Knowing the will of God

It is not my desire to sound insensative or rude, if that is what your professor let you take from that class then you should get your money back. Basic hermenutics will blow that out of the water. that understanding comes out of a pretext rather than a context.

 

Revmitchell, best you explain what is wrong with what he presented than just make that sort of blanket comment.

In the meantime, there are some interesting things that his prof. presented. I have not thought of Adam and Eve in those terms before and it deserves some thought. What the man said is interesting. Why do you think it is so wrong?

 

Here, here. This is a "Debate" and "Discussion" forum, not an assertion forum.

Something to ponder, though, are RIGHT and WRONG necessarily the same as GOOD and EVIL?
God gave them a commandment, so they had to have some concept of what right and wrong was. They did not, however, have a concept that rebellion against God (IE against His commands) was evil.
So I would argue they had some concept of right and wrong, but were not conscious of sin until after they ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge.

The serpent planted a seed of doubt in Eve's mind about the validity of what God had commanded them.(actually, Scripture only explicitly says the commandment was given to Adam. But he must have been with Eve or nearby) Then "When the woman saw (3 things):
1) that the tree was good for food,
2)and that it was a delight to the eyes,
3)and that the tree was desirable to make one wise,
she took from its fruit and ate;and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

After that they became convicted of their sin against God. Adam and Eve were involved in an act of willful disobedience to God. Even though they did not know what Good and Evil were, they were still held accountable for that disobedience. This is of course debatable, but if God had not commanded them not to eat the fruit (if they did not know right and wrong), they would not have been guilty of sin.

I say this with the caveat that God is God, so Adam and Eve might have been able to sin without having been given any commands. Afterall God is the final authority on what is and what is not a sin. Thank God He did give them a command.

I think Ben W's comment was intended to mean that as Christians we oftentimes are quick to say something is right or wrong without consulting Scpripture and without seeking God's will. Some things that once were tradition, we now have made equal to Scripture, figuratively speaking (God's will, however, will never contradict Scripture.) An in that respect, I would agree. There are many things that are absolute sins, and some things are (dare I use the term) relative to a particular person. (IE, if God tells me to move to Swaziland and I don't, means I am sinning against God. That doesn't mean everyone outside of Swaziland is in sin for not moving there, just those whom He instructed to do so). That is why we have to seek what the will of God is for our lives.

 

Ben W; your post about God's will is a strong reminder of why we should always subject our prayers to God will. Just this very morning in prayer, after making petitioned to God, I said," Father if this request interferes with your plans for this person's life I ask you to disregard it. For it is your will I want, not my wishes". I don't know about others, but I have limited knowledge about God's will in many things.However I find that the my confidence in my prayers soars to new heights when I am certain my prayers conform to God's will.

 

I have to disagree that Adam and Eve did not have any concept of right and wrong. I think they did. I also think that they knew that disobedience (rebellion) was wrong. When it says they would then "know good and evil" I think it was referring more to the fact that they would then be personally experiencing it within themselves....good versus evil would become a part of them rather than just a concept.

But I think far too often we think of Adam and Eve as being naive little "children" who didn't really understand things.

 

I think thye had a concept too, or He wouldnt have told them not to eat of that tree.

 

Ben W said:

When Adam and Eve were created, they had no knowledge of Right and Wrong, that came when they ate of the apple and gained the knowlege of Good and Evil. . . .

People were designed to seek God's will on things, not to decide what they thought was right and wrong!

That's silly. Clearly they knew that eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil was wrong, and not doing so was right.

Apart from that one restriction, they were told they could freely eat from any tree (Gen. 2:16-17). In other words, they had no additional requirement to "seek God's will" concerning what they should eat. As long as they kept away from the one forbidden tree, it was up to them.

Moreover, neither Adam and Ever nor us get to "decide" what is right and wrong. We are told. Adam and Eve had God's revealed word, albeit very little of it, to guide their decision making. So do we. We have no need to "seek God's will" in particular decisions. His will is revealed in Scripture, and it is that which informs our activities.

 

bapmom said:

When it says they would then "know good and evil" I think it was referring more to the fact that they would then be personally experiencing it within themselves....good versus evil would become a part of them rather than just a concept.

I find it interesting that the word "knowledge" (as in the tree of knowledge of good and evil) is a form of the same word used when Adam knew Eve (Gen. 4:1). That wasn't merely recognition.

Adam and Eve didn't merely gain intellectual knowledge of what good and evil were. Having disobeyed God, they knew evil firsthand.

 

Ben W

Good point Ben. If we followed half of what everyone told us to do, we all be in the bug house. Our ONLY authority is God's word and A PERSONAL STUDY of it. The bible is truly a testament to be read. When someone from ANY RELIGION tells you, "You better do that", reply by saying,"oh yeah? I'll check that out in my bible and get back with you on that." Then if you find that what they told you is wrong, then you know they were trying to mislead you. Remember, let God be true and everyman a liar.