The Fall of Human

Why Didn’t God Prevent The Fall?

Q. Do you have an article that justifies God ‘allowing’ Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, rather than Him stepping in and stopping them, thus preventing the fall. Another person is trying to use the fact that as ~’God didn’t prevent it, then He must not exist, because according to the way He describes Himself in the Bible, He would have stopped them.’ So the person in reference concludes God doesn’t exist, because he says God doesn’t act the way He says He would.

A. God commanded Adam and Eve to leave one tree alone and they disobeyed. This shows three things. 1) that obedience to God is voluntary, 2) that disobedience brings consequences, and 3) God loves us enough to pay the penalty for our disobedience if we’ll let Him.

If God wanted to prevent sin, then He would have either destroyed Satan before Adam and Eve ever came along or not given them the power of choice. His goal was never to prevent it, but to show His love for us by redeeming us from it. Asserting the claim that because God didn’t prevent Adam and Eve from sinning then He must not exist is like saying that if our children ever disobey us, then we don’t exist.

Don’t Eat The Apple!

Q. I have a question, that has been on my mind for quite some time. Since God knows all, he knew Adam and Eve would not stay away from the tree of knowledge and that they would eat from it even though God told them not to. So why did he put the tree there in the first place? I don’t mean to be disrespectful toward God or even question what he does, because I believe he knows exactly what he is doing. I just wonder about things like this.

Thank you very much for all that you do.

A. God gave Adam and Eve thousands of square miles of beautiful park land with an abundance of fruit and vegetables for food. They could go anywhere and do anything without fear. He gave them only one rule. Don’t eat the fruit of one tree among the thousands. Sure He knew they would disobey, but what good is the freedom of choice if there are no bad choices? What good is obedience if there’s no possibility of disobedience? Where’s the benefit of doing good if evil is not an option? To make Adam and Eve truly autonomous there had to be alternatives that included both right and wrong.

Who’s In Charge Here? Follow Up

Q. Jack, thank you so much for your speedy response! That is pretty much what I told my parents…that God gave us free will and wants us to CHOOSE to love and obey Him, rather than FORCE us to.

Just something else to be clear about…this is something my mother asks me all the time and it stumps me, as I am fairly new to all of this (studying the Bible). She says that since the Bible says God created us in His image and we are sinners, that must mean God is a sinner too (I feel terrible even writing that because I know God is perfect and without sin). Again, many thanks!

A. Actually we’re not created in God’s image. Only Adam and Eve were, and when they sinned they became different from God. That’s what it means to be fallen. All the rest of us are created in Adam’s fallen image (Genesis 5:1-3) God sent His only Son to die for us so that we could be conformed to His image (Romans 8:29) but it won’t happen till we die and then it’ll only happen for believers.

Why Did God Do This?

Q. God has created deaf, dumb, blind, crippled, maimed, spastic etc. Why? I can not understand, why he created these people, what is the real message behind this creation and what does God want from us? What is the logic behind this whole thing?

Could you please explain why war, sickness pain and misery?

A. You’re overlooking one very important detail, and that is that this world is in a fallen state, infested with sin, and under the control of the devil (1 John 5:19). Genesis 5:1-3 says that God created Adam and Eve in his own likeness, but then after the fall Adam had a son in his own likeness, which by then was fallen and sinful. It’s been that way ever since. God never created anything that wasn’t perfect. It’s Satan’s manipulation of man’s sinfulness that’s responsible for all the war, sickness, pain and misery in the world.

One day soon, God will take us out of the world and into His Kingdom and then you’ll see two things, first that God’s kingdom is prefect, just like its always been, and second that when he’s left alone with Satan man’s world will quickly get even worse than it is now.

Website: www.gracethrufaith.com