If ADAM Hadn't 'Ave Sinned?

Celtic

Just supposing that Adam in the Garden of Eden hadn't shared and participated in the eating of the forbidden fruit, what would have happened? Would Adam be without a partner to this day? And if God knows the End from the Beginning, being the Alpha and the Omega an all that, did He know that 'Sin' was going to take place? Many more questions, any answers?

jolly_green_giant

I'm not too sure i beleive in that story anymore, because i've always wondered the same thing. I'm pretty sure GOD could've known the outcome of the whole situation before he even created ADAM/EVE. HE'S GOD for pete sakes! It seems a little selfish to let all of humanity suffer for 2 people not even knowing what 'bad' was.

The way i see it is if ADAM hadnt sinned than i may have never been born and got to experience life. SO to every downside of life, theres an upside, i guess. :)

Naeblis

None of us would exist. A whole different set of people would now inhabit the Earth.

jolly_green_giant

exactly Nae.

aChristian

The Watchtower's take on Adam and Eve makes no sense. For any "God" would certainly know the outcome of the "test" Genesis tells us He gave to Adam and Eve. Heck, any dope could have guessed how things would turn out.

God told Adam that if he ate some fruit he would die. God then put Adam alone in that garden for how long? Then God gave him a beautiful naked woman as his new best friend, "helper" and lover. Now this gorgeous babe tells Adam she thinks they should eat the forbidden fruit. Besides, she tells him, she's heard that if they do they wont really die at all.

God didn't need to see into the future to figure out what Adam was going to do under those circumstances. Anyone could have guessed who Adam was going to care most about pleasing? After sleeping with squirrels for what JWs tell us was quite a few years, what man wouldn't have risked his life to make sure he didn't lose that lady's love and affection? Even if God then "chose not to" look into the future, as JWs say, the God who created man would have had to have had a very poor knowledge of His own creation not to have known that Adam was certainly going to fail that "test."

The only way the story of Adam and Eve makes sense is to understand that God not only knew how things were going to end up in Eden, but that He deliberately set the whole thing up to make a point. What point? This one. If Adam in paradise, without a problem in the world, could not manage to obey one simple command from God, what chance does any human being have of living their entire trouble-plagued life without sinning either in word, thought or deed? No chance at all. That is the lesson that was illustrated in Eden. Human beings have a sinful nature. A nature which God gave us.

Why did God give us a "sinful" nature? Because "God is love," and because God wanted to create people in his "own image," He wanted to create people whom He could have a loving relationship with. But since true love can be neither forced nor programmed, in order to have loving relationships with us, God had to create us as free people. Free to choose to love God and His ways or to not love God and His ways. In other words, free to do both right and wong, free to do both good and evil.

Because we can do wrong and often do, and because God can't do wrong and never does, we are less righteous than God. And because we are none of us deserve to live forever. That means all human beings have, in effect, from their births been condemned by God to die. Not because of anything Adam did, but because we ourselves all fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)

That's the bad news. Now the Good News. The Bible tells us that God was willing to accept the death of His Son Jesus Christ in place of the deaths which own His high standards - only those who are completely righteous deserve to live forever - had determined we all must suffer. (Matthew 20:28; John 10:11; Romans 3:24; 1 Corinthians 6:20; Ephesians 1:7; 1 Timothy 2:5,6; Hebrews 9:26; 1 Peter 1:18,19; 1 John 1:7; 4:10; Rev. 5:9.)

This is the Good News presented in the pages of the New Testament. That even though God's high standards demanded our deaths as the penalty for our sins, He is willing to accept the death of Jesus Christ in place of the deaths of all who now also accept Christ's death as payment in full for all their sins. And because God accepts Christ's death as payment for the sins of Christians, He no longer considers Christians to be sinners. Rather, He considers them to be righteous ones who are now fully worthy of eternal life. And because He does, He now promises to give eternal life to all who put their faith in Jesus Christ.

jolly_green_giant

The way i see it is if the JW's were correct and they did get a chance to live in paradise, then whos to say that sin wouldn't happen again? Even if it was 100 000 000 000 000 years later. Just as aChristian said, humans have a sinnful nature.

Naeblis

Exactly, unless God removes free will.

Frenchy

Had Adam not joined his wife Eve in partaking of the forbidden fruit, would she have been destroyed? Would Adam have remained single? Would God have produced another wife for him?

Is the Garden of Eden account literal? I’m not certain that it is and if it is an actual account there are far too many details missing to understand it completely let alone theorize on what may or may not have happened if another course of action had been taken. However, there’s no harm in supposing (smile).

1 Tim 2:14 NWT –“ Also, Adam was not deceived, but the woman was thoroughly deceived and came to be in transgression.” Now the NIV puts in such a way that suggests that Eve alone sinned. “And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner” (According to the Biblical account it doesn’t appear that God was very forgiving to either party.) The Society has, from time to time, suggested that Eve might be resurrected inasmuch as scripture says she was deceived (fooled?) but the man was not. Adam is thereby accused of deliberately (with full knowledge) sinning whereas his wife committed this act in blissful ignorance. I heard a talk a long time ago by a brother who suggested that Eve might have been forgiven if Adam had taken a stand instead of taking a bite.

There are many interesting questions that come up if the account is to be taken literally and just as many if it’s to be viewed as an allegory. Suppose, however, for the sake of our little discussion, Adam had refused to partake of the fruit. We can imagine him appealing to God for mercy on his wife who was ‘beguiled’ by the wily serpent. Motivations would then come into play. Why did Eve want to be like God? That would have to be addressed.

Taking the simple approach, we could reason that it was God’s intent to form the human race so even in the worst case scenario where Eve is destroyed by God immediately, we can suppose that another woman would be provided. Of course there is also the possibility that she would have been allowed to bring forth children before her death. In time she would have died and Adam would have presumably married one of his daughters.

Like I said at the beginning, I’m not convinced that the Garden of Eden account is to be taken literally.

There are Scriptures to me that indicate that all of this (what’s happening now) had to take place. One of those Scriptures is Heb 5:8 “Although he was a Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered” NWT If Christ himself had to learn obedience from sufferings, how could we have possibly escaped this valuable lesson ourselves?

Paul said: “And not only that, but let us exult while in tribulations, since we know that tribulation produces endurance; endurance, in turn, an approved condition; the approved condition, in turn, hope,” ( Ro 5: 3,4 NWT) Tribulation actually serves a useful purpose (according to this scripture) and actually leads to an approved condition (and subsequent life) so can we attribute it solely to the devil’s work?

Again, I am prone to view this (what we are currently going through) more as a conditioning (a costly but necessary education? A point of reference for further growth?) than a test.

Frenchy

Sidenote: One authority's view of 1 Timothy 2:14

"Adam was not deceived—It does not appear that Satan attempted the man; the woman said: The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. Adam received the fruit from the hand of his wife; he knew he was transgressing, he was not deceived; however, she led the way, and in consequence of this she was subjected to the
domination of her husband: Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee; Genesis 3:16.

"There is a Greek verse, but it is not English law, that
speaks a language nearly similar to that above:—

"'For nature suffers not a woman’s rule.'

"God has not only rendered her unfit for it, but he has subjected her, expressly, to the government of the man."

--Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the New Testament

The views expressed above are not necessarily those of this poster.

ISP

.....God would have had no fun?

ISP

If ADAM Hadn't 'Ave Sinned?

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