Message of the Month & Prayer Requests

God placed two special trees in the middle of the Garden: the Tree of Life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:9, 17; 3:3, 22, 24). Eating from the tree of life would grant immortality (v. 22). Eating from the second tree would grant an experiential knowledge of good and evil, but it would also bring death (2:17). Since they had never experienced evil, Adam and Eve were like innocent children after them(Deut. 1:39; Isa. 7:15–16). When they disobeyed God, they became like Him in being able to discriminate between good and evil; but they became unlike Him in that they lost their innocence to sin and eventually died.

But why did God have to test Adam and Eve? There may be many answers to that question, but one thing is sure: God wanted His creation in His image to love and obey Him freely and willingly and not as though they were programmed machines who had to obey.