioned option eating cookies. Free will invariably created the potential to be tempted and fall into that temptation.
-Adam and Eve could not resist the temptation, and the snake certainly wasn't helpful. In my extended metaphor, the snake could maybe be the older sibling telling them it's okay to eat cookies even though mom told you not too. It's another example of free will- the snake chose to mislead Eve into think it was okay to eat the fruit.

Although they gave into temptation, I don't think we can be too mad at them. Most people will cave the first time they are confronted with temptation.