Serious Biblical Q: Tree of Life?

1) "Us" is the Triune Godhead, the Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

2) The issue wasn't that they would be immortal. That's what is going to happen to all believers anyhow. The issue is that because they now knew right from wrong, good from evil they would never be free of it. If they ate from the tree of life before God set in place His plan of redemption they would suffer under the bondage of law for all eternity.

It's not so much the knowledge of good and evil it's the weight and the burden it puts on us before we are sanctified in Christ.

To have access to all knowledge, and be immortal, would make us "as gods", as it says in the KJV. God is immortal and knows everything. If we had access to both trees, we would be immortal and know everything. This is the basis for my belief, which I often tout on here, that knowledge is the key to faith and also to miracles. God can do miracles because He knows all the rules of the universe, since He wrote them. If we lived forever, we would also come to know all of the rules over time and be able to do the same. By being mortal, we are slowed down in this process, but not stopped. Since one man alone cannot live long enough to learn all things, he can at least pass what he knows to the next generation and they build upon that and pass it on, etc. In this way mankind has slowly built up knowledge to do things like fly and create light and such, but it has to be a team effort. It is God's will that we work together, and if we lived forever, we could all go our own way and become a race of independent gods. Just imagine the chaos.

A complex question, acutally several.

First, understand that trees are people. Do a word search and know this. Nebachadnezzar's dream he saw a tree. Daniel revealed he, the king, was that tree that was cut down. We are like trees planted by streams of water. We are like trees and you will know them by their fruit. Now, when you read trees and grass in Revelations, you will have an expanded understanding.

The tree of knowledge of good and evil is the law represented in Lucifer as the adversary and accuser.

The tree of life is grace represented by Jesus as the redeemer and defender. Likewise, we eat of this tree as we would the bread of life. Jesus is one and the same, amen?

You cannot have knowledge of the first and experience the other without the necessary course of repentence; recognizing the need for salvation/a saviour.

God knew this and didn't want that knowledge to pass from the law and sin into grace and eternity without forgiveness. Hence, He didn't want us to become like some of them that fell from their estate like the fallen angels. We would have become at least in essence no less and no more. He had greater plans for us.

It's very much like a legal due process. We cannot enjoy the exhoneration for accusations without our confession of sin and crimes. Once that is accomplished, Jesus steps forward as the grace of God whereby we have forgiveness by His blood sacrifice, sufficient to plead any transgression. The adminstration of justice on earth is very much a type and shadow of the administration of justice in Heaven.

This is the meat of scripture. I hope this helped a bit and am glad to see some are still pursuing the higher calling of the word.

Adam and Eve were created and at that time there was going to be no death. They could eat from the tree of Life and follow God's only one rule. Once they defied God they knew what it meant to be in what was not good. God, Jesus and Satan plus all the angels knew what was good and evil. They collectively could make up the us in the verses. Man was a new creation and part of all that was good until they exercised their right to free choice on what was told they were not to do. The choice Adam and Eve was not free however, it came at a price.

Man was in a sinful state after disobeying God

If they ate from the tree of life they would be in a sinful state forever.

They would be human flesh living forever in a sinful state.

They could not then receive salvation that Jesus would come to die for people.

They would be like the devil and the angels who rebelled.

Living forever in a sinful state.

The us is God who is The Father, The son, The Holy Spirit.

Man knew evil and good. The evil being to rebell against God.

The "us" in the Genesis I think we can conclude it's referring to human beings. However the first passage you stated I wouldn't know, but is it a certain translation? Humans falling away from God was probably way different than angels falling away from God. This fruit we ate helps us now to know what it's like to have bad and evil in the world. But well I'm glad there will be a place where only good is. Lucifer's was complete rebellion in which justice was brought.

Well, since there is this thing called "Lost In Translation", we will really never know or understand what the book was talking about. I don't say this as an atheist or an unbeliever, but as a person of worldly knowledge. Only the original people who the bible's language was meant for know the real text meaning. It makes more sense if you read it in Aramaic or ancient Hebrew. But that would take years of fighting the holders of the original bible for permission to even look at it.

The Us refers to becoming knowledgeable of good & evil. Before they ate of the fruit, they were pure, sinless. They committed the first sin & being kicked out of paradise was their punishment.

I think you're referring to the book of life later on in the bible, which is different from the tree of good & knowledge. The tree that bore the fruit that Adam & Eve ate of was the tree of good & knowledge, not the tree of life (that is probably where your confusion is coming from). The reference to "tree of life" in the above verse refers to man's ability to be restored (and obtain everlasting life through belief in God after that original sin) after the original sin not an actual tree. The book of life records those who have believed on Jesus.

I hope what I've said makes since. Your interpretation is way off of those verses. I'm not sure of your upbringing, etc. but it was interesting to read but tough to try to figure out what you were speaking of.

Here's some reference sites for you if you have further questions:

http://home.comcast.net/~watkinsclan/newchristians...

http://www.biblebelievers.com/RealAudio.html

http://www.chick.com/information/general/salvation...

http://www.holybible.com/resources/KJV_DFND/index....

I think the 'knowledge' of evil is used in the sense as 'knowing' a woman is used in the Bible. You have 'knowledge' of evil because it is part of your makeup. God did not want evil to live forever. Can you imagine if some evil people in history had never died? God cleanes us of evil in the sense that it becomes no longer a part of our makeup--a process that will be perfected in the future.

Mankind began to 'know' evil---it became ingrained, a part of the makeup of man. God had not wanted that to happen. He barred us from the Tree of Life so that the evil within us could not live on forever.

Ok. This is what I know to be true. Accept it or reject it.

Note Carefully:

Lucifer is alive but he is not immortal. Hell was originally intended for Lucifer and his angels, not humans. We do manifest the evil that Lucifer does.

Here goes:

God (The Father, Son and Holy Ghost, the us that you refer to) who has always existed, created beings that were good, but Lucifer, who was corrupted by reason of his beauty, became jealous of God and was the first to lie and accuse God of being a tyrant who does not allow freedom. He started a war in heaven and God threw him and his followers out of heaven unto the earth. Adam and Eve who were made in God's image lived on the earth. You know what happened after that. Before they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil they bassically did everything that God wanted them to do. To disobey God is to know evil, since they always obeyed God they didn't fully understand the difference between good and evil. They began to understand when they first disobeyed. The wages of disobedience to God, which is sin, is death. Imagine what would happen to us if we were unable to die? We could be raped a million times, be stabbed and shot a million times, be poor and hungry a million times, be eternally addicted to drugs, be suffering from diseases for eternity with no true rest and no true relief. From this perspective, death is a very good thing. My understanding of Christianity is that once one accepts and understands Christ's sacrifice, one tries one's best, with God's help, to do what is right at all times. The least that anyone can do is to intend to do good at all times. Since God knows everything, he understands our struggle and he knows that though we want to do good, we find ourselves doing evil just like Paul did. But Jesus' blood covers us, and because we intend to do good at all times, Jesus can seal us(make it impossible for us to do evil because that is what we want), and when we get to heaven where everything must be perfect we won't have a problem obeying God's laws because we always intended to anyway. You can't force someone to do good and be a true Christian, people have to really want it. Heaven is a place of strict rules, and for anyone to be happy there, they have to want to obey the rules. When we are sealed and we want to obey God's laws, it will be ok for us to eat from the tree of life, but not before that.