Does Everyone Here Take The Adam And Eve Story Literally?

[ayin jade]

46 minutes ago, ReneeIW said:

Why was their rebellion considered so bad when they were ignorant of what they were doing? Scripture seems to make allowances for those who do things out of ignorance.

Adam at least knew what God had said. What eve knew is not known, that is, did God tell her not to, or did adam tell her, Regardless, God held them both accountable for their actions. 

[Debp]

I believe the Adam and Eve story is literal, and about disobedience and not trusting what God said.

[ReneeIW]

On 9/26/2019 at 7:41 PM, Tampered With said:

Absolutely 100%!

So for the record, you believe a talking snake approached Eve and told her not to believe God, but to instead believe it, about whether or not she would die if she ate the fruit?

You believe a piece of fruit contained all the knowledge of good and evil and biting into it instantly gave Adam and Eve that knowledge? 

 

[ReneeIW]

30 minutes ago, Tampered With said:

It was not a talking snake. You need further in depth study to rightly divide the word of G_d.

 

Would you like to tell me what it was? Or you would rather just tell me what I need to do and use the “praying for me button?”

 

Edited September 28, 2019 by ReneeIW

[wingnut-]

On 9/16/2019 at 8:45 AM, ReneeIW said:

Just wondering if all Churches still teach that the Scriptures about Adam and Eve were meant to be taken literally?

 

Probably not because we were warned well in advance that people would stray from sound teaching.

II Timothy 4: 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

 

On 9/16/2019 at 8:45 AM, ReneeIW said:

All the evil and destruction in the world happened because they ate a piece of fruit?

 

Sin and death replaced perfection and life, quite a change.  The issue was two-fold, they now had the knowledge of good and evil, and direct disobedience to God.

 

On 9/16/2019 at 8:45 AM, ReneeIW said:

Why not guard the tree of the knowledge of  good and evil with a flaming sword the same way the tree of life was eventually guarded?

 

The tree of life wasn't guarded until after the fall, cause and effect.  Why did they just not obey?  Adam and Eve already had it all, they had the very thing that all of us are striving to obtain, paradise.  When we are all in heaven at the end, should we remain obedient or do what we are specifically told not to?

 

On 9/16/2019 at 8:45 AM, ReneeIW said:

Yes they disobeyed God, but did the punishment fit the crime?

 

The punishment was exactly what God told Adam it would be.  God cannot lie, so therefore the punishment could not be changed.

 

On 9/16/2019 at 8:45 AM, ReneeIW said:

Why no mercy in the Garden if all they did was eat a piece of fruit?

 

Eating the fruit gave them the knowledge of good and evil.  They were no longer innocent, it's not that complicated.

 

God bless

[rontiger]

On ‎9‎/‎16‎/‎2019 at 8:45 AM, ReneeIW said:

Just wondering if all Churches still teach that the Scriptures about Adam and Eve were meant to be taken literally?

I've always taken them literally, but now I'm having second thoughts and wondering if I'm the only one. All the evil and destruction in the world happened because they ate a piece of fruit? Why not guard the tree of the knowledge of  good and evil with a flaming sword the same way the tree of life was eventually guarded?

Yes they disobeyed God, but did the punishment fit the crime? The Old Testmant spends a lot of time talking about how just/fair God is, and more importantly, how merciful He is. Why no mercy in the Garden if all they did was eat a piece of fruit?

Oh cool;I wrote to a friend in Washington about Adam and Eve just 3 weeks ago. However I did not cover the original sin theology as you are inquiring about. I just showed him how a landmark discovery that was published in an highly reputable, secular(non-religious[explaining for the youth]) scientific journal  in 2018  gave very strong evidence that a single human couple ,"Adam and Eve " ,were the ancestors of all humans alive today . Maybe I will start a discussion on it.

