I have a couple of doubts and am hoping to get an answer from you.<\/p>\n
God created man to beings free to chose whether to serve God or not. God desires people who freely chose to serve Him. If God did not put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden, then there would have been no choice.<\/p>\n
But notice that something else must also exist for man to be able to choose to follow God or to disobey Him. God had to give him a law. Without a law, no choice can exist. Right and wrong always exist, but unless we are made aware of the choice through the law, we cannot be held responsible for keeping or breaking the law. See Paul’s comment on this fact in Romans 5:13. What we call sin is when a law of God is broken (see I John 3:4).<\/p>\n
Therefore, God put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden and He gave man a law stating that eating of its fruit would produce death. God even made it easy to keep the law. It wasn’t as if the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the only source of food nearby. God put the tree in the middle of a very large garden that contained every type of flowering and fruit-producing trees. Adam and Eve had to pass by may alternatives in order to choose this one tree that was off-limits.<\/p>\n
Why do innocent people suffer? There are a variety of answers to this question:<\/p>\n
Question: I have a couple of doubts and am hoping to get an answer from you. Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the forbidden tree, which was a sin. Why did God has created that tree? If there is no tree, then there would have been no sin. Why do the innocent suffer? Answer:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[189,177,182,185,890,188],"class_list":["post-8254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-genesis","tag-law","tag-suffering","tag-temptation","tag-testing","tag-trials"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13764,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-god-put-the-tree-in-the-garden-if-he-knew-man-would-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":8254,"position":0},"title":"Why did God put the tree in the garden if He knew man would sin?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: \"Why Does God Allow Evil?\" was a great explanation about why sin exists in the world, I enjoyed reading it and it has been a helpful tool when people ask me about sin and why God allows it to happen. I would like to ask you a question about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20121,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-create-humans-if-god-knew-most-would-live-sinfully\/","url_meta":{"origin":8254,"position":1},"title":"Why create humans if God knew most would live sinfully?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: So, God controls everything that will ultimately happen, but not the choices we make in order to get to that final event, correct? I'm almost positive that that's what\u00a0all of those articles\u00a0were pointing to. So then, does that mean that He meant for humans to ultimately be sentenced to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4116,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-do-people-have-to-die\/","url_meta":{"origin":8254,"position":2},"title":"Why do people have to die?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why do people have to die? When you think about it, it can make people mad at God, or it will drive them away. Why does God let suffering happen? Suffering is hard for people. Answer: To understand why people die, we have to go back to when death\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7771,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-adam-and-eve-bound-to-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":8254,"position":3},"title":"Were Adam and Eve bound to sin?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 9, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My thesis is that Adam was bound to fall. How long Adam or Eve could resist not eating the forbidden fruit? Because as long as Adam and Eve were in the garden that tree was always before them. As long as they resist eating the fruit they would remain\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16609,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-tree-of-life-still-exist\/","url_meta":{"origin":8254,"position":4},"title":"Does the tree of life still exist?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Does the tree of life still exist? Answer: The tree of life was one of two special trees in the garden of Eden. \"And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38737,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-eating-from-the-forbidden-tree-give-adam-and-eve-intelligence\/","url_meta":{"origin":8254,"position":5},"title":"Did eating from the forbidden tree give Adam and Eve intelligence?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 15, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: After Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree, they realized they were naked. Is it not that some kind of intelligence that was revealed in their mind? I am saying this because chimpanzees and other animals move around nude without realizing they are naked. 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