2/2/2025 - Choosing Wisely: Lessons from the Garden of Eden
Summary: In the story of Adam and Eve from the Bible, God created the first man, Adam, from dust and placed him in a beautiful garden known as the Garden of Eden. To keep Adam company, God created a woman named Eve from one of Adam's ribs. They were happy in the garden, but they had one important rule: they could eat from any tree except for the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Unfortunately, they disobeyed this rule and ate from the forbidden tree.
- Adam and Eve were the first people created by God.
- The Garden of Eden was a special and beautiful place.
- Adam and Eve were instructed not to eat the fruit from one specific tree.
- The story of Adam and Eve reminds us to make wise choices and consider the consequences of our actions.
- (Noah): How did God, Adam, and Eve communicate? Was it just God’s voice from the sky, or did God appear in human form before they sinned?
- (Jordan): Would we still exist if Adam and Eve had never sinned?
- (Ava): How did God create our skin and organs from mud?
- (Audrey): If other humans existed besides Adam and Eve’s lineage, how did God address the sins of those non-chosen people?
- (Alexis): Were Adam and Eve cavemen?
- (Wesley): Were people in Adam and Eve’s time more wicked before Jesus' arrival? Were they more evil than people today?
Question 1 (Noah): How did God, Adam, and Eve communicate? Was it just God’s voice from the sky, or did God appear in human form before they sinned?
ReplyDeleteThat is a great question Noah! Language is one of the greatest invention! Animals communicate, through a system of sounds, but only humans have sophisticated alphabets and a system of detail communication and written code. We don't know how language was created but clearly it was there from the very beginning when God created Adam and Eve as fully adults.
When Adam and Eve was first created, God communicated to them through a language which they already knew. God appeared to Adam and Eve in a human form. Some theologians have even speculated that it was the pre-incarnated Jesus, but that may be going too far. Genesis 3:8 says, "Then the man and the wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day..." So clearly, God did communicate to Adam and Eve, face to face, in a way that they could relate to God and understand him.
Question 2 (Jordan): Would we still exist if Adam and Eve had never sinned?
ReplyDeleteThat's a great question Jordan. I can't say for sure that we would exist, as life is ultimately up to God's sovereign choice, but I can say for certain that had we existed and Adam and Eve did not sin, our world would be much different... no more greed, hated, conflict, war, etc. And there would be no need for God to send Jesus Christ into the world!
Question 3 (Ava): How did God create our skin and organs from mud?
ReplyDeleteGreat question Ava! The Bible doesn't say "how" God created our skins and organs from the dust of the ground (see Genesis 2:7). Many of the "how" questions about how God created the universe and the many beautiful and wonderful things in it, is something that God wants us to discover as we explore and study the world God has made.
This is the way many early founding members of science (Galileo, Kepler, Bacon,Boyle, Newton, etc. studied the nature world. They saw the world as orderly and intelligible because God created us with a mind capable of understand it.
But this much is certain, human beings and all animal life, turns to the dust of the ground when it decays after death. So when the Bible says that human beings are "dust" that is true, that is what we are composed of; that's what we have in common with the animals. Both are made from the "dust". But it is the image of God that makes humans distinct from the animals and special in the sight of God. The image of God is not physical or material, but spiritual and moral.
Question 4 (Audrey): If other humans existed besides Adam and Eve’s lineage, how did God address the sins of those non-chosen people?
ReplyDeleteGood question Audrey. I think there are two questions here? Were there other human beings alongside Adam and Eve not connected to them, and how did God deal with their sins.
According to the Bible and specifically, Genesis 4, all humanity is connected biologically with Adam and Eve. Since Adam lived til he was 930 years (Gen 5:5), one can imagine that many children could have been born to him. But in the end, we must admit that we can't know for sure. The early period of human civilization is shroud in mystery (we just don't know), even with biblical revelation... as the Bible is not concern with the detail of this early period, but only as it serves its function to advance the historical redemptive plan of God's salvation. The most important verse in Genesis 4 is the last verse, verse 26, where it says, "At that time men began to call on the name of the Lord."
In other words, since the Fall of man, there has been a spiraling downward of the human race, farther departing from God and going about their own way. It was not until Enosh that sinful men started to seek God!
How did God deal with sinful man's rebellion against God. Judgment was intermingled with great mercy. God was patient and longsuffering. But sin was punished especially through death. See the genealogy of Genesis chapter 5 (... and he died).
Question 5 (Alexis): Were Adam and Eve cavemen?
ReplyDeleteThat's a great question Alexis! This question has the influence of the current popular view of our society that human beings are the product of a blind and random process of Darwinian evolution.
Many secular scientists, including some Christian scientists, under the guise of "science" has often "speculated" based on incomplete evidence that some hominids evolved some 100,000-200,000 years ago and became the ancestral root of the human race or homo sapiens.
I suppose that in theory (scientifically), it is possible (that is, we have to be open to the possibility) that Adam and Eve could have been a "caveman". Once again, the Bible is focus on the reality that Adam and Eve had perfect harmony with God until sin entered the world and that they were created in God's image which makes them unique from the animals around them. That's should be our focus!
Question 6 (Wesley): Were people in Adam and Eve’s time more wicked before Jesus' arrival? Were they more evil than people today?
ReplyDeleteThat's a great question Wesley!! The world is not getting better and human beings are not evolving into a "better" version of themselves. I wish that was true. Human being, at least in terms of human nature, has not changed since Adam and Eve.
As much as we like to think that with better education and living conditions that human beings have learned from their past mistakes, as much as I would like to believe that, such thinking would be a big mistake in itself! The Bible's message is clear, sin has entered the world through Adam and it has polluted the entire human race. If you think that the world is getting better and better, such thinking stands in opposition to the core teachings of the Bible. According to the Bible, the world is not getting better and better but will progressively get worse and worse, until God must send Jesus Christ back to this earth.
So, Wesley, your question is a very important question and the answer is equally important. NO, the world was not more wicked before the time of Jesus. And no the world today is not more wicked. The world today may seem more wicked only because people have more access and freedom to living out their sinful nature. But in terms of our "nature", nothing has changed since the beginning of the fall of Adam and Eve.