??? these still doesn't address the fact of the absence of the literal "eternal death" or similar direct wording in scriptures.

I think/see it clearly does, Jesus’s: “not die forever” is both expressionally and Theologically synonymous to ‘eternal death’.

A case of cherry picking! With that logic why don’t you include to govern yourself too! That’s a quality of God. What about have un-borrowed life!

It is true that God created man to have ‘dominion’ or to ‘rule’ over the earth; but this never meant to establish your own decision or your own laws. Any king(or whatever rulers) that God ordained on the earth to rule, these kings do not have the freedom of choice, and they need to rule according to God’s choice/establish set of rules and not their own. If a king does not rule according to God’s set rules, God will overrule them and replace them as you can see all through this history to be the case.

In our fallen state, God gaved us up to our vanity/corrupt heart/imagination. This is not freewill, we are ruled by our vanity(Rom 8:20). The Bible is clear you are either slave of sin or slave of Christ. There’s no middle ground. No Freewill.

I agree with you that we need to submit to God and we are totally unable to be good governors. The Bible says we are to become governors with Christ.(Rev 20:6) But somehow we understand that as if we make some type of intellectual decision based on an outside written set of rules accordance to God’s law when the truth in the matter it is Christ that lives IN us and He worketh in us both to WILL and to DO.(Phil 2:13) and fulfill God’s Law through us. The two is a total different ball game. As far as I recall from your postings, you believe in Christ-IN-you Asygo but by agreeing with the “freewill” concept makes you contradict yourself.

Deut 30:19 and Jos 24:15 needs to be understood in context of the real Great Controversy(GC) which is shown in carefully studying the fall of Lucifer and the fall of man. As long as we understand the cause of the fall as a “choice” problem, you will view/interpret Deut 30:19 and Jos 24:15 and other scriptures in that light. But Ez 28:17 makes it very clear that Lucifer did not “choose” to rebel and explains the cause of the fall very clearly

Rom 8:20 : The Elevation-of-Self Phenomenon

The fall of Lucifer was due that he elevated himself. Eze 28:17 “Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: ” which is how his mind got corrupted. It was his beauty and his brightness that triggered the fall. It is very hard to distinguish if what we think and what we do really comes from God for God chose to remain in the background and invisible. For a created being who is still young in the faith and have not yet much experiences and still a child in mind is more vulnerable to get taken by the allusion that what he does comes from him and consequently takes the glory of it. Rom 8:20 “For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly”

The consequence and the result of the origin of sin is stated in Rom 1:21 “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified [him] not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. “ When we take the credit for our “brightness” or of our “beauty” thinking it comes from us, we also elevates ourself too when we are ignorant of how God works in us. Ep 4:18 “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:” .

Law of Desires – Gn 3:16; 4:7

Before sin, God used to be the only husbandman of our soul, however after sin, "vanity"(trust in self or trust/worshipping any other form of "dust"-- worshipping creation instead of the Creator) became our illicit lover. The “law of desires” states that whoever is the lover(God or false gods including ourself) of our soul -- he shall rule over you.

Gn 3:16. "and thy desire (h8669 t'shookah, a longing; from root word h7783 shook, to run after or over, i.e. an overflow) shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee".

Being a woman, I understand this phenomenon as I experienced this too many times in myself. I don't view this text in a negative way as many does that the man will oppress you. I do acknowledge that this happens many time and ever since the fall. I also acknowledge in the context of Gn 3:16 that God was listing "curses" after A&E's fall. I believe these "curses" are blessings as all God's judgments are-- which meet the crime heads on with a restoring inculcating benefits. So Gn 3:16 is woman's(God’s wife) "judgment" or "curse" or "blessings". I don't believe that any of God's judgment adds new principles/law for there's no " shadow of turning" in God and God is "the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow". I believe what God established at creation was forever. (Ecc 3:14; Ps 148:6). So I believe that God is meeting the crime by emphasizing a principle/law here that is already in place; however this principle/law will now take the savor of hardship under the hard taskmaster name -- sin.

