Taking a cue from some other blogs I’ve seen, I’m responding to a comment as another entry, since my response is so long…

If this is the same Brad I know from Stanford–Long time no see, and long time no late night discussion. I enjoyed reading this entry and the others on this page, but I wanted to bring up one aspect of the Eden story that has always puzzled me. Everything you have already said makes sense, but how do you reconcile the idea that Adam and Eve were created with an innocent nature, without knowledge of good and evil, with the fact that they are expected by their creator to make the most important decision for humankind until the coming of the Christ? To me, that has always seemed on some level to be unfair. Let me know what you think.

This is the same Brad! Long time no see indeed! I’ll email ya to catch up, but talk Eden here.

That’s a great question. It’s had me thinking and writing and talking all evening. I think it’s especially difficult to answer because it is prodding at the essential nature of reality, looking for the source and nature of human free will. You say it seems unfair on some level - I agree. But can we come up with a scheme that is fair, and still provides innocent Adam and Eve with real choice?

In the moment of decision, could innocent Eve (not knowing good and evil) have “fairly” chosen good when faced with good and evil? On the one hand, she had God’s command. On the other, a serpent (who, not unimportantly, was placed under mankind in authority), directly contradicting God.

At this point, I think it’s important to realize a couple of things. The underlying hebrew term for knowledge in “tree of knowledge of good and evil” is not mere intellectual awareness, but intimate, experiential knowledge. And evil, rather than being an independent thing, is really the lack of good. Or, put another way, separation from good - God. With God as the only ultimate standard of good, evil is defined by his absence. The tree of knowledge of good and evil therefore, was a huge gift. It allowed us to define good, and therefore evil, not by God, but by Self, and therefore to exercise either true independence, or true dependence on God. God knew it would appear good to Eve’s eyes - that is why he prepared her with the command. Her choice was therefore not as abstract as it might at first seem, thinking about her as a blank slate. She decided to define good as what “looked right in her own eyes,” rather than believe God’s word to her.

I would argue that Adam and Eve were not in a unique position - they had the same opportunity we have. They did “know” (though they had not yet experienced) good from evil. Another way to label those concepts is life and death. God told them that eating from just that one tree would lead to their death. Thus, he set up the easiest to understand world with true choice imaginable, giving them his Word that (A) was good (From any tree of the garden you may eat freely) and (B) was evil (from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die).

So, I believe the garden of Eden story is there to lay out for us what God intends for us (life pre-Fall), what opportunity we have to define what is good in our own eyes and reject what God intends for us, what results from both obedience and disobedience, and finally how God loves us enough to hold out life to us in spite of our disobedience. It’s critical to realize Adam and Eve didn’t need experiential knowledge of death to trust God’s word. God was able to create us all with free will while knowing and preparing for all our free choices - that’s what omnipotence combined with omniscience implies, though it’s unfathomable to our finite minds.

Finally, I think the notion of unfairness is the crux of this question. One definition from dictionary.com:

Not fair; marked by injustice or partiality or deception.

Essentially, was God unjust in giving them the freedom to experience death, even if he gave them the knowledge they might have used to stay protected and experiencing life to the full? Asking that question, admitting that it appears unfair, is fine. The forbidden fruit appeared good to Eve because of her finite knowledge and an active deceiver. But if you answer that question affirmatively in your heart, you are defining a standard of good independent of God, and are furthermore judging the hearts of Adam and Eve since you know they didn’t have a “fair” opportunity to avoid plunging mankind into sin. Finally, you are not believing God’s word: “He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.” (Deuteronomy 32:4).

This story, like Romans 9, ends up turning our eyes inward the more we question the justice of it all. In the end, we cannot speak for Adam, Eve, Esau, or Pharaoh. We do not know their personal experience, for that is between them and God. If we look deeper, acknowledging we can only truly judge our own personal struggle, we may cry out “Indeed, I have rejected you and decided for myself what is right - why did you make me this way!?” In this moment, all is stripped bare but the eternal struggle each of us faces not just at one finite moment, but continually, all our life. What is left before us is the same choice Adam and Eve faced: to believe that God is fair and good, meaning we should trust his Word and obey him, or to believe the serpent - our own eyes are the best standard for right and wrong. We ask a good God why he made us such that we sin. If we judge him unjust, we set ourselves higher and apart from God and choose death, since he alone is the source and sustainer of life. If we instead believe his Word and assert him as fair in spite of our own shortcomings, “he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) All he wants is our relationship, but we cannot relate to him in truth unless we acknowledge our dependence on him. I’ve asked this question in various forms so many times, and God never “answers” me, he just waits with open arms.

Not just an arbitrary plot, Eden reflects the elements of your and my daily life, and looks forward to the Word of God becoming flesh, dying that we might live if we will trust him and enter into the most fulfilling relationship possible. From the NIV study notes in my bible:

The antagonism between people and snakes is used to symbolize the outcome of the titanic struggle between God and the evil one, a struggle played out in the hearts and history of mankind. The offspring of the woman would eventually crush the serpent’s head, a promise fulfilled in Christ’s victory over Satan–a victory in which all believers will share (see Ro 16:20).

