Why did God punish Adam and Eve for doing something he already knew they were going to do?

Question

God put that tree in the garden and told them not to eat from it. God knows everything, so he clearly knew that they would eat from it and see that they were naked. yet, God gets mad at them for doing something he already knew they were going to do. so why would he allow that tree in the garden in the first place? "free will" "to test them"? why would God need to test them if he already knew what was going to happen? was God setting up "the fall" the entire time? hmmmm

Answer 1

Not only did 'god' know it would happen, but he also set it up....why would he create a serpent to test them in the first place. Why place a tree they couldn't eat in 'paradise'. Why try to 'teach them a lesson' when they had just arrived on the planet and had absolutely NO IDEA about temptation, cause and effect, etc. They were like 2 year olds being told about the candy dish, then being told they couldn't have any candy, then being left alone with the candy dish. Further, read the bible....when they are 'hiding' from god after they eat the fruit, 'god' can't find them. Why would any god be unable to find his creation in eden?

This is all presuming you take any of this as more than a fairey tale.

Answer 2

Imagine a school teacher teaching the same kids for 10 years from grade 1 to grade 10. Imagine that teacher making the final exam for those kids now in grade 10. Before he gave the exam he wrote his predictions & gave it to one of his colleague. In it he mentioned which student would easily answered which question & which student would fail to answer which questions. After he passed the exam, it might be very possible that his predictions were true at least for the most part.



But when God test his creatures & make his predictions, he’s 100% correct. Not that he forced them to do what makes him angry. He’s just giving them the choice to make. It won’t be fair if he judged them without giving them any choice. So he’s giving the choice & testing them. Regardless of his accurate predictions.

Answer 3

Well, when a police officer knows that someone is doing drugs, that doesn't mean he can right away punish the person. (s)he has to actually see it go down!



Which is still a bad analogy, considering that God knew ahead of time and had the proof because He knows everything!



Well, in Islam we have the view that they did indeed get in trouble, but that they were forgiven because they repented. And all of mankind is not cursed because of their wrongdoings(as many Christians seem to believe.)

Answer 4

If God wanted us all to be perfect and never do anything wrong then why are we all still here? Why hasn't he just wiped us all out.



He allows us to have free will, and gives us forgiveness...remember that is what Jesus died for, our sins. Yes God may already have our lifes mapped out before we do, but he has us do these times and trials to learn the importance of life, and how we should appreciate the things in our lifes everyday and not take anything he has ever given us for granted. And truthfully too many of us do not follow that.

Answer 5

For the same reason that today's parents give their kids cell phones, cars date nights an allowance and so on. You know they will abuse all of these things but you have to trust they will learn and respect your wishes without going too far. It is to test their character before bigger decisions become necessary. You will have to punish them because we humans are hard headed. So when a child abuses a cell phone who is to blame the child or the parent who brought the cell phone into the house ?

Answer 6

It may seem unfair to you and i'm not going to try to speculate on how gods mind works because i'm sure its way beyond comprehension of any of us. First off he knows everything that's going to happen "I am the alpha and the Omega, I am the beginning and the end" He knows everything that's going to happen. Though he knew that they were going to eat from the tree that he told them not to they still had a choice.

Answer 7

The backyard of Eden change into no longer heaven. The backyard of Eden change into on the earth. in case you've been God and also you had purely created 2 human beings, would you want them to worship you as a results of the indisputable fact that they had no different determination, or because they chosen to worship you.? regardless of your answer, God needed guy to worship and obey Him because he had to. That change into God's determination.. he's God and He can do what ever He needs. the actual shown reality that you, making use of your human ideas, won't be able to understand the tips of God, ought to no longer be a marvel to you. The snake change into there to tempt them. They made a decision. They were given free will, they used it. we are all victims of the options we make in existence, some good, some undesirable. Why change into devil interior one among those the snake, present day? i do not recognize, yet possibly God had to attempt guy, so as that guy would keep in mind that he change into no longer infallible. It change right into a problematic lesson to benefit, besides the indisputable fact that it is the way we practice our youthful babies, because we like them. We take something remote from them and that way, they locate elementary approaches to act. God Bless.

Answer 8

Because He is GOD.

What makes Him God is that His ways are beyond finding out.

I thing the more you think about issues like this,the more confused you become about God.



Just know that He is God, full of mysteries.

Your little brain can not understand His ways.

Just believe He exist and obey His Commands FOOLISHLY.



Only then will His spirit reveal His ways to you.



YOU ARE NOT FAR AWAY FROM THE KINGDOM OF GOD



God LOVES you.

Cheers.



Chaplain Yacim.S.

[e-mail]

Answer 9

Free choice is one thing that separates man from the rest of the animal world.

Since man was made in the image of God, they were given free choice as part of the package.

So maybe God turned His back on the situation (didn't intercede) to see what choice man would make.

Doesn't really answer the question, though. I suppose a lot of people wonder the same thing.

Answer 10

God dint create us perfect like angels couse if we where we whasnt here .. we are create to make our choice's and to make mistakes ore make do good things in live . we have the choice to lisen to god ore not.

we are able to make our responsebitlltys...

And yes he knew from b4 adam and eve will eated from the forbided three but god whana make them the choice and take there one responsebitlly for that, to do that . and let them see that the where wrong. the hade the chance.. God whants us to think from our self , to be able to think '' free'' for our selfs . this live is nothing more than a test ...

And even we are able to think free. God knows always better.

And it's our resonsebillty if God will panish us ore not.