A woman desires/will becomes her husband's desires/will ---it is just the way we are design. I don't know if it's because woman is taken out of man that this is so, but I do know it is there. I understand that there's a lot of rebellious woman, which is the consequential nature of sin by which it distorts the design. But let's not get into that and just focuss on the basic principle here which is -- our desires becomes whomever rule over us.

God has subjected the creation (especially man & the angels) to vanity (Rom 8:20). When we fell God made "vanity"(the imagination of our natural heart) to rule over us --- which shall rule over thee and our desires (will) shall be to thy husband (vanity)). After sin, God is no longer the only husbandman of our soul, and "vanity"(trust in self or trust/worshipping any other form of "dust"-- worshipping creation instead of the Creator) is our illicit lover.


To Master our Desires – Gn 4:7

T'shookah , (desire) is only used 3 times in the Bible and also found in Gn 4:7 Is there not, if thou dost well, acceptance? and if thou dost not well, at the opening a sin-offering is crouching, and unto thee its desire. (t'shookah) , and thou rulest over it.' (YLT)

Here again I see it is stating the "law of desire" that when we fall short of the glory of God, sin is crouching at the door and it will rule over us and it’s desires/will are yours. The NIV translation worded the end of Gn 4:7 as "and you must master it. "(NIV). It means that we need to come to master it -- to not let sin rule over us. Here Cain was dealing with an angry spirit because his offering was not accepted by God. This rejection touched his pride. Of course we know we have no hope to master these strong carnal spirit like anger with our own powers and only through Jesus -- this mastery of sin can be overcome. But to have Jesus ruling our heart can only be possible via addressing the root of the sin problem -- by restoring the Trust in God which would counter the fall.

The Fall resulted the Lost of Trust in God which is the root of all Sin

The fall of Lucifer and Man resulted that they gain trust in their own abilities but consequently lost trust in God. This is what God is dealing with in this GC. His target in His plan of salvation is to restore the trust in God by which would counter the root of the fall. And this can only be done by humbling man.

This work of God is expressed by Jesus who said “whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased” Mat 23:12 There’s many other texts stating this as in Is 2:12 “For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low.”

The humbling process is by first showing us that all our lovers/gods(including our abilities) are a bunch of “fakes” and do not provide us anything.(Hos 2:8-13). Only by teaching us the hard way(via laws of tribulations Lev 26 and in other laws) the reality of things by which is to know to what extend that God is Sovereign by which He “worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” Ep1:11. Only by understanding that God is the only God we will regain our reason/sanity and consequently regain our full trust in God.

It was in God’s plan that Man would fall

Scriptures state that Christ was “slain from the foundation of the world” . Man's failure was built into the divine plan from the beginning of times so he can learn that only God can succeed. That the measure of his success is only according to how much of the Holy Spirit operates in his life. But for man(really only a child) to come to know this, God needed to first subjected him “to vanity, not willingly” (Rom 8:20)

Vanity is very well described in Eph 4:17-23 and Rom 1. This wise judgment is worded in the Bible as "God give us up" to uncleanness Rom 1:24 "to vile affections" v.26 “to a reprobate mind" v.28; "to desolation" 2Ch 30:7; " unto their own hearts lust; and they walked in their own counsel (reasoning)” Ps 81:12 ; and " to worship the host of heaven" Act7:42.

In doing this, God is letting man learn the hard way and in the long run(by humbling us) to come to realize that all our lovers have absolutely no powers and no inherent abilities -- that there’s only ONE God(one true Husband) and all comes from Him(Jm 1:17; Jn 3:27; 1Co 4:6-7; Heb 5:4).

Learning Righteousness

No matter what man does, he will always fall short of the glory of God. And whatever spirit(or lover) is over him, will rule over him(Gn 3:16) and he will never be able to master it(Gn 4:7); UNLESS Jesus comes to save him and become his Lord(husbandman) who will master all things.

