> So, in the begining, God created a perfect Earth within a perfect
> universe. This is why He is noted to often say "it is good". God being
> Holy would not be able to call "good" something which is evil. The now
> famous tree of knowledge was not an ugly smudge in the middle of a
> "good" creation. The existence of this tree simply means God created
> man free. God put it there because evil existed. But He did say do not
> touch it. Freedom is a double edge sword: one is free to do right and
> free to do wrong. Adam and Eve were not forced to disobey God. The
> serpent merely made a suggestion. If God had not included this tree he
> would have deprived man of his freedom of choice. God does not force
> goodness down anyone's throat. Man is asked to adhere to it strictly by
> choice.
Guy,
You seem to equate `good' with `perfect', i. e. best possible. If `good'
is `perfect', what is `very good'? Better than perfect? And if `good'
isn't best possible, how can one be sure that `very good' is best
possible? Wasn't Eden a better place than the rest of the earth? Thus
could the rest of the earth have been perfect if it wasn't as good as the
Garden? I expect heaven to be better than what Adam had in Eden, and
we won't need to worry about a repeat of what happened there.
We should let God be the judge of what is good and not try to read our own
ideas of good into the Scripture. In Psalm 104 (vs. 21) the psalmist
praises God for providing prey for predators. Is that evil? Men tend to
think of earthquakes as being bad, but in Rev. 16:18 John's careful
wording indicates that he thought there might have been very severe
earthquakes before the Fall, in fact even before Adam was created.
Gordon Brown
Department of Mathematics
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0395