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**What was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Is it still here, and what makes us different from them

It is not that Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

It was that they choose to do so. In doing so they chose their will over God's will. They choose to decide good from evil. They chose to break of from the will of God and choose their own will. It was that act that they not only choose their will over God's they choose to decide for themselves what was good or evil. They choose to separate themselves from God.

The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was a choice in that choice. The choice was did Adam and Eve wish to be under the will of God or did they choose to the desire to be like God. Did they want to decide for themselves what was good or evil. In the end despite the rationalizing they were separated from God’s paradise to suffer the consequences there after.
The Bible is the word and will of God. Despite that many try to rationalize the will of God to fit their own will. When we look at certain groups that are the antithesis of the will of God. They choose to take that which is prohibited from God. There are many apples.

Many choose these apples. Many believe they are a spiritual entity equal to Gods others do not believe in God. Those that believe in God and choose the apples actively seek against the will of God and rationalize with God saying that, “Oh this is how you made me”. God says how I made you is how I described you in the Bible. Yet, people bring their sinful nature to the alter and throw it down and ask it to be blessed as is. They do not seek repentance and the forgiveness and mercy of God. They continue to rationalize their sin to God.
In this rationalizing they are seeking to impose their will upon God and make themselves equal unto God.

The fruit of the tree is the fruit of one’s choice to take the forbidden fruit deciding that that fruit is good despite the prohibition of God

Chawilic52 3 Mar 29
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Yes, it is all about Choice. To choose God or not to. Without choice, there is no Conscience, no Free Will. Adam and Eve didn't follow instructions. the test was "pass/fail." They were forced to leave until they or their subsequent generations learned why they failed.

The Bible has to be read literally and then read again metaphorically before one can even begin to get a handle on what it is really saying. Adam and Eve were "equals" before they ate of the fruit and God lays the curses on them and the serpent. After that, Eve was subservient and would bear pain in childbirth. Adam would have to till the ground to make a life outside the garden and provide for himself. People often ask why the serpent was in there in the first place, and I believe because in order to create the condition of Choice (choosing to live in the garden of God's paradise or out in the wilderness apart from Him) the serpent had to be allowed in. Adam blamed Eve for giving him the fruit, and then he blamed God for even making her. Eve blamed the serpent, who basically remained silent as it was cursed when God told it that the seed of the woman would one day crush its head.

The Garden of Eden is also a metaphor for the human mind in perfect harmony. Had they obeyed God, Adam and Eve would have eventually eaten from the Tree of Life first, IMO they would have received all the fruit of knowledge they ever wanted. They were duped and to make things worse, neither of them would take responsibility for what they'd done, which might have changed everything had Adam and Eve known to ask forgiveness. But they didn't. Thanks to the Tree of G& E, they now had a Conscience but didn't know the difference between right and wrong yet. Humanity doesn't get the ability to know that until later, when Moses brings the Law down from the mountain.

Jesus Christ repeatedly warns people to not be deceived. There are two ways to go. One is toward Life. ("The way, the truth, the life" ) and the other "way" is directly addressed in Proverbs 14:12 " There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." In other words, the "trees" and the "garden" are still here, metaphorically/metaphysically speaking. Relying on your own understanding rather than letting God lead you ends only in entropy and death. The other way, Tree of Life, leads to life eternal. If you want to get back to Eden, the pure mind/state of being as well as immortality, you follow the Way, the Truth and the Life. In order to reconcile the world to Himself, Christ was hung up on the "tree" (represented by the cross) which is a direct reference to the Tree of knowledge of good and evil. People didn't know He was the messiah. They relied on their own knowledge/understanding instead of perceiving the signs of the times. By rising from the grave, Christ showed that death longer has its sting.

There are volumes written on the types, shadows and echoes of the symbolism that connects the Eden story to everything else in the Bible, especially to the 4 Gospels and in the Revelation. One must Choose to believe in God, it cannot be forced. If you can't or won't choose God willingly, He doesn't want you either. That's one of the reasons why Jesus told the crowds who followed Him to leave. They wanted what He could give them but they wouldn't give in return. Any relationship works like that. Give and take.

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My reading of the Tree of Good and Evil is that we are talking about developmental growth. That is, the young child is innocent of the knowledge of evil and really does not understand good as an oppositional force. Byt the age of eight, generally speaking, children start to have a moral sense, they start to understand what good represents and what evil, or at least bad, represents. By the age of twelve, give or take a year, the child has not only become aware of others but can attribute emotions in others in contrast to their own. This age of puberty marks that start towards adulthood. Of course when Adam and Eve ate the fruit of forbidden knowledge they were still in a state of grace and their morality had not been tested yet. Hence, the sending of the pair out into the world to face the consequences of their decisions. The knowledge of good and evil is not a simple decision making process but about actual knowledge that is applied to decisions. It is the ability to form moral judgement and that can only come through learning and experience. Well, so much for my opinion

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Is it still here? Obviously, it is since we still have knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve had to be separated from the tree of life to prevent them being immortal and we don't naturally have immortality.

But what about the heavenly host who still have access to both trees? They obviously have access to the tree of knowledge of good and evil since 1/3 chose to follow the fallen archangel, but still they are not mortal with a natural death as we are. So God has a different purpose for humankind than the more enduring creatures, since they weren't met with the same consequences? Or are the two trees all metaphorically applied to one kind of creation and not the other for some reason? Do not the messengers and watchers have the ability to make choices? If not, then how could one archangel who chose to exalt himself above God lead so many others astray? Yet, he has been around for at least, what, 10,000 years...

I'm not missing your point about us trying to make ourselves equal with God. But, I am saying humankind is not the only creatures to do it? Even above God. Yet, the consequences are not the same. Men were scatter and had their languages confused for building a tower that likely did not reach as high as we have reached (i.e. the moon) yet there is no proportional consequence. Hubris is built into mankind on a very deep level, but it ain't just us. I have found no theology that adequately explains this disparity.

Thanks for the question and I could really go out on a tangent with this. I hope I am following your question.

We have to look at Psalm 8: 4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? 5 You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. 6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: 7 all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, 8 the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. Instead of giving the Angels the rule over the earth he gave man. This is a point of contention for the some of the Angels. Specifically Lucifer/Satan.,

We can also look at Hebrews 1
13 To which of the angels did God ever say,
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet”?
14 Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?

The reality is those who were cast out would not accept the creation of man and their judgment is never to enter Heaven,

How far is man set apart that is with the Body of Christ they we will judge angels

1st Cor…2Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?

Imagine being an Angle and knowing you are subject to man. If you have fallen because of Jealousy, the nature would be to drag others down with you in rebellion.

As far as the tower of babble, as they were confused and scattered they in essence driven further from the word of God, and salvation.

@Chawilic52 So they were cast out of heaven and no longer have access to the Tree of LIfe? Yet, they do not die as men die...

@Lickspittle they were never as men

@Chawilic52 So they never needed access to the Tree of Life? It was just "in them" so to speak? It goes back to what I said earlier, metaphors applied to the one kind of creature and not the other.

If that is the case, then the whole free choice of one's own will over God's will, must be applied differently too? Those fallen elohim made a choice contrary to God's will, just as mankind did -- in fact, used mankind as pawns in their own rebellion. Mankind suffers death and the fallen elohim suffer not being allowed in heaven while their existance goes on?

They can exalt themselves above all that is called God and remain immortal?

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