This wise tacktive of God's plan is also worded in Hosea 2 and in Is 26:9 as " ...for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness (Jesus is our Righteousness). 10. Let favour ("grace" in NIV "Kindness" in NLT) be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord."

v.10 says the wicked do not learn righteousness when kindness or grace is shown to them. This I learn with my children. When they do wrong and if I do not correct them(Laws of Tribulation Lev 26 and other laws) and only show them kindness; they will not learn to do right and will continue to do wrong and not respect me. This principle applies also if the child is “ in the land of uprightness”.

The laws of Tribulations are in place for us to learn righteousness --- to learn that we need Jesus. When we come to see that we cannot do anything of our own including mastering sin, and feel our need of a Savior and come to behold Jesus, then the trust in God becomes restored.

It is a gradual process(sanctification) by which most of the time we don't see much fruits. However, as our trust in God increases and the trust in self decreases as we get to know the truth via the judgments/tribulations of God He brings in our life, then God's spirit will be restore in ruling over us and the "law of desires" will continue to be in effect as stated in Gen 3:16 and Gen 4:7, as it was under vanity. The only thing that has changed is the husband vs. the illicit lover, not the law.

The choice/will of the only legit husbandman (Spirit of God) becomes our choice/will and it rules over us. Another way the Bible worded this law is we are either slaves of Jesus or slaves of Sin. There's no middle ground like EGW wrote somewhere.


Therefore Choose Life (Deut 30:19)

I view Deut 30:19 " therefore choose life" in the light of the GC explained above. We cannot choose life any more than we can master sin. To choose life or to master sin, both and equally requires Jesus in our heart.

God lays before Israel life and death, and good and evil(Deut 30:15)....just as He did for Adam and Eve, with the tree of knowledge by which God placed right in the midst of the garden and even provided Lucifer to promote it. Adam and Eve were without sin then and their heart perfect, however they were only babes and their mind still fairly blank with little experiences and pre-knowledge of God. We all know that you do not put in front of children in their sight and reach what you do not want them to touch – unless you want them to touch it at the first place.

By God putting the tree right in their sight was because God had planned for them to fall as it is written in Is 45:7 " I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things."

According to the plan of God, Israel were to fail too and that is acknowledge by Moses in the chapter prior Deut 29:4-5 " Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day. 5. And I have led you 40 years in the wilderness..." . Isaiah also plainly acknowledge that it was God that made Israel err and hardened their heart all those years in Is 63:17 " O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants sake, the tribes of thine inheritance." Paul also talks about this in great lenght in Rom 9-11.

Our Dualism problem with Good and Evil

Moses and Isaiah and Paul understood that it is God that creates evil by creating the circumstances as He did by placing the tree of knowledge in the midst of the garden in front of babes. Evil comes from God like Job acknowledge in Job 2:10 "But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips." God gaved permission to Satan to bring evil on Job(Job 1:12, 2:6), and God takes credit for it by saying that it is HE that brought all those evils on Job in Job 42:11. Therefore, since God is responsible by creating the circumstances and allowing what evil to comes on Job; he fulfills His own law of repayment (Ex 22:9) by returning double (v.12) of what He has taken from Job. God is the one that repaid Job because He is the one that took all Job's possession away despite the fact it was Satan that actually did the action. Why this? because it was God who created the situation by bringing Job to Satan's attention and bragged about Job. God knew Satan was going to want to make him fall and he knows how to handle Satan to do his bidding.(see Job 41 about the Leviathan=Satan). God used Satan for He wanted to refined Job. Satan is really God's servant equally like when God used Nebuchadnezzar to bring evil on Israel. Nebuchadnezzar was called God's servant in fulfilling God's purpose.

