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The Knowledge of Good and Evil Only Evil Withheld “In the garden of Eden was the ‘tree of knowledge of good and evil.... And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden thou may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shall not eat.’ It was the will of God that Adam and Eve should not know evil. The knowledge of good had been freely given them; but the knowledge of evil, – of sin and its results, of wearing toil, of anxious care, of disappointment and grief, of pain and death, – this was in love withheld.” Reason versus Faith “Satan desired to make it appear that this knowledge of good mingled with evil would be a blessing, and that in forbidding them to take of the fruit of the tree, God was withholding great good. He urged that it was because of its wonderful properties for imparting wisdom and power that God had forbidden them to taste it; that He was thus seeking to prevent them from reaching a nobler development and finding greater happiness. He declared that he himself had eaten of the forbidden fruit, and as a result had acquired the power of speech; and that if they also would eat of it, they would attain to a more exalted sphere of existence, and enter a broader field of knowledge. While satan claimed to have received great good by eating of the forbidden tree, he did not let it appear that by transgression he had become an outcast from Heaven. Here was falsehood, so concealed under a covering of apparent truth that Eve, infatuated, flattered, beguiled, did not discern the deception. She coveted what God had forbidden; she distrusted His wisdom. She cast away faith, the key of knowledge.” Results of Sin “Adam and Eve had chosen the knowledge of evil; and if they ever regained the position they had lost, they must regain it under the unfavorable conditions they had brought upon themselves. No longer were they to dwell in Eden; for in its perfection it could not teach them the lessons which it was now essential for them to learn. […]”Restoration through Christ “But man was not abandoned to the results of the evil he had chosen. In the sentence pronounced upon satan was given an intimation of redemption. […]”
