The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, " Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." (Genesis 2:16)

Have you ever wished that Adam and Eve had never eaten of that tree? Imagine how wonderful the world would be without shame and disgrace, bitterness and envy, hatred, violence, anger, pride and selfishness. How great if we could enjoy the glory of the Lord all day long, and discover and learn and grow endlessly in the knowledge and wisdom and love of God! If only there were no barriers in our relationship with God! We may regret what Adam did, but all too often we choose to repeat his mistake. This happens when we exalt the voice of independent reason above the true voice of God. It happens when we look to the laws of God more than we look to God Himself. It happens when we wonder what would happen if we just indulge in some sin, and experience the evil thing which seems so tantalising. All too often Christians are repeating the same error, not because they have to, but because the spell of satanic deception has not been fully broken.

For those of us who will enter God's Kingdom, one day things will be wonderful. Yet, even now, by repenting and turning from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and by turning to Jesus, the Tree of Life, we can enjoy far more of God. We can also be a far greater blessing to others, if we will eat of the right tree and say "No" to the enticements of the other.

This Pharisees had much religious zeal, but it was a zeal rooted in the Tree of Knowledge and not the Tree of Life. Jesus said to them, "You search the Scriptures, because you believe that in them you have eternal life. These are they, that testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me, that you might have life." (John 5:38,39).

Many (but not all) conservative evangelicals in our day are making the same error as did the Pharisees. They search the Scriptures, but are not willing to come and experience the things the Scripture speak of. By superimposing a theological framework upon the Scriptures which effectively denies the power of God to do anything unusual in answer to prayer, they claim things such as "the Bible teaches that the age of miracles has past", "the gifts of the spirit have passed away", "tongues is not for today", "a born again Christian can have struggles with the flesh, but never needs deliverance", "it may not be God's will to heal", "Christ did not die for all men" and so on. All these

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