And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Genesis 1:31.
God called His creation good. Adam and Eve were created in a state of innocence. And if this be the case, why did they sin?
The WCF reads:
God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy council of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass. Chapter 3, section 1.
And we also know God does not tempt anyone with evil, Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. James 1:13.
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 1 John 1:5.
Now Adam and Eve had no reason or motive to sin. Meaning they had absolutely no reason to sin. Adam and Eve were declared good, and if that be the case their inclinations were only good, they had no motive whatsoever. If they didn't have a complete desire to obey God and please Him, He wouldn't have called them good.
They simply did not have the means to sin because they didn't have a motive.
This is a serious problem that many theologians have (are dealing with) dealt with. Which is the problem of evil.
Thoughts?
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That little word called 'Temptation' or 'Beguilement', brought to man by way of a fallen guardian cherubim who too exercised his freedom to choose, wrongly. God endowed all His creation with freewill. Clearly, freedom to choose was given in the Garden of Eden to man. Adam and Eve were not created with the knowledge of evil along with the good that they already knew. But I suppose that old cliche is true' you don't know what you got until it's gone" rings true. I mean that Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil and all, really benched us all. when the captain-star player of the team gets put on the bench the whole team gets penalized. The whole team feels the effects.
It wasn't that, that tree had a knowledge per-say but it represented a boundary, that if crossed has a penalty. For good Adam and Eve already knew in the act of obedience. Crossing the boundary, now they knew both. But that is freewill. Crossing that boundary and eating of which God said not to shows God gave us freedom of choice.
Genesis 2:
16
And the LORD God commanded him, “You may eat freely from every tree of the garden, 17but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”…
God created satan, but it is not that cut and dry. This is why. Clearly, God created the angels in His goodness. However, He imbued them (unlike Adam and Eve in the beginning), with the knowledge of good and evil. The heavenly angels have freewill to choose. It became desirable to Lucifer to serve himself. So, since God is the measure by which to measure what is good and pleasing and what is not, He called Lucifer's actions of self-governance- evil! Therefore, by calling Lucifer evil God made evil, because He is the measure of it-determines it. He gave it a name-satan (betrayer of God) and threw it out.
For God decides what is evil and what is good, He makes evil by choice and measure of His creation's actions through their freedom of choice. God, desiring all to choose good, He knows they will choose what they will. Since no one made Lucifer sin there is no salvation for him. He did not do what was innate to him but what was knowledgeable to him. and it felt good to him. Hence, why it feels good to serve self and why so many do it. God doesn't call it temptation for nothing to us humans.
Ezekiel 28:
‘You were the seal of perfection,
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
13You were in Eden,
the garden of God.
Every kind of precious stone adorned you:
ruby, topaz, and diamond,
beryl, onyx, and jasper,
sapphire, turquoise, and emerald.
Your mountings and settings were crafted in gold,
prepared on the day of your creation.
14You were anointed as a guardian cherub,
for I had ordained you.
You were on the holy mountain of God;
you walked among the fiery stones.
15From the day you were created
you were blameless in your ways—
until wickedness was found in you.
16By the vastness of your trade,
you were filled with violence, and you sinned.
So I drove you in disgrace
from the mountain of God,
and I banished you, O guardian cherub,
from among the fiery stones.
17Your heart grew proud of your beauty;
you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor;
so I cast you to the earth;
Isaiah 45: I form light and create darkness, I make success and create disaster; I, Yahweh, do all these things.”. I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil. I am Jehovah, that doeth all these things. For he formed light, and he created darkness, he made peace, and he created evil.
If God did not call Lucifer evil, if He did not make him the epitome of it, then there would be no standard. Evil is only known to be as such because God says what is good and what is evil. The tree actually held no knowledge in and of itself as I said. It represented a boundary and choice. If you cross the line and disobey God's command, you open yourself up to the knowledge of evil. For good Adam and Eve already knew by way of obedience. The brain, therefore, after the fall of Adam and eve- becomes like a Tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
We see the saga play out concerning fallen man's dilemmas throughout the record of the scriptures and the history of all cultures. However, God chose a group of people and called them elect to show His perspective. We are given problems by the devil, our fallen flesh and the world- as men of the fallen nature- build. All the solutions are given by God so forth and so on till the end when the curse is no more. By faith we master the flesh and with Christ -in the renewal of the mind we possess the Tree of Life within.