Anyways as to your original sin questions I think the advice by Tamperingwith  to  get a good commentary is good. All I will say  is it is not simply " all they did was eat just a piece of fruit" as you put it. Adam and Eve:

1) ate fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

( just a guess  but maybe there was a  virus in that fruit that caused a change to their genome-anyways the Lord could have caused the fruit to "open their eyes" in a million ways)

2)they disobeyed God

I know you know this(but  you may not fully accept it) but I want people/youth reading around the globe to be clear that Adam and Eve did not just eat a piece of fruit.

They ate the one  and only thing the Lord God forbade them to eat. The Lord God(Jesus and the Father and the H.S.) is never wrong and neither is the Bible.

 

[JohnD]

On 9/16/2019 at 7:45 AM, ReneeIW said:

Just wondering if all Churches still teach that the Scriptures about Adam and Eve were meant to be taken literally?

I've always taken them literally, but now I'm having second thoughts and wondering if I'm the only one. All the evil and destruction in the world happened because they ate a piece of fruit? Why not guard the tree of the knowledge of  good and evil with a flaming sword the same way the tree of life was eventually guarded?

Yes they disobeyed God, but did the punishment fit the crime? The Old Testmant spends a lot of time talking about how just/fair God is, and more importantly, how merciful He is. Why no mercy in the Garden if all they did was eat a piece of fruit?

The significance of the circumstances far outweigh the appearance of the infractions.

For example, the events of Exodus 32 were far more grave than only worshiping a calf idol

and sex orgies. It was the defiant undoing of everything YHVH had done by returning to Egypt.

Which was their intention.

Returning to the pagan, worldly life they knew.

To eventually assimilate.

What happened in the wilderness in defiance,

Adam and Eve did in ignorance in Eden. 

In Eden, the devil (Revelation 12:19) got Eve to think of herself as the best steward of her own benevolence.

Who better to look out for Eve than Eve?

And she was third banana. YHVH, Adam, then her.

So the first feminist act was in eating the one fruit YHVH banned them from eating.

"Did God say?" ← the first challenge to the Word of God.

"God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it," ← the first humanist misinterpretation of God's Word.

Proverbs 30:5–6 (AV)
5 Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
6 Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.

The devil doesn't need our sympathy, Rolling Stones. The devil does not need us playing his advocate.

He does not need our help misinterpreting the Word of God thus interfering with God's plan (although he relies heavily upon this). 

The garden of Eden was a test, a trial, a proving ground. The whole thing reeks of Job chapters 1 and 2.

For the sake of trying to understand what was at stake at the time, imagine in the spirit realm before there was a physical universe

or Earth or people... YHVH is about to pronounce eternal judgment on Lucifer and the angels who followed him in his futile rebellion...

when the Instigator of evil charged YHVH "You are not fair. You are not just. We sin once and we must pay for all eternity to come?"

"The soul that sins shall die" (Ezekiel 18:4 / 20).  Angels (which Lucifer is one of) were created in their permanent estate. Even one sin

is a mark that cannot be removed. This is why fallen angels who believe and tremble cannot be redeemed. Man who can die physically

can be redeemed by the Kinsman Redeemer (YHVH who became a man). 

YHVH's answer to Lucifer's accusation... 

Genesis 1 (AV)
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.
14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Genesis 2:16–24 (AV)
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 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.
18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

The stage to prove YHVH is more than just more than fair was set.

Genesis 3:1–7 (AV)
1 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?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
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.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 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.
6 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.
7 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.

The trap was sprung.

Do we look at this from man's POV (ultimately the devil's POV)?

Or from God's?

God created Lucifer with a splendor and beauty and innocence and a warning about...

Ezekiel 28:11–19 (AV)
11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
12 Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
16 By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
17 Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.
18 Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.
19 All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.

Isaiah 14:1–23 (AV)
1 For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
2 And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.
3 And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,
4 That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!
5 The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.
6 He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.
7 The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.
8 Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.
9 Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
10 All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?
11 Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
16 They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;
17 That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?
18 All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.
19 But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.
20 Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.
21 Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.
22 For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LORD.
23 I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts.

Adam and Eve were more than cannon fodder to God.

In the proving ground of Eden he provided them with everything they needed including innocence.

He forewarned them about the consequences of eating from the tree of knowedge.

