[SpeakersCorner]

Okay, now I’ll answer my own question: Why God placed a forbidden tree in the pristine garden … a beautiful, tasty fruit that they were told DO NOT EAT?

Those of you who ascribe to the videomaker’s view that it wasn't a matter of life and death, that the fruit itself was fine and the eating of it didn't directly bring in death but the banned access to the tree of life did, you are forced to take the position that this fruit was a temptation, a test. What else could it be?

I reject that. I believe eating the fruit was toxic. I agree with Witness Lee that the disobedience of eating was not the real issue, it was the ingesting of the fruit itself that brought in death.

So the question you should have for me is, Why would God create a toxic but beautiful and tempting fruit? My answer: The fruit itself isn’t poison but it is toxic to Adam and Eve in their primal, innocent state. It's the same as introducing to a very young child things about human sexual behavior. This can be toxic, ruinous to the child for life. It isn’t that the information isn’t true: it’s that the child cannot process it at this point. I'm guessing many of you would agree that society is doing exactly this same serpentine deception to our children and that it is terrible.

That’s my take and I’m sticking with it … at least until someone comes up with a better one.