Cheryl Schatz

Craig,
I have struggled with the issue of the serpent and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Both seem to be “bad” yet we know that all that God created was “good”. How do we reconcile this?

I do believe that Adam named the serpent and the Bible says that the serpent was subtle. I am going by memory here as my Bible program isn’t yet open. It is a possibility that God created a creature that was normal and after God created it, satan entered into him and he started talking and then Adam named him knowing that he was different than all the other animals. I believe that Adam was aware of a difference, but I do believe that the key reason that Adam was not deceived was because of his knowledge of God and God as creator.

As far as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, this tree had no seed bearing fruit, therefore no life in its fruit. It also had an effect of poison since it was not good for food. Since all that God makes is good and the good is not distorted until after the fall when God curses it, I wonder if this tree was not a “plant” by satan. Since Adam was there when the garden was planted by God, he may have seen the tree that was put there by satan. The Bible doesn’t tell us for sure, but we can know some things by knowing what can’t be true.

We know that all that God does is good. All fruit trees with seed were given to Adam and Eve and they were good. The only tree that was not good for food was the ONE tree. Did God create that tree? If so why didn’t it have life in it?

What do we know about the serpent? We know that it was different than all the other animals. Why is that? Is it because satan had permission to enter this one animal and use it for his own means? I don’t see how Adam would not have known that, but it is clear to me that he knew it was different than the rest as more subtle.

What we do know is that Adam was not deceived. He was not deceived by the tree or the serpent or by satan.