Why Did God put the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? - Part 2

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Freedom of Choice
We have seen that man was created as a morally free being, which means, man is free to obey and disobey the standards of God. To exercise his moral freedom, God should not withhold man the choice of disobeying Him. After all, what is that freedom to obey if there is no freedom to disobey? Such freedom would be superficial and unreasonable.

For this reason, God presented before man the alternative to disobey His command by putting the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Interestingly, God has forbidden only one thing while giving man all the freedom to do other things. Is it fair to still accuse God because of this one forbidden thing which he has put before man? Doesn't this show how ignorant we are about God’s holy nature and the nature of design of man’s creation?

If God had not created man as a morally free being without freedom to disobey Him, He would still be accused of being a hypocrite or a manipulator, for He had created man as a morally free being without any choice to exercise his moral freedom. Norman Geisler rightly pointed out that "forced love is rape; and God is not a divine rapist. He will not do anything to coerce their decision."

If this sounds logical, why is God blamed for putting the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, without which it doesn’t make any sense that man is morally a free being to choose that which is right or wrong?

See how fair God was in His creation of man:

• God created man as a morally free being with a choice to do right or wrong. Indeed, when Adam was created, he was fully upright, having left with a choice either to continue in his uprightness or to turn to wickedness. It is written, “God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes” (Ecc. 7:29).

• God created man and gave him the freedom to eat anything but also warned him not to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He said, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen. 2:16-17a)

• God not only forbade man not to eat fruit from the forbidden tree but also cautioned him of the consequence if he goes against His command. He said, “For when you eat of it you will surely die” (Gen. 2:17b).

You see, man did not fall in sin out of ignorance or out of compulsion; he was in complete knowledge of what he was supposed to do and what he shouldn’t. He made the choice consciously and voluntarily. Therefore, God was perfectly fair in the way He created man, giving him the complete freedom to enjoy everything around him and also warning him of the consequence of choosing to go against His will.

Risky Gift of Free Will
Now, I can imagine some raising this question—when God already knew that man would disobey Him, why should He still put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?” Good question! Let us give a careful thought to this point.

God did not give man the freedom just for the sake of freedom—it is to love, to obey and to do good. Paul E. Little wonderfully describes the necessity of freedom to love in the following way:

How would you like to be married to a chatty doll? Every morning and every night you could pull the string and get the beautiful words, “I love you”. There would never be any hot words, never any conflict, never anything said or done that would make you sad! But who would want that? There would never be any love, either. Love is voluntary. God could have made us like robots, but we would have ceased to be men. God apparently thought it worth the risk of creating us as we are. [Know Why You Believe, pg. 87]

I take great delight when my children obey, for they choose to do voluntarily. I don’t take the same delight in my computer which does what I command with my figures, for it is just a lifeless system playing as I wish. Fortunately, man was not created like this lifeless system. He has been created in a mysterious way to do things voluntarily. Although trees and animals are also animate things, man is marvelous and unique above all earthly creation because of the moral freedom he has and the creative way he functions.

Of course, there is a risk involved in this freewill: The more freedom man has to obey means the more freedom he has even to disobey. J. B. Phillips put it so well, "Evil is inherent in the risky gift of free will.” But just because of the negative consequences that man would face due to the abuse of His free will, should it stop God from creating him as a morally free being, especially if He truly loves us and expects us to wholeheartedly love Him and one another? [continued next page...] | 2 of 3