The Garden of Eden: Proof of God's Love and Mercy

[Pastor Billy-Reuben]

Genesis 1:27
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Genesis 2:16-17
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Genesis 3:1-7
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

Genesis 3:22-24
And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Here is a summary for any slow heathens who might be reading this (I realize that 'slow' and 'heathen' are redundant -- I cant imagine why a person with a healthy mind would reject Jesus Christ).

• God creates man and woman, both of whom have inquisitive natures but do not know the difference between right and wrong, or good and evil.
• God places the man and woman in a garden.
• God places a tree in the garden and forbids the man and the woman from eating of it, telling them that it would cause them to die that very day. Of course, since they don't know the difference between right and wrong, they have no way of knowing that it is wrong to disobey God.
• God creates a deceitful, talking snake, and places it in the garden.
• The snake tricks the man and the woman into eating the fruit, by telling them that it would open their eyes, and they would learn the difference between good and evil.
• God laments that they have eaten the fruit and learned the difference between good and evil, so he kicks them out of the garden before they can eat from the tree that turns them immortal. He also curses the man and woman.

Some demon-worshiping Athiest scum might read all of this and then be arrogant enough to question God.

They might ask if God knew what would happen when he created that deceitful talking snake and turned it loose? Didn't He think that it might be sort of easy for the snake to convince curious people, who don't know the difference between right and wrong, to try something forbidden?

The answer is, of course He knew -- He's God.

Then they might ask, why would God place people in a situation where they could not help but sin?

The answer is so that He could shew us His love and mercy. God created us to be vile, wretched, foul, evil people that deserve much worse than to be tormented and tortured for all of eternity. He showed His love and mercy by breaking off a piece of himself, turning it into a man, and having that man tortured for a few hours then killed. That one man being tortured for a few hours more than makes up for the required eternal torture that the rest of us deserve.

So now, all we have to do to avoid our righteous fate is to accept God's grace and forgiveness and live our lives entirely for God, subjugating our will to His. Then when we die, we get to live our afterlives entirely for God, subjugating our will to His.

Praise the Sweet name of Jesus!

Pastor Billy-Reuben

[Ezekiel Bathfire]

Re: The Garden of Eden: Proof of God's Love and Mercy

Thank you for that Pastor, many visitors, guided by Jesus’s finger on the mouse button, who reach here are ignorant of the truth and love behind Genesis.

An interesting point is that in the time before Eve ate of the Fruit of The Tree of Knowledge, she did not know the difference between good and evil and thus the serpent had an easy job.

Thanks to the Bible and the inherited effect of Tree of Knowledge, we today know that it is wrong to disobey God but, of course, Eve did not, in fact, being a woman, she was probably only half aware of Who God was and just how important He is.

God also put a Tree of Life in the Garden – a tree that granted eternal life (Gen:3:22 and see also Re22:2 for added foliage effects.) This was the antidote to The Tree of Knowledge, which caused mortality.

However, prior to the fall, Adam and Eve were immortal and didn’t need The Tree of Life. (Perhaps the animals did?) So if Adam and Eve had eaten of Fruit of The Tree of Life (which wasn't forbidden) after they had eaten of the Fruit of The Tree of Knowledge, they would have been simultaneously immortal and have the knowledge of good and evil, which God must think is a bad thing.

(One wonders what would have happened if the serpent had had a few of the Tree of Life Fruits to hand out!)

I suspect that God placed both trees in Eden because He needed them for some reason and had nowhere else to put them.

[Old Iron Crotch]

Re: The Garden of Eden: Proof of God's Love and Mercy

If God didn't want Adam and Eve to eat the fruit. why didn't he just put the tree somewhere else where they would not have access to it?

[Brother Enoch]

Re: The Garden of Eden: Proof of God's Love and Mercy

If God didn't want Adam and Eve to eat the fruit. why didn't he just put the tree somewhere else where they would not have access to it?

Free will.

Dorkstick.

We had a choice to make, that was the point.

[Jean Poole]

Re: The Garden of Eden: Proof of God's Love and Mercy

I was telling some Unsaved Person this only yesterday, Pastor. How can their eyes be so blind?

[Old Iron Crotch]

Re: The Garden of Eden: Proof of God's Love and Mercy

Free will.

Dorkstick.

We had a choice to make, that was the point.

If you're going to give someone a choice to make, then you need to give them all the information they need to make that choice. If God was going to give Adam and Eve the choice to obey or disobey without giving them the ability to understand right vs wrong, good vs evil, then he should not have punished them for disobedience, since they didn't know any better.

