Was sending Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden a blessing or a curse?

Alexandros92 · Post by **Alexandros92** » 06 Jun 2020, 13:28

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If I understand your statement correctly, the dids of Adam and Eve met absolutely no reaction from God? God didn't punish them for the sins they committed. What happened to the "just" God?
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Self-awareness and the need for human law (tree of knowledge) contradict faith to God. The moment the first people chose to break out and get self-awareness their Exodus from the Garden came naturally. It was just but not a punishment.

Self-aware men reject the natural, tribal, and family-oriented way of hunter-gathering lifestyle and wish to create more and more property and expansion and in order for that to happen they need to work .

Self-aware women will not trust their bodies to do their thing when giving birth and thus they will suffer more during the procedure.

In simple terms, when you choose to trust your Ego more than God, when you think that you know better than nature, you begin clinging on things. Then suffering follows. I chose to not interpret the Bible literally, although the author thinks otherwise. I believe in the creation story symbolically where the fig symbolizes the rise of Awareness and the end of natural life.

Sheila_Jay · Post by **Sheila_Jay** » 06 Jun 2020, 15:33

If God was trying to protect Adam and Eve from Satan, then I think it would be easier and much better if He removed satan from the garden, rather than the two. Adam and Eve were sent out of the garden simply because they disregarded God's word, and as such, being sent out was more of a punishment for the sin that they had committed.

Nerea · Post by **Nerea** » 06 Jun 2020, 15:49

JM Reviews wrote: ↑06 Jun 2020, 01:04
Nerea wrote: ↑04 Jun 2020, 10:30
JM Reviews wrote: ↑04 Jun 2020, 04:38 Just after Adam and Eve had eaten from the tree of knowledge, God drove them away from the Garden. The author of this book seems to justify every curse that God put on Adam. At some point, Adam seems grateful for the curses. What really captured my attention was the justification of the fact that God sent them away from Eden. Do you think the main purpose was to protect them from Lucifer? Do you believe that eating from the tree of life would have worsened the situation?
He wasn't protecting them from Lucifer because both Adam and Eve joined him to rebel against God. God drove them away so that they may not eat from the tree of life and become immortal souls.
This book argues that since Lucifer was given authority over the fruit of knowledge, if Adam and Eve didn't move away from him, he would have found a way of using them again. But then, why didn't God allow them to be immortal?

Remember in Genesis 2:16,17, God told Adam not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and bad, for in the day that he eats from it, he will die. Allowing them to become immortal souls would term God a liar, and we all know He doesn't lie (Titus 1:2; Isaiah 55:11).

Poppy Drear · Post by **Poppy Drear** » 06 Jun 2020, 17:46

Honestly, I see it as a blessing. Being exiled from the Garden of Eden seems, on the face of it, like a rather harsh punishment. My interpretation, though, is that the Garden of Eden just wasn't where Adam and Eve belonged after eating from the tree of knowledge. I'm sure it certainly felt like a punishment, but at the end of the day, I find exercising one's free will to be much more important than existing in some nebulous state of permanent bliss.

Dragonsend · Post by **Dragonsend** » 06 Jun 2020, 17:59

Wyzdomania_Gskillz wrote: ↑04 Jun 2020, 10:50
JM Reviews wrote: ↑04 Jun 2020, 04:38 Just after Adam and Eve had eaten from the tree of knowledge, God drove them away from the Garden. The author of this book seems to justify every curse that God put on Adam. At some point, Adam seems grateful for the curses. What really captured my attention was the justification of the fact that God sent them away from Eden. Do you think the main purpose was to protect them from Lucifer? Do you believe that eating from the tree of life would have worsened the situation?
First of all, God didn't put any curse what so ever on man. He only cursed the ground because of man and then increased the pains of childbearing for the woman. He didn't even introduce the pains at that time, He only increased it.....meaning the woman was already meant to experience some pain during childbirth, but probably not much.

Secondly, sending the man and woman away from the garden was for their good and that of mankind to come. That was the singular act that ensured they could be redeemed again. Because if they had gone ahead to eat from the tree of life after the fall (which I suppose they were already eating from before the fall, seeing as the tree of knowledge of good and evil was the only forbidden one), they would have lived perpetually in that fallen state with no possibility of redemption....

I love that you clarified the "curse" because so many people misconstrue this. Secondly, I believe that as humans we would still experience a full range of emotions but eating from the tree meant death. I read this somewhere : Satan was a liar from word one,,so if God said you would die that was it.God extended love and mercy and sovereignty from the very beginning..Instead of death they were exiled. We have redemption by grace and that means after the first death we will be immortal.
I think being exiled from Eden was punishment and I did not finish the book because the first thing I disagreed with was the author's ramblings about how sacrificing came into existence and guilt. If you make a mistake you pay for it and you move on. If your dad was with you every day wouldn't you want to give him the gift of doing your very best and open communication back up with him? Offering what you have per his instruction? I don't feel that guilt would have been a huge factor but love.