God gives the power for any adversities' actions, and He determines what evil to bring(Jdg 9:23; 1Sa 16:15,16, 23; Jer 35:17; 39:16; 40:2; Eze 6:11), and even takes full responsibility for all evils by saying he has done all these things.(Job 42:11; 1Kg 9:9; 17:20; 2Ch 34:28; Neh 13:18; Jer 32:23,42; 42:10; 44:2; Eze 14:22; Deu 32:39; Is 45:7; Ams 3:6; Is 19:22; etc…)

The difference between Evil and Sin

However, we cannot reconcile evil with God -- for in our mind God is good and evil is sin and God cannot sin. Many of us attribute all evil coming from Satan and all good coming from God, when the reality is, in the Bible it says that BOTH comes from God. Death, calamities, pestilence are evils which God may bring on a nation for their sin. All judgment for sin is evil from the perspective of the one receiving it until they come to see that these judgments comes from a just God to judge sin and to bring us to learn righteousness.

God sending evil does not make God a SINNER. We need to know the difference between evil and sin according to the Bible. The Hebrew word for "sin" is Khawtaw (H2398) means "to miss; hence (figuratively and generally) to sin ".

AV Jdg 20:16 Among all this people [there were] seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hair [breadth], and not miss Khawtaw


Here the meaning is clear that sinning has to do with not missing the target. When the target/goal/standard is the law of God, then to miss the standard is sin. In this sense, Paul tells us in Rom 3:23 “ For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” So the Glory of God is the target and all men in shooting that goal, have found their "arrows" miss the mark.

God creates evil, but He never fails to achieve His goal. If He did, according to Biblical definition, He would be considered a sinner. So if we understand God's divine plan, which is His goal, which is not wishful thinking, but a target in all history, then we would know the end from the beginning because God will not fail to reach that goal.

Many thinks that God spends time regretting that A&E fell as if God was taken by surprise or others say the possibility existed and there was a backup plan in case it did. In either way it undermined a failure. Was Adam's sin outside the overall divine plan? No, and nothing was a failure nor God taken by any degree by surprise. All is going according to the original plan setup before creation and neither man nor Satan will be able to stop the least part of God's plan for all His creation.

Evil is only sin if it misses the mark. When mankind trusted in self, he was given a mark to hit, a goal to achieve -- the perfect standard. When men do evil to each other, it is a sin, because they fail to achieve the perfection of the glory of God. When God does evil, it is according to His perfect wisdom and it has purpose and His arrows always hits the bull’s-eye.

We may not always understand what is happening to us at the time of tribulation, but we need to come to the same conclusion as Joseph when sold as a slave by his own brothers, and after being imprisoned for years for false accusation. Joseph said to his brothers in Gen 50:19,20 "...Fear not: for [am] I in the place of God? 20. But as for you, ye thought evil against me; [but] God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as [it is] this day, to save much people alive. "

This is the attitude of spiritual maturity. All bitterness and anger has melted away once he saw the greatest purpose of God in all the "evil" done to him. He had ceased to think of good and evil dualistically and saw it singularly both coming from God and having ultimately a good holy purpose.


The good thing about Destruction

All seed needs to die before it can sprout. The evil is here to destroy us(look up the word destroy H6 'abad and G622 appollumi..notice both these words equally means to be lost, like the parable of the lost coin and the lost sheep which were found).

Like it is prophecied in Deut 30:18 " I tell you this day, that you shall surely ('abad ) perish ('abad ) and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it."

In v.18 stated above, God lays clearly " that you shall surely ('abad ) perish ('abad ) when they entered that physical promised land. Why? Because they were set up to fail. Through their failure God instructs us by showing us their mistakes and at the same time God set up the TYPE which the spiritual meanings needs to be pulled out, so we can come to know the prophetic meanings of the antitypes.

At the feast of Pentecost, they couldn’t handle(still too immature) hearing for themselves the voice of God at the foot of Sinai and begged for Moses to hear it for them and tell them secondhand what God told them(Ex 20:19; Deut 5:27). Because of their inability, the law needed to be given on Stone and the remaining on scrolls -- both was an exterior format – which typified the old covenant. This deprived them of the power of God via the Spirit.

