Friday, November 9, 2007

PUZZLE #9 - Is God Evil?

In Genesis 1:28, God told Adam and Eve to "multiply and replenish the earth". It was a commandment from God, and these words are repeated in Moses 2:28 (Moses is a book from LDS text - The Pearl of Great Price). In Genesis 2:16-17, God forbade Adam and Eve from eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, words that are repeated in Moses 3:17.

They were two separate and distinct commandments from God to our first parents. Would there be any reason to believe that God would not have expected Adam and Eve to comply with both of these commandments?

1st Nephi 3:7 tells us that God gives no commandments to His children except He prepare a way for us to comply with them. The statement is all-inclusive; God would
never, ever command us to do anything without making it possible for us to obey Him. He would not require even the smallest thing of us if it were not possible for us to comply. REF: Page 6

To disobey God is to commit sin, and God cannot tolerate the least degree of sin (Alma 45:16 Page 321), yet in 2nd Nephi 2:22-23 (Page 59), the god of the Book of Mormon is shown to be a god that required Adam and Eve to commit sin.

This passage is the source of the Mormon teaching that Adam and Eve would have had no children had they not sinned against God by partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This passage teaches that they had to disobey one or the other of God's commandments. Here is the PUZZLE: What kind of god does the Book of Mormon present here? What are his character traits? What is his nature?

According to the Book of Mormon, god gave Adam and Eve no choice. They could choose to do nothing, in which case they would transgress god's requirement to have
children, or they could eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and transgress god's other commandment. Mormonism says that God gave them no way out of sin. Mormonism says that god caused them to commit sin.

The God of the Bible did no such thing. God gave these two commandments to Adam and Eve, and He wanted them to comply with both of them. They did not need to disobey one of God's commandments in order to obey the other. They did not need to eat of the tree to understand the mechanics of procreation any more than the animals
around them needed to eat from the tree for that purpose.

Nephi was right; God never requires us to do anything that we cannot do. He did not require Adam and Eve to violate His own law in order to comply with His commands. Such a doctrine would portray God as evil. Is that the nature of the god of the Book of Mormon? Do Mormons worship the one who "enticeth to sin"?

"Wherefore, all things which are good cometh of God; and that which is evil cometh of the devil; for the devil is an enemy unto God, and fighteth against him continually, and inviteth and enticeth to sin, and to do that which is evil continually." (Moroni 7:12 Pages 521-522)

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