1. The Tree

      The struggle between right and wrong is an integral part of the human experience, and examination of the Bible shows that God initiates, and often participates in contests (i.e., trials, tests, and challenges) that cause this struggle. In some cases, a person may decide to do the right thing. At other times, people make willful decisions to do wrong. These decisions often have far-reaching consequences. This chapter takes an in-depth look at the first contest recorded in the Bible. To say that the outcome of this contest has far-reaching consequences would be an understatement. We learn from the book of Genesis that the stage was set by God Himself for the contest between Satan and Eve. God placed the “tree of knowledge of good and evil” in the Garden of Eden. The Lord God commanded Adam, saying, “You may freely (unconditionally) eat [the fruit] from every tree of the garden; but [only] from the tree of the knowledge (recognition) of good and evil you shall not eat, otherwise on the day that you eat from it, you shall most certainly die [because of your disobedience]” (Gen 2:16-17). At face value, it would seem that this rule was initiated to fulfill God’s desire to test Adam and Eve’s loyalty and commitment to Him. Let’s take a close look at this first contest established by God and see if we can discover additional reasons that God may have had for this contest.

The First Contest

            After creating Adam and placing him in Eden to tend the garden, God initiated the first test in human history. As mentioned above, He placed a certain tree in the Garden of Eden and told Adam to never eat the fruit of that one specific tree (Gen 2:16-17). There were many other plants available for food, and the Eden environment offered a very pleasant lifestyle. Honoring God as the supreme commander of all, and obedience to God’s commands were the prime directives. This sets the rules of engagement for all future contests—obedience is equivalent to love for the Lord. Adam and Eve had direct access to God and were given the opportunity to have a meaningful relationship with God. Unfortunately, they broke the rule, failed the first test (the fall of humankind), and were driven out of the Garden of Eden. At the moment of disobedience to God’s command, sin and death entered the world and the very nature of man was transformed into a Depraved State of being. In the Depraved State, all of humankind from that day forward were born morally corrupt and wicked. In addition, every infant is born in a spiritually blind condition along with the corrupted nature (Original Sin) that is geared toward sin.

      In order to highlight the gravity of this moment in Eden when sin entered the world, I want to take a short journey through the entire picture of the Christian belief system and review some essential theological points. There is much more to be said about these topics in later chapters, but I want to note the key points and why these events that occurred in Eden matter so much. Specifically, all people are born condemned to eternal death in hell and ultimately would have ended up in the Lake of Fire if Jesus had not come to pay the price for sin and offer salvation to all. Receiving this salvation requires repentance from sin and belief in Jesus as our Savior. Before proceeding with our study of God’s reason for initiating the fall, let’s take a closer look at Original Sin and God’s rules regarding salvation.

      Before creation, God knew that the fall of humankind would happen and He had already designed a plan of salvation—His son, Jesus, would be a sinless sacrifice and the shedding of His blood would redeem humankind from eternal punishment in the Lake of Fire. God had already established the rule that without the shedding of blood there can be no remission of sin. After the fall, additional rules were put in place, and these rules are necessary to bring man back to a full relationship with God that can last for eternity. With God’s assistance, people can be awakened from spiritual darkness and begin the process of controlling their drive toward sin and evil. This is defined as the process of sanctification. The added rules require man to respond to God’s unblinding initiative through repentance and acceptance of the atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross. Man and God work together to improve attitudes and behavior, and to make right choices with newfound Godly wisdom and power. Eventually, after death, every person will be glorified and thereby allowed to be in the direct presence of God. Romans 8:30 states, “And those whom He predestined, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified [declared free of the guilt of sin]; and those whom He justified, He also glorified [raising them to a heavenly dignity]” (Rom 8:30).

