What most Christians believe is that because Adam ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, human beings were driven off from the paradise and we are living in this sinful world full of problems. So they believe that it was God’s plan to live with humans in the Garden of Eden which is the paradise for eternity but because Adam sinned now we’re living in this world and humans are cut off God’s presence.
But if you believe that there arise a lot of problems about the tree of knowledge of good and evil because if it was God’s plan to live with Adam and all the human beings in the Garden of Eden forever then why did he put the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden? Because, he’s an all knowing God. He knows what will happen in the future. So knowing Adam would eat the fruit from that tree, why did he put it there? And why did he put the snake in the Garden of Eden knowing that he will lure Eve to eat the fruit?
And to think that just because Adam ate the fruit all those plans by God to live with Adam forever, it was all ruined; it doesn’t really make sense.
So sometimes I wondered why are we living in this world? And why didn’t God just put everybody in heaven and there would be no problems. Why didn’t he just put everybody in heaven and live happily without any problems?
And when I decided to follow Jesus in 2004, I realized that only those who are holy and obedient to God, only that kind of people can enter the kingdom of God, so when I realized that I realized why this world is going on right now with all these problems and sins.
And I don’t think I thought all that up. I think God gave me the understanding about that. So today I’d like to share it with you.
So now this world is going on and this age of mankind is going on and if you understand the purpose of the age of mankind, then you will get to understand about the tree of knowledge of good and evil incident.
So this is why the age of mankind has started and we are living in this world.
So God wanted to live with beings and he wanted citizens for his kingdom. But he didn’t want beings like robots that can only do what you program to do and they don’t have their free will and they don’t have any emotions and you can’t really interact with them as in human to human. You can’t really talk to them and they can’t really understand.
So God didn’t want to live with beings like that in his kingdom but God wanted to live with citizens who are intellectually capable and who has freewill so that he can have relationship with them.
But if he created that kind of being with freewill then he knew there would be a problem. Because that kind of being can use his freewill to act wickedly and become an evil being or he can use freewill to be a good person, a righteous person.
So if he put all humans in his kingdom from the beginning then there would be a problem in his kingdom because those beings with freewill might act wickedly and the kingdom would be filled with evil.
So God first had to sort out those people before starting his kingdom. So he decided to let everyone be born in this world and he would see if those beings use their freewill to become an evil person or a righteous person.
So that’s the purpose of this age of mankind, to pick out all the righteous people from all the humans that are born.
So this is Mathew 13:47, “again the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous”
So this is the purpose of this age of mankind, to sort out all the righteous from all the wicked people. So that’s the purpose.
So if you understand that purpose of this age of mankind then you will get to understand why he put the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden. It was all carefully planned, prepared by God.
So knowing Adam would eat the fruit from the tree, God put the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden. He also put the snake in the Garden of Eden. And that kind of plan can only be done by all knowing God. Because he knew Adam would eat it from the tree, he was able to start this age of mankind that way.
So it was all planned that Adam would be driven off from the Garden of Eden to start this age of mankind.
I don’t know if you sometimes wondered why the first ever human being committed the sin and was driven off from the Garden of Eden.I wondered about that and what I now believe is that there was simply no alternative to that because if somebody a few generations down the road committed sin and driven out from the Garden of Eden then those who were born before him had to be allowed in the Garden of Eden and they would keep eating the fruit from the Tree of Life and they would live forever. Then God’s plan of sorting out all these wicked people from all the people, that plan would have been spoiled because all those people who are allowed to live in the paradise, they don’t have to go through this test to be certified to be a righteous person. So that was not God’s plan so there was no other choice than for the first human to commit sin be driven off the Garden of Eden right away. Because he wanted all the people to be tested first.
So it say here Genesis 3:22 “then the Lord God said behold the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever”
So God planned so that the first human being was driven off and he made sure no one else would keep on eating the fruit from the tree of life and live forever.
And it says here, “the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil”.
So I believe that the fruit of knowing good and evil, I don’t think it was actually a bad thing. Because it says all Adam became is like, he became like God in knowing good and evil. So knowing good and evil itself is not bad.
So what I believe is that when Adam ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he became the full fledged human being that God envisioned in the first place. Because God wanted somebody who are capable of knowing good and evil but choose good. So Adam became that kind of being when he ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
So what I believe it that before Adam ate that fruit, I think his intelligence was like a child. So you know the young kids, really young kids, they don’t understand good and evil. And if you remember, very young kids, they even play outside with no clothes on and they don’t even feel ashamed. So Adam was just like that. He didn’t have any clothes on but he didn’t feel the shame.
So I believe that there was some kind of limiter installed in Adam that limits his intellectual capacity but when he ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, that limiter was removed so that he became a full fledged human being.
So he became aware of his nakedness. Before, I’m sure he looked at Eve, he was child like so he didn’t feel any desire but when he ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge, he became like an adult. So after that he laid with Eve.
So it was all God’s plan for Adam to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil to become an adult like a full human being. But I think he planned that way to show that because knowing he would eat it from the tree, he told him not to eat it. I think he planned that way to show that beginning of all sings is disobedience to God.
So that’s the purpose of the age of mankind. We are living in this world to be tested throughout our lives and God is watching if we use out freewill to act wickedly or act righteously. God will choose only those who are righteous beings in the end.
And if you understand that purpose of the age of mankind, I told you Jesus hid “how to be born again” with a parable of vine and branches and if you understand the purpose of the age of mankind, then you will understand why he hid that information, how to be born again.
So we’re gonna continue to think about that and study about how the bible was written. I wish you blessings from the Lord.