They foolishly thought they could obey God’s law by their own abilities when they said " All that the Lord hat spoken we will do” . Ex 19:8; 24:3,7. In Deut 5:28 the Lord responded to what they said by saying " I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee, they have well said all that they have spoken” . Why is God pleased with such a silly\ridiculous\unable-to-fulfilled answer? Because they were set up to fail and all was in accordance to His plan. In the following verse, God acknowledges their inability to fulfill their vow by saying v.29 " O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever” . God very well knew what was ahead and this needed to be fulfilled first for them to mature so that later on God would be able to write directly on their heart(Jer 31) his whole laws and having the spirit of God talking directly to them in every step of their lives.

So, I see the command in Deut 30:19 " therefore choose life" in the same light as what God said to Cain in Gen 4:7 when anger was possessing him " sin lieth at the door. and unto thee shall be his desire, and you must master it." We do not have abilities to master the spirit ruling over us, anymore we have the ability to choose life without God. But according to God's plan, we need to first fail with all our attempts which will destroy us to the dust, so then afterward at His timing, God can come and restore us all back to our original estate according to the Law of Jubilee. That is why it is written that it is the Lord that wounds us(destroy us) and then heals us.(Ps 68:20; Job 5:18; 1Sm 2:6; Has 6:1; Deu 32:39; Jer 30:17; etc..)

Destruction is an important step in the plan of salvation. He destroys(bring us or lovers back to dust) all that we put our faith in, so we can realize that we(and all our lovers) are but dust with absolute no inherent powers and that there's no other gods other than God Himself so that we can turn around and behold God and His Majesty. This is how we learn Righteousness through the judgments of God. Then the trust can be restored as written in Hos 2.

Hosea 2 " 2:2 Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband…2:5 For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink. 2:6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. 2:7 And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now. 2:8 For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. 2:9 Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness. 2:10 And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand. 2:11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. 2:12 And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. 2:13 And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.

2:14 Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. 2:15 And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. 2:16 And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali. 2:17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name. …2:19 And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.

2:20 I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD….2:23 And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.”

Also in Eze 25:7 depicts the principle of the need of destruction so the people could come to know that God is the Lord. " Behold, therefore I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and will deliver thee for a spoil to the heathen; and I will cut thee off from the people, and I will cause thee to perish ('abad ) out of the countries: I will destroy thee; and thou shalt know that I [am] the LORD."

In Jer 31:28 show that the Lord both destroys and rebuild. Please note that in both these works, the Lord is watching over us. " And it shall come to pass, [that] like as I have watched over them, to pluck up , and to break down , and to throw down , and to destroy ('abad ) , and to afflict ; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant , saith the LORD."

I haven't read your entire post yet, but I'm working on it. In the meantime, a couple of items....


I don't know who the "we" is that "knows" this, but it does not include my wife and me. Except in rare cases where mortal danger is involved, we never hide things or place them beyond the reach of our children. If there is a book I do not want them to read, I leave it in the bookshelf with all the other books, and tell them that they should not read it. Then I expect them to leave it alone. We did the same when they were babies and expected them to sit at the table during mealtimes, and not touch things they were told not to touch. Our mealtimes were much cleaner and less stressful than my friends' mealtimes which essentially consisted of parents desperately keeping things out of reach and kids desperately trying to reach them.

This way of doing things has an even better outcome than calmer meals. My kids are trained to "hear my voice" and follow what I say. When they were kids playing in the park, they sometimes ran toward dangerous places (e.g. street), as kids sometimes do. All I had to do was say "Stop" loud enough for them to hear, and they would stop in their tracks, no matter what they were doing or where they were going. It worked great in the park, it works great in the parking lot, it works great when we go hiking. And I feel somewhat secure that when they are old enough, and they want to do something dangerous (e.g. marry someone that is not right for them), I can say "Stop" and they will trust me enough to stop in their tracks and listen to what I have to say.

Furthermore, I hope to continue training them to gain wisdom so that they can see for themselves when something is dangerous and should be avoided. Then I can die and they will still be OK.

But all this depends on two things: they trust that I know what I'm talking about, and I trust they will choose wisely.

