The first three chapters of Genesis explain why our world is a mix of good and bad. God made the world so that humans could participate in God’s greatest feature – loving! But the ability to love requires freedom that allows – even invites – abuse that derails God’s good intentions.

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Last week I named the human desire to have God’s power as the primary impulse behind the Man and the Woman in the Garden of Eden disobeying the divine commandment to eat the “forbidden fruit.” Let’s see how that conjecture plays out as we look at what happens after the infraction.

The…..

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Genesis 2:5-3:24* tells the story of the Garden of Eden – our introduction to the consequences of free will. On a literal level, we can read this story as God making an arbitrary commandment – what we now call the “forbidden fruit” – which human nature (also made by God) finds impossible to resist. Is…..

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