Where does this say the fruit was poisonous.
You are obviously reading stuff into the text.
Are you trolling or really engaging in this issue?
If it means something else it’s very oddly stated. What do you think it means? If you eat it I will kill you? Generally, such statements by God are more direct. Incidentally, what was that tree even doing there?
I think it means what it says. That of you eat of it, you will die.
What do you mean by this statement? Did you do a survey or something?
It serves two purposes. It serves the purpose of a test for Adam and Eve.
It also shows God’s ultimate purpose that Adam and Eve would be given the fruit when they are ready for it.
Part of the problem problem seems to be that you don’t recognize the concept of free will.
12 posts were split to a new topic: Ashwin and Jonathan discuss the Incarnation and the Trinity
There’s a lot of smiting; that’s all.
That’s a very silly purpose, especially since he knows in advance that they will fail. And what is it testing? Since they have no concept of good and evil, it can’t be testing their moral senses. Is it simply testing their obedience to authority? Not, to my mind, a virtue.
How do you get that from the story?
Free will in the absence of moral judgment is merely caprice. Catch-22. (Now of course I don’t think free will exists, but that’s another discussion entirely.)
So? do you feel God has no right to do any 'Smiting"?
It tests trust. God told them something… their obedience indicates a trust towards God. Considering the fact they are in a state of innocence and don’t know much about good and evil, trust is a requisite. It’s the only way they can move forward with God.
Turned out they didn’t really trust him much.
As to God knowing in advance that they would fail, it doesn’t take the importance of failing for Adam and Eve. Our failures are important for our development.
I think it’s implied because the tree of life is also in
the garden and God ultimately offers eternal life to humanity through Jesus Christ.
So I apply the same logic to the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
They had a free will choice whether to trust/obey God or not.
True… but it seems to block your understanding of this passage.
Your reactions make more sense if freewill did not actually exist.
It’s as if you have no memory, and just respond with the first thing that comes into your head. Thus we wander at random through your stream of consciousness without regard to the topic under discussion. This isn’t about what god has a right to do. It’s about what a statement in Genesis means. And that’s a digression from something else, etc.
Which was a lie, incidentally. Why should they trust God? In their state of ignorance, why him rather than the serpent?
So the failure was a good thing, all carefully planned by God in advance? The failure, the curse, the expulsion, all just part of the plan? If so, it’s all God’s fault, and nothing can be blamed on the victims.
Once again, a choice in ignorance is caprice. Without knowledge, there can be no culpability. And a test whose result is known in advance is no test.
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