Alec_Stamm · Post by **Alec_Stamm** » 07 Jun 2020, 00:00

I think we need to first grapple with a few things before asking this question. Who or what is God. God is the archetypal embodiment of all that is good, true, and beautiful. He created mankind as Adam and Eve, human beings endowed with free will. Characteristic of free will is what makes mankind distinct from all the animals and beasts. When their free will was put on trial, Adam and Eve submitted to an act of vanity by eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, against the explicit prohibition of God (with the symbolic significance of attempting to be co-equal with God, rather than submit to His will as their Creator). In doing so, they introduced sin into their nature, marring the blank slate of their souls. So what does this all lead up to? That which is good (God) cannot remain good if it intermixes with that which is not good (man). It is a distinction of definition. Just as wine mixed with poison loses the defining characteristic of wine, so too would a God that left the un-good unpunished lose the defining characteristic of God.
TL;DR---- Sending Adam and Eve from the Garden was neither a blessing nor a curse, but the logical conclusion of a set of events made necessary by our conception of God as Good, True, and Beautiful.

AvidBibliophile · Post by **AvidBibliophile** » 07 Jun 2020, 00:09

Alexandros92 wrote: ↑04 Jun 2020, 06:56 Sending them out of the Garden is neither. It is just the natural outcome of their choice. Since the fruit basically symbolizes the lack of trust toward nature and God and thus the awaking of the Ego and the need for knowledge, it is only natural that human beings found themselves to be isolated. It is not a curse and not a blessing.

If humans trusted God and let go of their Ego, the gates of Eden would reopen in the afterlife. It is a choice, nobody is punishing us.

I find your subjective sense of ambiguity on this topic to be a refreshing reprieve from the often forced compulsion of humans to categorize every choice we make in life. Sometimes things just are. Sometimes outcomes are just the result of our ego-centric actions, decisions, and impulses. There may be underlying lessons or some snippet of insight, perhaps an enlightened awakening of some deeper version of ourselves not yet explored...

But free will is exactly that. The freedom to choose, and then the attached freedom to interpret whatever results. Individualism fosters diversity, even among the "blessed" and the "cursed" - as we forge our own paths in life, we are fully aware of which things we invite and avoid. Adam and Eve were simply the "first ones" to explore their symbolic curiosities. And be(cause) of their choices, they were (effect)ively evicted.

Ze al · Post by **Ze al** » 07 Jun 2020, 00:53

To me, the judgement passed on them isn't a curse. It is a blessing.

Post by **Melisa Jane** » 07 Jun 2020, 02:42

Nerea wrote: ↑06 Jun 2020, 15:49
JM Reviews wrote: ↑06 Jun 2020, 01:04
Nerea wrote: ↑04 Jun 2020, 10:30

He wasn't protecting them from Lucifer because both Adam and Eve joined him to rebel against God. God drove them away so that they may not eat from the tree of life and become immortal souls.
This book argues that since Lucifer was given authority over the fruit of knowledge, if Adam and Eve didn't move away from him, he would have found a way of using them again. But then, why didn't God allow them to be immortal?
Remember in Genesis 2:16,17, God told Adam not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and bad, for in the day that he eats from it, he will die. Allowing them to become immortal souls would term God a liar, and we all know He doesn't lie (Titus 1:2; Isaiah 55:11).

I now understand. So, Lucifer lied to them that even if they eat from the fruit of knowledge, they won't die. It was true that they would die.

Nama Winnie · Post by **Nama Winnie** » 07 Jun 2020, 02:55

Sheila_Jay wrote: ↑06 Jun 2020, 15:33 If God was trying to protect Adam and Eve from Satan, then I think it would be easier and much better if He removed satan from the garden, rather than the two. Adam and Eve were sent out of the garden simply because they disregarded God's word, and as such, being sent out was more of a punishment for the sin that they had committed.

Then that would mean no punishment for those two.

I see where you are coming from

Nama Winnie · Post by **Nama Winnie** » 07 Jun 2020, 02:57

Ze al wrote: ↑07 Jun 2020, 00:53 To me, the judgement passed on them isn't a curse. It is a blessing.

Why do you think that? I'm trying to understand this book and everything that comes with it

Laurina Michael Olowoniran · 07 Jun 2020, 10:05

I think it's even to protect them from themselves. And that's because if they eat the fruit of life, they would be in that fallen state forever. I don't think God wanted that.

AvocaDebo621 · Post by **AvocaDebo621** » 07 Jun 2020, 10:22

The curse ended with separation from God and even facing an ultimate death in the end. So I believe it was both a blessing and a curse. While living in the garden, they could not enjoy the different levels of emotions (such as sadness and pain), so they could not be able to fully appreciate the good times without those bad times as well.

Nerea · Post by **Nerea** » 07 Jun 2020, 11:22

Yuffielyn wrote: ↑04 Jun 2020, 04:50
JM Reviews wrote: ↑04 Jun 2020, 04:38 Just after Adam and Eve had eaten from the tree of knowledge, God drove them away from the Garden. The author of this book seems to justify every curse that God put on Adam. At some point, Adam seems grateful for the curses. What really captured my attention was the justification of the fact that God sent them away from Eden. Do you think the main purpose was to protect them from Lucifer? Do you believe that eating from the tree of life would have worsened the situation?
I think God sent them away to know how much they have fait to are God and protect them because God still forgiven people who have sins thats why he sent his only son Jesus to save us/forgive or sins.

Yes. God forgives people who sincerely repent, but in Adam and Eve's case, God didn't forgive them. He cursed them (Notice the court ruling of their case, where God was the Judge in Genesis 3: 16-19)