Another Practical Guide to the Logic, Philosophy, and Thoughts of Christianity

Section 1 - Article 10

Article 10 - Being Equal with God

When I was a child, I was fascinated with mythologies and stories of deities and gods from other religions. In one of these books that I was reading, there was one particular account of the biblical Genesis and it portrayed the Lord as being afraid of man's equality with Himself after the consumption of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Whilst it was an interpretation of Genesis 3:22, I did not feel it described the Lord God I knew from the Scriptures, and here I am going to provide another interpretation of the verse.

Genesis 3:22 gives the account that the Lord God was worried that Man will live forever after obtaining the knowledge of good and evil, and thus, in the following verse, Adam and Eve were both driven out from the Garden of Eden so they would be kept away from the Tree of Life. Through the eyes of Man, it may be that God is fearful of Man becoming equal with God, able to live forever and also knowing good and evil. However, this is what the very sin (the desire to be like God) that is used to interpret the situation. Eve was tempted that way by the snake in Genesis 3:5, where "they shall be like gods". The very same sin was described in Isaiah 14:12 where the desire to be higher or on the same level of the One Almighty God was commonly attributed to the fall of Satan.

So why is it that God is worried of Man's reaching to gain eternal life after gaining the knowledge of good and evil? It is very unlikely that it is because God has issues with control or problems with sharing power or even that He was afraid that He would be ousted. Those are very "human" answers, and are very ignorant. Even if Man was able to live forever, and be outside time, we cannot possibly be above or equal to the Creator through obtaining other aspects of creation (the fruit). God created good and evil, God created the Tree of Life, God created the Tree of knowledge of good and evil. By assimilating other creations, one can hardly expect to be equal with the Creator. It is philosophically ridiculous to even consider that thought, and very human. In fact, there was no issue with Man living eternally. Some evidence of this are in Rev 22:5, Psalm 23:6, 1 John 3:2 which are 1) we serve the Lord forever; 2) dwell in the house of the Lord forever; 3) be like the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Eternal.

The same applies to the Devil and the Beast who would be tormented in the lake of fire forever and ever (Rev 20:10). Satan knows both good and evil as he was previously an angel of high order, and eventually the Devil, and Revelation 20:10 clearly states that the Devil, Beast and False Prophet would not be taken by death, but be tormented for all eternity. Clearly, Satan being a created being like Man; a being with the knowledge of good and evil – like Man; and a being that would not die – like Man if the fruit of the Tree of Life was acquired; was far from being equal or higher than the Lord God – albeit Satan did think he could somehow achieve it. In fact, one must also ponder that Satan, being power hungry as he is, is curiously trying to get Adam and Eve to a level higher or equal to himself or that of God? It only serves to bring doubt if Man could truly reach the level of God (higher than Satan) or even that of Satan should Adam and Eve were to consume fruits from both trees. Here I make the side point that it is perhaps more possible for us to double-guess Satan but not the Lord God Himself. If anything, in our fallen state, we are closer to Satan than we are to God.

So what is the real issue or source of God's worry in Man's eternal life with the knowledge of good and evil? Given the example from Satan?

One possibility is that God in His love for us, did not want Man to be at the level of conceit or foolishness or evil that Satan had no doubt reached. We would be falling deeper into sin if we had not death to bring things to an end. Death, being synonymous with all things evil, is apparently serving as a stop button to continued foolishness of Man's sin. In fact, it is only through death that we can then receive God's gift of eternal life (Romans 6:23). Looking at the laws of God through Moses, one can see that death is often used to put an end to sin (witchcraft, certain sexual sins, murder..etc). Death does not allow sin to be recommitted or continued. It is the end of a sinful life. And it is only at the end can one be judged. It is only after death can the judgment be the summation of all that is transpired. Judgment in the process of sin is incomplete, but judgment at the end of it all, is complete. Therefore death, as unlikeable as it may be to the human mind, is the end of our sinful lives, and the doorway to judgment. In fact, the real death to be feared is not the physical death, but the eternal death of torment as mentioned in Revelation 20:10.

In this, God's worry and prevention of Adam and Eve reaching out to the Tree of Life was not for fear for His own power control, but out of His love for Man, to ensure that their sin has an end, and for the gift of eternal life through Christ to be possible. It was for Man's own good (not out of selfish insecurity of God) that Adam and Eve were driven out of Eden.

In fact, looking back on the points discussed, it is disheartening and really foolish of us Man to even attribute God's worry to His insecurity of powers. Much like the kid who believes that his parents do not want him to eat plenty of sweets late at night because the parents want to eat the sweets themselves, we need to stop thinking about God from our own perspective, but drop our ego and try to think beyond our limited selves. It is only then can we interpret the Scriptures correctly with the guidance of the Holy Ghost, to one day see Him and dwell with Him eternally without the blemish of sin.