Answer 11

What Lisa said.



Yeah, the story makes no sense without "the fall". If A&E hadn't pinched the fruit they'd presumably still be frollicing in the Garden all alone -- they didn't have the ability to make babies till they had the knowledge. It'd be a real short story.

Answer 12

I think it was to test them to see if they were going to be true to God.



I know he knows everything but it was satan who "pushed" them into eatting it... they could have said no.



But hey, i cant blame them for everything because what if we were adam and eve? im sure anyone in that position would have eatten the fruit off the tree...

Answer 13

He didn't know they were going to do it, but he was certainly prepared for every contingency. He certainly knew what Satan had in his heart to do. The tree was a test of whether they would observe his laws or not and nothing more. You can't know something is complete until you test it, just like proving iron.

Answer 14

because if He had restricted them from doing it, He would not have been a God who loves and liberates... and adam and eve would not be people but programs. forced love is a contradictory term, and one cannot have the option to love unless the choice to not love is given. recall God said for your SAKE the earth and ground is cursed. the worst thing for mankind would have been for God to look at sin and say, its ok... nothing wrong. He is HOLY.





through all of this God was able to be both the justified and the Justifier. we gain more in Christ (God's righteousness) than we ever lost in adam (our righteousness). through the blood of Jesus the lowly sinner is elevated above every angel and made next of kin to God Himself. God was not giving advice when He said in the day you eat thereof surely you will die. of course they had no knowledge of sin and death but only God's word to obey. the test was the same then as it is today, faith (because it is impossible to serve God without it)

Answer 15

When has the ancient Hebrews ever had a concept of Satan. Satan is something Christians made up when they couldn't understand why the Hebrews believed their God Yahweh was evil and good.

Answer 16

good question, but he warned them first. Life is a test and that goes to show that there is a consequence for everything u do.

Answer 17

God may have known that they were going to choose what they choose (it's called predestination nowadays), but they still had to choose it. (free will) God wants us to love him because we want to, not because that is the only option he gives us. God does not force us to do things like a puppeteer. We are like Pinocchio, and as for me, I want to be a real boy.

Answer 18

I think the real question is, Why did God get mad at them for eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad? Before eating the fruit, they didn't have the knowledge of good and bad....so how did they know it was bad to disobey God? Think about it....

Answer 19

According to the story I read in Genesis, God came back to the garden and was shocked that they had done this. What have you done God shockingly asked?

Answer 20

How do you know God already knew? God may have decided not to know what they would do. God,being God can will anything. God can use his powers selectively.

Answer 21

it's called free will, he wanted to see what they would do



sure he knew they would do it, but imagine if the tree had never been put there...we'd be living in such a boring world!!!

Answer 22

honestly i have pondered questions like this my whole life and even recently but what i have come to accept is that God can not be deciphered. He can not be understood and analyzed by us humans. There are millions of questions that we could ask our entire lifetime and drive ourselves crazy! This is satans work. God is our Father, He loves us eternally and wants us to practice stronger self-will. If you ask questions there are no answers to, you will go insane

Answer 23

God knows there are two paths in life: righteous or sinful. Therefore he knew both results. It was up to Adam and Eve to choose what they wanted in life and they did.

Answer 24

GOOD QUESTION !! GOD WARNED THEM "NOT TO EAT OF THIS TREE", GIVING THEM FREE WILL, AND WHEN THEY DISOBEYED HIM ( AFTER ALL HE HAD GIVEN THEM ) HE HAD TO PUNISH THEM !! BUT...HE SENT HIS SON TO DIE FOR US MAKING THE GROUND FOR GOOD AND EVIL EVEN. SATAN IS ALIVE DEAR AND HE WAS GIVEN THIS RIGHT BY GOD. OUR JOB IS TO BYPASS HIM AND GET TO HEAVEN FOR OUR REWARDS FOR DEALING WITH HIM !!! I;M SURE GOD DIDN'T HAVE "ENTRAPMENT" IN MIND WHEN HE TOLD THEM NOT TO EAT FROM THE TREE...HE GAVE THEM OTHER TREES TO EAT FROM !! I HOPE I HAVE GIVEN YOU A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF OUR SAVIOR !! GOD BLESS YOU GIRL !!!

Answer 25

If god knows everything we will ever do, his punishment is cruel, not just.



You are right. Star for you!

Answer 26

a very interesting point of view... I had never thought of that. I have no clue, and I don't think we will ever know in this lifetime... but either way, good question. Makes me think :)

Answer 27

It was a beatiful tree and good test; they failed. Now you have yours and it seems you are NOT doing well.

Answer 28

Hey God told them what would happen if they ate of the fruit.

Answer 29

A dog chasing his tail comes to mind......



POWEREDb: Then quit evangelizing to people and let them be people, not programs!

Answer 30

it never happened. it's all out of a book.

i bet disney will turn it into a movie!

Answer 31

he didnt set up their choice

God does know what we will choose, but the choice is still real

Answer 32

Exactly. It's amazing how many people can't understand this simple fact.

Answer 33

Knowing that someone is going to do something doesn't change the fact that they still have a choice. They actively chose to disobey God.

Answer 34

There is NO god ... there is NO Adam & Eve .... our parents made us .... true !!!

Answer 35

Like when a cop tries to sell you coke i guess. Entrapment.

Answer 36

um you know your kids are going to do wrong? right? yet you still discipline them! mmmmmm......... ok!

Answer 37

sadism

Answer 38

It's called entrapment, and it's illegal.