What if Adam and Eve Had Resisted...?

[William]

IF Adam and Eve had resisted the temptation to eat the forbidden fruit, would they have been permitted to do so eventually?

[theophile]

duplicate

[theophile]

IF Adam and Eve had resisted the temptation to eat the forbidden fruit, would they have been permitted to do so eventually?

Yes. It's no different from how we naturally rear children. Some things (including certain knowledge) are dangerous for them to know too early, but only when the time is right and they have the requisite maturity to understand and handle it. (e.g., we don't teach children about sex until they are what, 7+ years old?)

Similarly we use fear tactics (e.g., "you will surely die") to achieve desired outcomes. Like, "if you don't go to sleep, the bogeyman will come and get you."

It's all very natural and intuitive and, to your point, a requisite for our purpose in life.

[JehovahsWitness]

IF Adam and Eve had resisted the temptation to eat the forbidden fruit, would they have been permitted to do so eventually?

No. God prohibited eating from that tree on pain of death. It would be entirely contradictory to then later offer the same thing as a reward. Rather like asking if pedophilia will one day offered as a reward for not being a pedophile.




WAS THE ORIGINAL LAW A PROHIBITION ON SOMETHING THEY HAD A RIGHT TO BUT WERE SIMPLY NOT READY FOR?


No. There is no biblical basis for such a conclusion; God had said "on the day you eat from it you will surely die!". There was no time limit given on the above. Unlike sex for example ,which a child is prohibited from engaging in until he or she has the maturity to cope with it, the edenic law was absolute without any indication it was temporary.

There is no biblical precedent of God imposing the death penalty for something of which he would eventually approve of and no indication in the Edenic account that He wished eventually for Adam and Eve to eat of that particular tree*. Although God can and does occassionally change his mind regarding his judgements, he is unchangeable regarding his morality being "...the Father of the celestial lights, who does not vary or change..."(James 1:17). Eating from the tree represented rebellion against divine rulership and this could NEVER be considered right (compare Romans 13:2).

NOTE There was another tree, THE TREE OF LIFE which the disobedient couple were barred from access to; arguably this was the tree they would have been rewarded to eat from had they proved faithful

JW

To learn more please go to other posts related to...

FREE WILL , THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND BAD and .. . THE ORIGINAL SIN ,

[William]

[Replying to JehovahsWitness in post #8]

No. God prohibited eating from that tree on pain of death. It would be entirely contradictory to then later offer the same thing as a reward.

Read the OPQ again...currently you are way off track in your answer...

[JehovahsWitness]

IF Adam and Eve had resisted the temptation to eat the forbidden fruit, would they have been permitted to do so eventually?

No. God prohibited eating from that tree on pain of death. It would be entirely contradictory to then later offer the same thing as a reward.

Read the OPQ again...currently you are way off track in your answer...

If by "currently you are way off track" you mean I did not provide the answer you would like, then fair enough. If however you use the expression " way off track" to mean I did not answer the question asked, I beg to differ. I said " "No" as in "No, they would NOT have eventually been permitted to do so" which is an answer to the question asked.


Respect,


JW

[William]

IF Adam and Eve had resisted the temptation to eat the forbidden fruit, would they have been permitted to do so eventually?

I think they could have asked from God directly what is good and evil. And I believe they would have had the answer. The fruit gives the answer in painful way.

The impression re the storyline is that the knowledge of good and evil was what caused death. The assumption was that the fruit had the power to give one that knowledge, since they were warned not to eat it.

Under those circumstances, asking God to tell you something that would then cause you to die would be unrealistic.
As the story goes, it was not the fruit which caused the pair to eventual die [and not even on the same day as the God had implied]...

...it was being cut off from being able to access the fruit of life which caused the pair to eventually die.

If the pair had passed the test [as per the OPQ], there would have been no reason to prevent them further from eating the now once forbidden fruit.

[William]

It was always going to be a matter of time. Formula: Curiosity + Free Will - Respect = Sin
If Adam and Eve had God's permission, they would have forever resented God for allowing such a permission.
So it seems God allowed them to learn from their own guilt, so he (God) might be there for them.
Free Will, Marvelous stuff.

If the pair had of resisted the temptation, they would still have been using the free will.

The subject of "guilt" may be a key to why it was necessary for the God to do it the way it was done.
Innocents are less likely to survive, and the God needed humans to multiply and to subdue [tame] the wildness...

[William]

[Replying to JehovahsWitness in post #15]

Neither.

You are way off track because you have not considered the idea of reward for doing what was asked of you, which is what the OPQ was asking.

The test was done, the results were in, and the fruit of the tree was not what caused the eventual death of the pair [according to the storyline itself].

If what was once prohibited by YHWH is then allowed by YHWH, who are you to declare that YHWH is being contradictory?

Further to that, YHWH is biblically attributed as being able and willing to changing his mind about something. Another clue that you are way off track.

[William]

IF Adam and Eve had resisted the temptation to eat the forbidden fruit, would they have been permitted to do so eventually?

Yes. It's no different from how we naturally rear children. Some things (including certain knowledge) are dangerous for them to know too early, but only when the time is right and they have the requisite maturity to understand and handle it.

As the story goes, the parental figure was the voice in the garden - attributed through biblical association, to being that of YHWH.

Problematic to that is the idea of danger and the apparently safe haven of the garden. The two dangerous-to-human entities in the garden, were the God [visiting now and then] and the Serpent [temporary fixture].

(e.g., we don't teach children about sex until they are what, 7+ years old?)

And we don't allow children to have sex until they are adult enough to do so.
This in itself shows that the way nature has it, female humans can breed very early - much earlier than human laws will allow for.
Add to that the notion of a creator God, and what we see here is that the God made it that way, and humans beg to differ.

Similarly we use fear tactics (e.g., "you will surely die") to achieve desired outcomes. Like, "if you don't go to sleep, the bogeyman will come and get you."

Yes. The ripple effect of that can be rather profound, leading to theist/nontheist beliefs.
When a child actually believes the parents scare-tactic, the effects vary from personality to personality.
The bogeyman in this case, would turn out to be who?

It's all very natural and intuitive and, to your point, a requisite for our purpose in life.

I can be thankful someone is getting my point.

[JehovahsWitness]

...you have not considered the idea of reward for doing what was asked of you, which is what the OPQ was asking.

WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE REWARD FOR DOING WHAT JEHOVAH ASKED?

The Edenic command was to refrain from eating of a certain tree; the implication being then, that God was asking them "Please do not eat from this particular tree". What would be their reward? Surely not that they eat from the tree ( see above), rather that they not die. Indeed, their reward for doing what was asked of them would have been eternal life.






RELATED POSTS


Was God's original purpose that humans live forever on earth?
viewtopic.php?p=1062683#p1062683



JEHOVAH'S WITNESS

To learn more please go to other posts related to...

EVERLASTING LIFE, IMMORTALITY and ...THE PURPOSE OF LIFE