However, the common method of "move it beyond their reach if you don't want them to have it" teaches kids, and adults, that if it is within their reach, then it must be ok to have. That's exactly what you say God set up in Eden.


There you have it. In your view, God wanted Adam to do something, then told him not to do it. That's also another thing I would never do with my kids.

I agree that we need to teach our children to not touch instead of hiding the objects, however, the objects placed into their reach is proportionate to their level of understanding and development. You do not put a sharp knife in your baby’s playpen as an object in reach. You will be very selective of what you put there. As a father, you know when it is time to put in reach those sharp knives.

God knew it was going to happen and it didn’t start with A&E, it started with Lucifer. By creating us with reason and so wonderfully made unperceiving where our thoughts came from and by God being in the background and invisible, God knew that we would come to take His glory. So God made a perfect plan before creating anything and Christ was slain from the beginning in His plan.

Regardless if you would do this to your children or not Asygo, the fact is God did it to His children and according to His own Laws of Liabilities, He is ultimately responsible for sin.

God’s Laws of Liability

Ex 21:28 “If a bull gores a man or woman to death, the bull is to be stoned to death, and its meat must not be eaten. But the owner of the bull will not be held responsible. 29 If, however, the bull has had the habit of goring and the owner has been warned but has not kept it penned up and it kills a man or woman, the bull is to be stoned and its owner also is to be put to death. 30 However, if payment is demanded, the owner may redeem his life by the payment of whatever is demanded. 31 This law also applies if the bull gores a son or daughter. 32 If the bull gores a male or female slave, the owner must pay thirty shekels of silver to the master of the slave, and the bull is to be stoned to death.

Ex 21:33 “If anyone uncovers a pit or digs one and fails to cover it and an ox or a donkey falls into it, 34 the one who opened the pit must pay the owner for the loss and take the dead animal in exchange.

These two laws are pretty much the same in it's end result but with different causes.

The Crazy Bull : In heaven, God had a bull that was known to gore and did "kill" 1/3 of the angels of heaven. Instead of penning up the crazy bull, he let him loose in Adam's field (earth). This bull gored his wife, and then Adam. The penalty of this law requires that the bull be stoned (judged by the law) and the owner must be killed. Had Jesus refused he would have sinned because he would have been in violation of this law.

Pit uncovered : God dug a pit by planting the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden. He warned Adam away, but didn't put a cover over the pit. The law required that a hedge or fence be put around this tree to prevent Adam or Eve from eating its fruit. Eve & Adam fell into the pit. The one who dug the pit had to redeem the animal that fell in.

Deut 22:8 "When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof."

House Not Safe : Jesus built this house (world) but he did not provide proper safety with it. It has caused the death of many people. Restitution is required, and the required restitution is redemption.

Wow. It's all God's fault.

I think Asygo is a very good parent! Do you say that God isn't as good as earthly parents?

If God made the laws and then failed by them, why couldn't He just change His laws? If you say He changes not, then would that mean He is basically bad, that His character is flawed? Why not His laws be flawed, then, and in need of changing?

The GC make so much more since to me to believe, indeed as the Bible actually teaches, that sin is the result of the free choice of God’s created beings, all within a context of God’s love granting this freedom; rather than this alternative view that, (as kland rightly summarily remarked), ‘it’s all God’s deliberate fault’. It’s way too “bipolar” for me. I.e., God wants to eradicate evil but He is the one who is forcing it to occur??!

As I understand it, Adam and Eve were created with fully develop capacities. So they perfectly understood the clear warnings of God to “not eat the fruit” and also the consequences for doing so. So unlike a baby who would not understand what a knife was, and what ‘not touching it means’ Adam and Eve perfectly understood those things. It was just that Eve allowed herself to be deceived and then when Adam saw nothing had happened to her, and fearing to lose her, he also sinned.

And placing a single tree amongst many others, making it virtually out of reach, certainly out of any necessity of eating its fruit, is not synonymous with ‘placing a knife in a cognitively “deficient” baby’s playpen.’