So, was it fair? Yes. Justification? God. Satisfying answer? Only if you trust him. If so, its not only satisfying, it displays the greatest truth we know: God loves us, wants a real relationship with us, and promises life overflowing if we believe him.

On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” John 7:37-38)

When I was a child, I thought the story of the Garden of Eden was kind of silly. A snake, two fruit trees, and a big father figure. It seemed arbitrary. I think today I’ve started to understand now how that story is incredibly profound and applicable today, thousands of years after it was written. I was reading on Slashdot about how it was a story meant to inhibit our natural scientific impulse, our desire to gain knowledge. After all, God told Adam and Eve that they could have their run of the garden, enjoy it, eat from all the trees - except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This tree, along with the tree of life, were situated right in the center of the garden. God tells them that if they eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they will surely die. Well, the crafty serpent comes along and contradicts God. “You will not die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you’ll see what’s really going on. You’ll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.” Eve thinks this is a good deal and she eats, and gives some to Adam, who also eats. Suddenly, they see that they are naked, so they make some lame fig leaf clothes. Then, they hear their loving creator coming, so they hide in the bushes from him (as if that’ll work).

So, of course, this Slashdot reader saw what he thought was a calculated attempt of independent thinking suppression by Religion. The moral of the story: don’t look for knowledge, just believe and the Pope/preacher/Bible will tell you what to do (or something along those lines). This was the level I probably read it at as a child, but it is a very shallow reading. An intentionally shallow reading, for it doesn’t even seek to understand the difference between “knowledge” and “knowledge of good and evil.”

It is important that the tree from which God forbid them to eat fruit was not the “tree of knowledge.” After all, throughout the Bible wisdom is regarded highly: “Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.” (Proverbs 4:7). The shallow reading of the Eden story would contradict this. (”That’s ok,” dear Slashdot might say, “the Bible is full of contradictions. Run along, I have a bush to… er, a Steven Jay Gould article to read.”)

I realized this morning that this story is an archetype for sin - a fleshing out in literal terms abstract concepts. More importantly, it is the final reduction of evil in the world. Massaging the equations of suffering and evil and all that is bad in the world, deriving the source, this is the simplest expression of What’s Wrong, and we all agree that something is.

There is a spiritual reality that is more important and indeed, more real, than the mere physical reality we can see and touch. What makes up this meaningful story behind the arbitrary story? Redemption, prayer, hope, faith, the will, mystery, adventure, love… Concepts that are difficult to nail down to A causes B, but which we “hope” are real, lest nihilism and meaninglessness rule our lives (or self-delusion and an unwillingness to think hard about such unpleasant unrealities). These are eternal themes. These are what inspire us in movies. These make up Life, not even the most complicated of chain reactions. And these are what Satan, also known as the accuser, the fallen star, the father of lies… these are what he wants to destroy. He wanted to be God and thought he could, and this ugly jealousy and bitterness and false pride could not be tolerated in God’s presence, and he was thrown out.

And this brings us to our story once again. God had created a wonderful world for us, and given us the freedom to enjoy it. He was the source of our Life. He made us partners not only in enjoying creation, but in creation itself, allowing Adam to name all the animals. (That’s a whole nother symbolic journey). There was no sin.

God is Love. This is repeated throughout the Bible, and the Bible, if taken as a whole, reads as a love letter from God to his people. The spiritual reality includes real love. Materialism/atheism states that this is all there is, and, since your consciousness is the only reality, you are the center of the universe. This is implicit, not explicit. And this was the lie of the serpent, the most crafty. (This is Satan in disguise, if you weren’t sure). This is the alternative view: “You don’t need God. Once you eat from that tree God told you not to eat from, you’ll know everything, including good and evil.” That was a lie. It was disguised, as Satan always is (another verse, much later, describes him as masquerading as an angel of light). There was some element of truth to it, but ultimately it was truth compromised. For God did not lie. It was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Only they already knew Good. They had a relationship with Good. God is good. Eating from that tree gave them the knowledge of Evil. And with that, an alternate way at looking at creation. Where before they saw Life, Love, and God’s creation, now they could see what that would look like without Good, without God. And it looked like a very complicated, but explainable chain reaction. And they saw the Second Law of Thermodynamics. They saw death. If God is Good, and the source of all Life and Truth, Satan is Evil, and the source of all Death and Untruth. God creates. Satan destroys.

