NO!... Then that would make God the cause of Adams sin... I have been watching the other discussion and to me if Adam sinned when God told him not to, then God must be blamed for Adams sin... But instead of giving you my opinion lets go to scripture, for the answer... Don't worry I have thick skin and I know what has gone on before and I agree with timtofly on post #279 and I will borrow what Austin said on post #280... So who is the evil tempter?... This Christian blames, Adam, who, through his wife Eve, listened to Satan!... Brother Glen
James 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
The first we agree on?
I barely got to the halfway point when it was locked.
You have the right idea, but to add to that, more from Romans 5:
"(For until the law
sin was in the world: but sin is
not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come."
God did not ordain nor decree sin. Only as creator is God an originator or author of sin, because sin was the resulting experience of Adam's disobedience. In fact Adam's disobedience was not sin. Adam did disobey one law and one law only. But until that first law was disobeyed, sin was not in the world. In fact Adam and Eve had to leave Paradise, so they could "enjoy" their new found experience of sin. Sin was now in the world, but not in Paradise.
So sin did not even enter the Garden. What entered was death. Because Adam indeed physically died. He went from a permanent incorruptible physical body to a sin nature corruptible physical body. The dead body was what cannot enter Paradise.
Also sin is
only imputed if a law exists. But not in Adam's case:
"Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even
over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come."
So only Adam could disobey without sin in the world. Now Adam's offspring could only sin, because they have Adam's dead flesh, sin nature. But sin can only be imputed if there is a law to break. Cain did not break a law in killing Abel. God never specifically said what Cain could or could not do. But that is a different issue, even though related. Cain could not remain in God's presence (Paradise). Cain was not killed, and did not even die, like Adam and Eve were.
So God knew the result of Adam's choice, and even knew when it would happen.
James is only dealing with a post Cross point of view. Eve was tempted, not Adam. Even if Adam had no knowledge of sin and death. Adam has knowledge of obedience and free will choice, even if he did not have a doctrinal statement to live by. Scripture
never claims Adam was
ever enticed by Satan’s pro stance of new knowledge gained. I doubt Eve experienced anything after she ate. She was not given the command, Adam was.
Either way it is speculation to claim Adam disobeyed if he felt sorry for Eve, or if he was curious that she gained nothing nor changed in any way. All we have is:
"she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and
he did eat."
It never says what happened to Eve after she ate. We only move to the next verse after Adam ate. Paul says Adam brought sin into the world. Paul did not say Eve brought sin into the world.
We are not even told how long they enjoyed each other's company prior to Adam eating in disobedience to God. I don't see any where that Adam was tempted one way or the other.
"And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me,
she gave me of the tree, and
I did eat."
Nothing to work with whatsoever unless we start speculating.
But to the main point of why free will is not responsible for sin, and neither is God, by reason of decree. It was not decreed, but left to Adam's free will. Adam had free will and was the keeper of the tree that would cause sin to enter, if Adam ate. But Adam had no knowledge of sin. Adam only obeyed God to avoid death, and Adam probably had no clue what death was. Not even Satan knew. I am sure that "death" was the driving factor in Satan's reasoning to even tempt Eve. Satan wanted to know what death was, and would not stop until he had solved that mystery. Obviously Satan knew what rebellion and disobedience was, but this death sentence given to Adam was driving him crazy to figure out.
So if you want a first cause it would be Satan's desire to know what death is. Because even James is spot on that the end is always death. But until Satan could get Adam to eat, no one knew what death was. Except of course God. But James was writing after he already knew what death was. Not only did God place this knowledge under Adam's direct care, but God gave Satan the ability to think and reason and test the boundary law of God's creation. Satan was free to convince any and all creation to question God. Still not a decree, nor ordinanation. God did not
need creation to test creation. Yet at the same time God did create into the fabric of creation such test, that would allow evil.
The only logical conclusion is that God is a scientist. God did create us in His image. Satan was the test subject #1 who would be the central point of the son's of God scientific observations. Yet in our sinful condition it seems Satan is the observer and we are his test subjects. Satan had a lot of time and a lot of time to think without acting. Now he is at the point of too much activity and no thinking.
