I'm not sure if this has been addressed before. Didn't spot anything like this while I was skimming through.
If Adam and Eve had no knowledge of the concepts of good and evil, they had no way to know that disobeying God and eating the forbidden fruit was actually wrong. They didn't obtain that knowledge until after their transgression. So, was it actually fair for them to be punished?
poseur,
Adam and Eve did have a knowledge of good and evil!!
In Theology there is a term called, Concursus, which meant that Adam and Eve were protected from evil, by obeying God. They knew that if they disobeyed God it was evil. They decided they wanted to obey Satan, instead of God, so they no longer were fit to remain in the Garden of Eden. They knew that God had said that if they eat from the Tree they would surely Die, Gen 2:17. Satan told Eve that She POSITIVELY would not die, Gen 3:4.
This is what happened!!!
God created everything good for Adam and Eve to enjoy, and all God required of them was to keep not eat of the TREE OF kNOWLEDGE of GOOD AND BAD.
This tree symbolized the only way that Adam and Eve could show God that they appreciated all that God had done for them.
Adam had told Eve what God had told him. Eve looked at the tree and saw that it was good to look at so she took some of the fruit and ate. Then she gave some to Adam, and he ate some, Gen 3:6.
Eve was deceived by what Satan had said, but Adam was NOT deceived!! 1Tim 2:14. Because they rebelled against God, they became flawed, they had a defect, that meant they started to die. When they had children that defect was transferred to their offspring, and the defect was passed on to all of mankind, so we all die, Rom 5:12, Deut 32:4,5.
How could God allow them to stay in the Garden of Eden, when they rebelled against Him and made Satan their God???
God then turned the world over to Satan, to give him and mankind a certain period of time to find out that man cannot rule himself, because man was never meant to rule without God, Jere 10:23. Jesus and The Apostle Paul, both said that Satan is the ruler of this world, John 12:31, 14:30,16:11, 2Cor 4:3,4. The Apostle said the same, 1John 5:19, Rev 12:9, Luke 4:5-8.
How can anyone believe that God is the ruler of the world when it is in such chaos?? A term called Pan-satanism, actually means that this world is the expression of the personality of it's ruler, Satan. How true that is!!!
God only gave mankind a certain period of time and then God has promised that He is going to send His son to remove all who do not want to obey God and then set up a paradise earth, 2Pet 3:7, Matt 25:31-36, 2Thes 1:6-9, Luke 23:43, Rev 21:3,4.
According to Bible chronology Jesus became the King og God's Kingdom in 1914, Rev 12:12. Jesus is ruling over the earth from heaven for a short time then he will bring on Armageddon, Rev 16:16, Acts 3:19-21, Ps 110:1, Eph 1:9,10, 1Cor 15:25.
The time for mankind is fast running out, and all must make up their minds whether they want to live or die, Deut 30:19,20, Eph 4:4-6.