And he provided the tree of [eternal] life for their obedience.

When the trap was sprung, God did not give up and wipe out humanity, but he continued with his

plan to redeem humanity (1 John 2:2 / 1 Timothy 4:10 with the one stipulation of John 3:16-18 / Ephesians 2:8-10).

The only way to pull this off was to become a man himself. To fulfill the Law: which he gave...

• to authenticate his office as Messiah / Savior
• to prove to mankind the futility of any attempt to save ourselves
• to condemn those who do not believe in him
• to drive mankind to Grace

YHVH became a man for all eternity. That in itself is a sacrifice we cannot fully comprehend. He gave that human life on the cross (the Man whose Spirit is God the Word Creator of all things created in the beginning) so that his kind (humanity) might be saved. Another sacrifice we consider so supinely. We take he and his sacrifices for granted as we perceive of these things from our POV (ultimately the devil's POV).

The logical conclusion of the Opening Post 'does the sentence fit the crime? '  about eating a piece fruit begs the logical

conclusion: 'does hell fit the crime of human sin? '

...which is just repurposing the devil's charge that God is unjust and unfair.

I am not accusing the OP of anything. I am warning us all about human reason / rationale. Jesus' ultimate point in Matthew 16:13-23 was the contrast between the things of God versus the things of man (which is ultimately of the devil) ← that's why he called Peter Satan, and the father of the Jews who rejected him (Jesus) the devil in John 8:44 and the synagogue of Satan in Revelation 2:9 and 3:9.

 

 

 

Edited October 7, 2019 by JohnD

[enoob57]

On 9/17/2019 at 12:32 PM, missmuffet said:

Everyone thinks it was an apple that Adam and Eve ate but maybe not.

I am definitely convinced it was a pear

On 9/28/2019 at 5:18 PM, ReneeIW said:

So for the record, you believe a talking snake approached Eve and told her not to believe God, but to instead believe it, about whether or not she would die if she ate the fruit?

The issue I see is one who lives in the natural dismissing all possible realities unless experiencing it - is a mind making the natural order the only~ unless it bends to the proof of my senses a god... realizing everything came from nothing and then to take the position you have is error to say the least on what is probable. 

Quote

You believe a piece of fruit contained all the knowledge of good and evil and biting into it instantly gave Adam and Eve that knowledge? 

The whole of the matter was that of truth verses lie - God said eat and you will die yet satan said eat and you will not die. Clearly death has come to us all... you are thinking of knowledge in the linear sense when in fact it was spiritual all the way...

[101G]

Addressing the OP only. I believe that the Book of Genesis Account is real. but understand that this is a "CREATED" world. not the real one... but the events that is recorded is real. even when symbolism, an analogy, metaphor, or when a simile, ect are used, the record is a recorded event. History, created, or not is a record of an event. only the understanding of the event is the problem to most. but if one have theHoly Ghost, he will lead us into all truth. the truth is, "ye have not because ye ask not".

PICJAG.

[joebloggs]

I dont take the Adam and eve story literally. I think it is a narrative God gave us a loooong time ago to communicate some universal truths about where we come from and our basic nature in a way in which we would best understand.

Its worth remembering that our Christian bibliography contains all sorts. Some is poems, some is prophesies about the future, some is songs, some is historical accounts,  some is intellectual Godly teachings. Quite a chunk of it by it's own admission is NOT literal, it's not by any means a stretch to consider Adam and Eve a figurative story. 

SOME of it is stories that are told that didnt actually happen but are used to illustrate spiritual lessons, Jesus called them parables right? In Galatians 4 21 to 31 Paul explains a good example about this relationship and how to view these things from a spiritual perspective.

I'd consider Adam and eve to be one such figurative narrative for us to learn from.

And no I dont think a snake or serpent like lizard was speaking and had a full on literal conversation. I think in our heart of hearts most people know that didnt happen. We can still share this account of Adam and Eve with others and continue to pass it on to our children, learn from it and learn just as much today as we were thousands of years ago when it was first told. If it is figurative it doesnt nullify, cheapen or change the content or value one bit.