Cheryl Schatz

Mark,
You wrote:

Pinklight,

you brought up another good point. Eve saw it as desirable for gaining wisdom. She is listening to the lies of the serpent, edging closer to him and falling further from God. All before she even eats the fruit and becomes a ‘sinner’.

Being deceived is very serious but it is not a sin unless there is an action taken. When Eve was talking with the serpent, she was not yet deceived and in sin until she looked at the fruit and started to doubt God.

Remember that God told her that the food that was permissible for them was only the fruit that had seeds? Her deception gave birth to unbelief when she looked at the fruit and judged it “good for food” by looking at the outside. She did not test it by the life giving seed even once she disobeyed God by touching the fruit. She tested the fruit by the lie and she fell into transgression. When you place Eve’s sin further back by removing LORD from God’s name, or by adding to God’s words, you are judging her as a sinner before she ate the fruit. Tradition that is faulty will blind our minds from seeing the truth of God’s words and cause us to be in unbelief about the innocence of Eve as a witness for God.