And to punish all of humanity for all time because of the actions of two people who didn't know any better is just cruel. It's one of the reasons I find your concept of the Divine impossible to believe.

[Jean Poole]

Re: The Garden of Eden: Proof of God's Love and Mercy

Old Iron Crotch, God told them not to eat the Apple, and what it would do :

Genesis 3:3
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.


Stop lying about God, heathen. God did everything He could to save those little traitors, but they made their own decision through Free Will.

[Ezekiel Bathfire]

Re: The Garden of Eden: Proof of God's Love and Mercy

If God didn't want Adam and Eve to eat the fruit. why didn't he just put the tree somewhere else where they would not have access to it?

Are you questioning God's judgment? If I were you, I'd prepare to be smitten down most horribly. I'll be one of the first to tell you, "I told you so."

[Pastor Billy-Reuben]

Re: The Garden of Eden: Proof of God's Love and Mercy

If God didn't want Adam and Eve to eat the fruit. why didn't he just put the tree somewhere else where they would not have access to it?

Did you not read the sermon? God DID expect them to eat the fruit, so He could demonstrate His love and mercy. That was all explained. You need to work on your reading comprehension.

Pastor Billy-Reuben

[Pastor Ezekiel]

Re: The Garden of Eden: Proof of God's Love and Mercy

Did you not read the sermon? God DID expect them to eat the fruit, so He could demonstrate His love and mercy. That was all explained. You need to work on your reading comprehension.

Pastor Billy-Reuben

She's high on drugs again, Pastor. Have you noticed how her posts make so little sense? At times she descends into babbling gibberish.

Being a witch doesn't pay off.

[Old Iron Crotch]

Re: The Garden of Eden: Proof of God's Love and Mercy

Are you questioning God's judgment? If I were you, I'd prepare to be smitten down most horribly. I'll be one of the first to tell you, "I told you so."

Just as I would question the judgement of a parent who put a priceless objet d'art within in a baby's reach and then punished the baby for touching it, I question the judgement of a so-called omniscient deity who puts a tree whose fruit he doesn't want eaten within reach of people he should know will eat it. I also question the judgement of people who would worship such a deity.

[Old Iron Crotch]

Re: The Garden of Eden: Proof of God's Love and Mercy

Did you not read the sermon? God DID expect them to eat the fruit, so He could demonstrate His love and mercy. That was all explained. You need to work on your reading comprehension.

Pastor Billy-Reuben

Such "mercy" reminds me of the scene in "Gladiator" where Commodus has just informed his sister that he intends to rape her until she becomes pregnant and gives him a son, that her son from her late husband will be held hostage, and that his life will be forfeit if she does not co-operate, and then screams in her face, "AM I NOT MERCIFUL!?"

[Jean Poole]

Re: The Garden of Eden: Proof of God's Love and Mercy

Just as I would question the judgement of a parent who put a priceless objet d'art within in a baby's reach and then punished the baby for touching it, I question the judgement of a so-called omniscient deity who puts a tree whose fruit he doesn't want eaten within reach of people he should know will eat it. I also question the judgement of people who would worship such a deity.

Actually, that is *precisely* what I have done with each of my children. I put the prized object in the middle of the room, and if they touch it, they get a beating. No means no. They must be taught.

[Old Iron Crotch]

Re: The Garden of Eden: Proof of God's Love and Mercy

Actually, that is *precisely* what I have done with each of my children. I put the prized object in the middle of the room, and if they touch it, they get a beating. No means no. They must be taught.

Why am I not surprised. You people look for excuses to commit acts of violence and call it godly.

[Pastor Billy-Reuben]

Re: The Garden of Eden: Proof of God's Love and Mercy

Actually, that is *precisely* what I have done with each of my children. I put the prized object in the middle of the room, and if they touch it, they get a beating. No means no. They must be taught.

Amen, sister.

Iron Crotch needs to order a copy of To Train Up a Child, by Michael and Debi Pearl.



When the Pearls wanted to teach their toddlers gun safety, they would just leave a gun laying around in the living room. Every time a kid reached for it, they would shout "NO!" and swat the kid on the hand with a hickory switch.

After taking the toddler through the "No" saying, hand-switching sessions, they knew guns were always off limits. Every day they played around the gun without touching it. I never had to be concerned with their going into someone else's house and touching a gun. I didn't gun-proof my house, I gun-proofed my children.

Pastor Billy-Reuben