[Nell]

Originally Posted by Trapped

How do we square this up with verses that exhort us to be perfect like our heavenly Father is perfect, and with Jesus being the image of the invisible God and we are being conformed to His image, etc?

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not a bad or poisoned tree......so I don't see that "being like God, knowing good and evil" is a bad thing to want to be or to be. Eventually in Hebrews, mature believers are shown to be the ones who distinguish good from evil, so "being like God, knowing good and evil"......doesn't seem like a bad thing there either.

I don't agree with the local church teaching of baby gods or "God in life and nature but not in the Godhead", or that we somehow have the "uncreated life of God" because we are always going to be created creatures that were not alive backwards into eternity past......but I'm not sure that wanting to be like God is the broad-brush evil thing that it is often painted to be. Thoughts?

Trapped

How do we square up with these verses?

The Fall

Gen 3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Fall

Gen. 3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Nell