Gen 2:8 And Jehovah God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there He put the man whom He had formed. (9) ...the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Deut 30:19 ...I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life that you and your seed may live,
[Part 2 of 2] We do not know how much time elapsed between the rebellion of Satan and the creation of Adam. We simply know that at a particular time, God created man and endowed him with a human will that was free. It is because of God's greatness that He gave man a free will. A great person will never compel anyone to follow him. By giving man a free will, God was indicating that He would not force man to obey Him. When I was young, I thought that God was not wise in creating man with a free will. If I had been God, I would have made it impossible for man to have had a choice. I would have created man in such a way that all he could do was follow God. But in His greatness God gave man freedom of choice. In Genesis 2 we see that man was free to exercise his will to eat either of the tree of life or of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. These two trees represent the divine will and the satanic will, respectively. Hence, in the garden there was a triangular situation, with the tree of life representing the divine will, the tree of knowledge representing the satanic will, and Adam representing the human will. Therefore, there were three persons--God, Satan, and man--each one with a will. Although there were three wills, the controversy involved just two parties--God and Satan. The crucial issue was whether man would choose the divine will or the satanic will.... (Continued tomorrow)
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 528. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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