Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

I would say that, rather than excusing or serving as mitigation for the decision that Adam and Eve made, their total innocence made their conduct just that much more indefensible.

They were experiencing conditions of perfection that no human has since known. They were living in an earthly paradise that God Himself had made for them. They were communing directly with Him. They had had only one restriction placed on their activity, and it had been placed by God Himself, who had provided for all their needs, and who had given them no reason to question His goodness, and no grounds to rebel against Him. That should have been all that they needed to know or believe, just as (as Jesus said) people enter the Kingdom of Heaven not by coming to it by sophisticated reasoning or through worldly wisdom, but by receiving it with the humility and trust of a child (Mark 10:13-16; Luke 18:15-17).

Every human since Adam and Eve has at least had the "excuse" of being born with a sin nature, and of living in a fallen world, yet God does not pardon humanity's sin on that basis. How much more culpable, then, would Adam and Eve have been for their decision. 

Yes, Lucifer was more powerful than they were, but they did not fall because of his power. They fell because of their own choice, arising out of avarice and pride, just as Lucifer (who had lived in the very presence of God) had. And that choice, as well as the free will to make it, would have to have been available to them, or else they would have been mere automatons who would have "loved" and "served" God by compulsion, rather than out of genuine devotion.

November 25 2017 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report

Kenneth Heck

God allowed the serpent to tempt Adam and Eve because their exalted station as stewards over all life on earth had to be validated by both sides, good and evil. Otherwise, they would have been considered unacceptable in their position by the evil side. War would possibly result otherwise.

The same considerations apply to the temptation of Christ in the wilderness, and even Job in the Old Testament. Ordinary Christians must also expect to go through trials and temptations to deserve the rewards awaiting them in the Kingdom of God and heaven. 

If the temptation of Adam and Eve had been truly valid, they and their line would have been terminated back then. Since, however, no animal, including serpents, legitimately uses human speech, and the serpent made misleading statements, the temptation was somewhat defective, and so the Adamic line continues on to this day on a reduced spiritual level.

November 26 2017 • 2 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Robert Zantay

Why would you think that Satan, a failed, fallen Angel,who went from being the most Powell, most beautiful of all the Angelic being that God created to an obscene, ugly demon who was in his defeat banned from Heaven, be above Adam, God’s most complete and beautiful creation? 

As it is written the Angels want to look into what man, when filled with Holy Spirit (as Adam was) could be! Angels are spirit, Adam was body, soul, and Spirit. They both have (had) free will, Adam could communicate spiritually with God. God had elected not to communicate with his fallen Angelic creation. 

What led to Adam’s downfall was not a lack of ability to deal with Satan, Satan never deceived Adam. Adam love for his partner in the flesh, Eve, is what led to his downfall. Adam had lived alone in the world, with only God, who he could not see, physically hear, or touch as his only friend. 

When God created his helpmate Eve, Adam could see, hear, touch, taste and smell his new partner. They could make love, laugh at the silly things they would do. He was no longer alone in paradise. We can learn allot from Adam’s choice, which caused him to lose holy spirit and become only body and soul, like all the other animals.

Jesus told us not to gather treasures on earth, where the moth, and rust would destroy our belongings, but instead we should gather heavenly treasures which cannot be destroyed by Satan and the natural laws that he perverted so they would be destructive. 

Should we be angry with Adam and Eve? I don’t think that would make much sense because when they were in paradise their love making did not produce offspring (after all, as any parent will tell you while we love our children, and receive great joy helping them to grow and mature, there cannot be a paradise if you have to mind the kids!) so without Adam and Eve being driven out of paradise, we would never have existed. 

Of course God, in his foreknowledge knew what the outcome of Adam’s free will choice would be. So maybe it would bring more growth to consider the pain that God was willing to bear as a result of not only giving man free will, but his loving decision to empower his Angels with the free will to revolt against him. 

You see God does not want beings to have to love him out of fear or desperation. God values love that comes by the free will choice of his intelligent creations. Which is another quality of God’s that we should emulate!

January 26 2018 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Nils Jansma

Why would God allow Adam and Eve to be tempted by the Devil when He knew that they would fail?

In my opinion, this question isn’t really about Adam and Eve. It involves an apparent dispute between the Word (Jesus) and one third of the heavenly population of angelic workers along with their leader Satan (Revelation 12:4) This seems to indicate that there was some sort of dispute amongst the heavenly host regarding the creation of humans. What did this “dispute” involve? 

Based upon the account of Job 1:10-12 it would appear that Satan challenged Job’s motives for serving God. In other words, the question is whether humans would serve God independently or only if God bribed them into being His servants. This is a very important question. Would “free will” creatures independently of their own “free will” obey God or must they be instinctively made to do so like animals?

Apparently, Jesus felt this issue important enough to allow Satan complete unopposed access to humans by appointing him to be their ruler for a specified time. (Luke 4:6; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Matthew 8:29) That would be the reason Satan had unopposed access to Adam and Eve, in my opinion. It would also appear to be the reason Jesus agreed to come to earth to rescue his creation from the consequences of the decision to allow Satan to be their tempter. (1 Peter 1:19-20)

As a caveat, Satan’s assertion has proven to be false by countless examples of people who have served God based upon their independent “free will” discernment of what is right and what is wrong. (Revelation 7:9; Hebrews 12:1)

January 26 2018 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

dale dorsett

Adam and Eve did not have knowledge of good and evil they lived in bliss in a perfect state. God knew they would fall and planned to send the eternal Son/Word of God as Jesus before the Earth was formed. God sees all time as now, and there are no surprises for God. He gave free choice to the angels and Lucifer. 1/3 of Heaven's angels under this Cherubim leader of angels fell in a failed rebellion to overthrow God, but were stopped by the 2/3 angels loyal to God. Lucifer created rebellion thinking "I will exalt my throne (position of authority) above that of God.

Since the rebellion and since the fallen ones were removed from Heaven and sent to earth, the rebel Lucifer desired to make this Earth his and to eliminate all knowledge of God and God's children, believers in the Messiah to come who was promised to Adam and Eve and to the human race, their children.

Eve was deceived but Adam was not. He followed Eve, doing the one thing forbidden them and depicted by Lucifer as God trying to keep them from knowing good and evil and being like Him. A BIG lie and deceit so Lucifer could control mankind via sin and condemnation. 

The point is, Adam and Eve were brilliant intellectually but manipulated by the evil one. God saw 1/3 of the angels be deceived by Lucifer - no new thing. He knew they would fall but planned to pay for the sin and take all mankind home to Heaven. 

God did not create robots but gave His precious creation mankind free will and choice to love Him or reject Him. Religion - save yourself - had taken many to hell, but in Christianity God paid the price for us so we could be with Him eternally rather than follow the evil one Lucifer/Satan.

January 26 2018 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report