Theological Musing

    

     This may be a stupid thing to post about, but I’ve noticed more and more recently that people refer to Adam and Eve’s innocence in the garden as mere naivety. They use phrases like ‘before Adam and Eve knew right from wrong,’ or ‘when Adam and Eve sinned they learned the difference between good and evil.’ This is simply not true. Adam and Eve already knew the difference between right and wrong, between good and evil. Good was acting in obedience to God’s commands, evil was disobeying Him. What they lacked was an experiential knowledge of good and evil. That’s why God placed the tree in the garden. Even if Adam and Eve had not fallen into sin they still would have gained the knowledge of good and evil, but it would have been a victory for them and not a defeat. If they really didn’t know the difference between the two then there was no sin and they were unjustly punished. The point is that Adam and Eve did know the difference between right and wrong. Their sin was intentional and deliberate and they failed the test God had placed for them. They gained an experiential knowledge of good and evil, but they gained in the defeat of sin.

Thank you for your time.