by Roberta Brown

Created on: August 17, 2008   Last Updated: September 07, 2008

Q1) The first series of questions were: "Why did God put the tree in the garden if he knew that Adam and Eve were going to eat from it? He knows all and sees all in the past and future - was he trying to trip us up?" as written in Article 1.

There are three ways to find out how God thinks. One is through looking at his works, or his creation. One is through what has been established to be his Word, the Bible. And one is through his holy spirit. Looking at all three of these will lead to a clear understanding to the issue that you raised.

Please consider the human eye. With it we can sense images and deliver them to the brain for interpretation. But the human possessing it can disable the eye by closing the eyelids. The healthy ear isn't so easily disabled, only unless there is a soundproof barrier between the sound and the ear, the human will hear it.

If a strong man is able to break his companion's arm, does that mean that he has to do it? He can choose not to, because he wants to be a peaceful man. His ability to do something does not dictate that he does it all of the time.

Similarly, God can choose not to exercise an ability if doing so is not in harmony with his will. He is certainly capable of foreseeing the future and foreordaining whether or not his human creation will obey or disobey him, but part of his gift to us of free will and free choice is to refrain from doing it all of the time.

In harmony with this reasoning, a lot of Bible accounts would make no sense if he did not, and does not, so refrain. Please consider in your Bible Deuteronomy 30:19, Matthew 23:37 and Revelation 22:17. Whether Adam and Eve, or any of us, does right or wrong is entirely our choice, God does not interfere with our making that choice, except that he wants us to choose to do good, to "choose life," and he lets us know that repeatedly.

When Adam and Eve sinned, God's reaction was to announce and put in place an arrangement, by means of a "seed" that will make possible the salvation of those of humankind who will choose to do right, as is written in Genesis 3:15 That seed turned out to be Jesus Christ, as is revealed in Galatians 3:16.

The third revealer of God's thinking makes it possible to clearly see the truth that God is Love, and that because of it he is fully worthy of being trusted, of being righteous, and of being fair with his creation. We have to, as humans, pray to our Creator through his Son Jesus and ask him to provide his holy spirit to us, which can reveal all of

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