      Continuing now with our study of the fall, I think there are some important questions that should be raised regarding this first contest. Why was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil placed in Eden by God, given that He knew beforehand that the fall would occur? This would be analogous to taking a group of grammar school students to the largest toy store in the world, Hamleys in London, and telling them they can play with any of the toys on all seven floors except one toy in the middle of the first floor they must never touch. Well, knowing human nature, it is certain that the one forbidden toy will eventually become the focus of the students. God knew that Adam and Eve would eventually focus their attention on the one forbidden tree. More importantly, God is omniscient and therefore, He knew that Adam and Eve would sin against Him. So why create this situation in the first place? Before we probe deeper, it was already noted that it would seem this first contest was established by God to test Adam and Eve’s loyalty and obedience to God’s rules. In effect, this contest would determine their true opinion of God. If they viewed God as infinitely trustworthy and absolutely supreme over all people, angels, and worldly things, it would be very unlikely that they would violate His rules. However, we see in the dialogue with the serpent (Satan) that Eve was easily enticed to question the veracity of God’s statements (Gen 3:1-6). This demonstrates that Eve did not have a high esteem for God. But why did she have a low opinion of God given the fact that they knew God and walked with Him in the garden frequently. Now, before we probe further into the reason for Eve’s decision to disobey God, we need to briefly review the four states of human nature because it will give us an insight into Eve’s view of God at the time of the fall. It will also help in understanding God’s plan for humankind in His eternal Kingdom.

Why Did God initiate the fall?

      Regarding the Why question, a high-level response is that corruption of human nature is a God-ordained consequence that happened under His will. It was mentioned earlier that God did not want man to eat from the Tree of Life and then live forever in the fallen state. His sovereign plan is to redeem and restore all saved souls to an uncorrupted state of existence in His Kingdom after death. We gain, perhaps, some understanding of the death consequence by noting that we will end up better off by progressing through God’s plan. However, why God initiated the Fall and elected depravity for the human race as a consequence for disobedience is not at all clear. In engineering, when a new process is discovered and not understood, it can be studied by observing its operation to find out the key steps that lead to the final result. This simple phenomenological approach to study of complex systems often gives insight into why the process exists. In the current case, humankind was thrust into a Depraved State as a result of sin. God’s desired steps in the process of restoring humankind are for each individual to encounter God and receive spiritual unblinding by God, admit sins, repent, accept Jesus’ justification, receive the indwelling Spirit of God for eternity, progress through the process of earthly sanctification, die, and receive a resurrected body with a glorified nature so to live in God’s presence and worship Him for eternity.

      The end result is a human being created in the image of God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who recognizes what they have been saved from. There will be a new and deeper realization of the greatness of our God. We will have the power of the Holy Spirit to maintain obedience and to worship God fully. John Piper has reminded us that, in heaven, we will enter into an ever-deepening praise cycle where God reveals some of Himself, and we praise Him more. Piper states—“Heaven will be a never-ending, ever-increasing discovery of more and more of God’s glory with greater and ever-greater joy in him. The perfection of heaven is not static… there will always be more, and the end of increased pleasure in God will never come”^[1]. In other words, every time God reveals more of His perfection, we delight further in Him and praise Him even more intensely. Since God is infinite, this process will never end and will get bigger and bigger every moment. We will move from one crescendo of praise to another, higher crescendo, throughout eternity. The final result being heaven full of saved souls in deep relationship with God who will never have an intention of rebellion against God. Also present will be the angels who have already demonstrated their allegiance to God by not participating in Satan’s rebellion. I do not know about you, but this sounds like heaven to me. The thought of being in God’s presence and being able to worship him and to speak with Him overwhelms me. Just to be near the King is the greatest thing I can think of. We should desire the King above all, and not the things on the King’s table.

      Since the key steps in the process described leads to fulfillment of God’s plan to create humans that interact with Him and fulfill His desire to be praised, we see that the process is needed to produce the desired end result. Adam and Eve in the Neutral State could not avoid sin. However, all saved people who go through the salvation process will never forget God’s grace and will never rebel. It seems that we cannot appreciate God the way we should without knowing His forgiveness and what we have been saved from (the eternal Lake of Fire). We will live eternally in the final glorified state and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. I believe that God’s Kingdom, in its final state, is the comprehensive answer to the question, “Why did God initiate the fall?”