For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
Stef Casadio
There is a natural fixed motion on earth that reaps what is sown. We all get sick, attacked, death by accident. God does not stop this calamity unless He chooses to intervene. Evil is simply no God, darkness is simply no light. So there is a natural outflow of terrible events due to the earths natural outcome in regards to Sin. Its a natural outcome to Removing God from the equation and in turn it creates its own outcome. Evil is there when we neglect God, which creates evil.
Mary Johnson
Then why in Genesis 3:22 does God say "The man has now become 'like one of us', knowing 'good and evil'"? This tells me God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit knew evil as well as good, and purposely placed the Tree of Good and Evil in the Garden to tempt man.
Danny Hickman
Mary,
If what you say is true, if God tempted the man to sin, then that would mean that God can't be trusted. If that's the case, then repeating what He said in Genesis 3:22 is a waste of time. How can we trust that He said any of that about the man knowing good and evil? If God is omniscient He knows the end from the beginning of a thing. That would mean He knew that man would sin because who can resist God? It would mean He set the whole thing up. That would mean that we can't trust Him at all. So why repeat anything that He says?
On the other hand, if God gave man a choice to acknowledge Him as sovereign and Father, or to decide to go it alone, then man can only blame himself for the choice that he made. That's what happened.
To show His love for that sinful man, God prepared a kingdom for that man to inherit (Mt 25:34), before the foundation of the world. That man STILL has a choice; to believe God and enter the kingdom, or call God's integrity into question and go it on his own. He says He prepared a place for the man who sins and repents of his sin. We have a choice; we can believe Him or choose not to....