And where does that leave us today, thousands of years after this (literal, symbolic, take your pick, I don’t claim to know for sure) story took place? I am not advocating renouncing science and praying for bread. God encourages us to seek knowledge, but knowledge without life is, well, dead. Knowledge with life is what we were meant for. We chose to go our own way, but God didn’t abandon us to entropy. We chose to believe that we could understand the universe on our own. We chose (and choose, myself included) every day to believe that lie. What is the logical consequence of the lie that the universe just is, and we can do without God? Death, just like God said. The second law of thermodynamics. And we can continue to believe it, with the implication that we can never reach the infinity we strive for, we can only try our best. But God didn’t abandon us. Though we decided to head out into exploration of Death, he followed us, spoke to us, loved us. And in Jesus, he entered this entropic world in physical form, God in Man, lived the perfection that all politics and philosophy try to capture, and we killed him. We killed God because he exposed our finiteness. He exposed the great lie that we can be self-sufficient and we killed him for it. Death is the inevitable consequence of sin. Separation from God is, of course, the consequence of choosing to separate from him! And without God, the only source of Life, the universe is mere matter subject to the second law of thermodynamics. We can believe that lie and God will allow us to. This is why I believe that “hell” is death, the end result of entropy. If you read “The Great Divorce,” by C.S. Lewis, he captures this beautifully in a story, where people who have rejected God, over the course of infinite time, become more and more isolated, and wish for more and more isolation.

But God is Good, God is Love. And in Jesus, he defeated death when he rose again to Life! You hear a lot about the cross in Christianity, a lot about Jesus dying in our place, and that is true. But it was his resurrection that is the real one ray of perfect hope in this universe. He defeated Death, and when we believe and surrender to Him, though we are tainted by the choice to know Death, he lives through us and creates real Life, the kind that we hope is true, but fear (thanks to the accuser) is just an illusion. Real Love, real Hope, real Faith, real Redemption, real Adventure. This is the miracle of the resurrection, and the fullness of true Christianity. Following the Christ to life.

One final note. Even in this, I see my attempt to wrap everything up in a manageable essay. I’ve tried to do this for years. If my goal in distilling my faith into an essay is to create something I can rely on, I am believing the original lie, that I can be self-sufficient. I can never capture infinity in an essay. The life of God will always elude definition, for it is not finite. There will always be a way to look at any explanation or story through eyes of faith or through the eyes of the serpent. Satan doesn’t believe in this great story; he has chosen not to. If this story were told to him, he would say “Well, God rigged it from the beginning! It really is just a big chain reaction, like I said, you’ve just added a layer of indirection! God caused me to reject him, and I inevitably went to destroy his creation, and Eve inevitably was weak enough to believe me… With or without God, I win.” The choice is always there. Do you want to “win,” or do you want Life? In order to choose the latter, you must believe he exists. And once you do, you begin to wake up to the battle going on around us: the lie of the self-centered universe vs. the life of the Christ centered one. Mormonism will promise life, but you have to work for it. Islam as well (with different rules). Buddhism will tell you that life and death are an illusion. Only Christ offers life, and the only requirement is implicit: to believe him.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
John 10:10

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”

How I relate to that! This scenario is so recognizable when I look back on longterm and shortterm patterns in my life. It begins with my rebellion against God’s best for me. With me pursuing something which might be ok in moderation, or at another time or place, etc… But I know somewhere deep down that it’s not what God wants for me then. And when things go wrong, I get downcast and angry, and certainly don’t feel like prayer. Actually, things don’t even need to go wrong. Even knowing that I’m rebelling against God, with things going outwardly fine, yields frustration and the inability to enjoy my day.

Something God has been impressing upon me is the absolute importance of daily time with Him. And making that time a priority. That doesn’t mean it has to be long everyday, or that an appointment can’t reshuffle things, or that I have to write an entry here (which takes quite a while). But in the morning, I sometimes struggle between clicking on the news and stock ticker, and opening the Bible. In my mind, I think I rationalize: “What’s new, what happened while I was asleep? The news and stocks will be different, whereas the Bible has been written for two thousand years…” But the issue is priority. Another person could probably check the news first and then change gears. But I know for me, I need to come to God first - for practical reasons (I get easily distracted), and for symbolic reasons (going to God first timewise seems to put Him first in my heart that day).

Yesterday, that little compromise made for a bad day at work. With a tiny twinge of guilt, I looked at Yahoo news (just for a second!). But what’s this, shorting bond funds is a hedge against rising interest rates? That’s interesting! And so it goes, two hours later I need to rush off to work.

In my last entry, I noticed that Jesus answered the rich man by stating something obvious. Nothing is good in itself except God. All sin derives from believing the opposite in one way or another. Wanting what is good is not a problem. The problem is, we don’t know what is good. Name one person who could orchestrate his own life for ultimate good, let alone everyone’s lives. So if we look for our own good, that’s sin. Jesus tells us what we should do instead: “If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.” And God to Cain: “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?” We should do what God tells us to do, not what we feel like doing!

This is all obvious, but I think it’s interesting how the Bible ebbs and flows and remains self-consistent and immensely applicable the more it is examined. And a continual reminder of “basic” truth is one goal for this blog. The other main goal is growth in the only things that make obeying God possible: belief in and relationship with Him. And this trinity — obedience, faith, and love — are what make life worthwhile. I wonder if hope and obedience are closely related somehow given 1 Corinthians 13:13… Ah well, another time…