In order to understand this doctrine we first must believe one thing about God. He does not make mistakes. Knowing this we understand that Adam’s sin did not surprise him. In fact, he planned it! Not only did God know that Adam would sin, he actually intended and desired that Adam would sin. Why else would Satan have been lurking in the Garden of Eden and have been allowed access to God’s new creation?

Think of it. God created man to tend a garden in which grew two very special tress. One was called the Tree of Life, the other the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God told his new creation that he could eat the fruit from one tree, but not the other. Then he left Adam alone with his new wife and a very special tempter called the serpent (or the dragon, or the devil, or Satan). And he allowed this tempter unfettered access to his new creation and his lovely bride.

Just think of it and consider the parallel to any good parent. Suppose I have, for example, twins, a boy and girl both aged three.  They have been walking now for two full years and they love to explore new things. So, I decide to play a little game with them. I build a little wooden table and two little chairs for them to sit on so they can play at their new table. Then I put a dull plastic play knife on their table and right beside it I put a razor sharp real knife. I strictly command them saying, “I have placed two knives on your table. The first is a plastic knife that you can play with. The other is a steel, razor-sharp knife that will kill you if you play with it. Do not touch it. You may only touch and play with the plastic knife.  I am leaving you alone now, so only touch the plastic knife.”

And then I leave, but not before I hire a nine-year old bully to stay in the room and watch my two kids, a bully who likes to mistreat little kids and play with knives. “Did your Dad really tell you two little babies that you could not play with this real knife?” he says as soon as I leave the house. “Don’t you know that big kids only play with real knives?” So, hours later I return, and what do you think I find? Right. Two bloody, lifeless young children. Do you think there is any difference in what God did with Adam and Eve and what I did with my two kids? Well, yes, God had a plan, a purpose, for what he did, and I didn’t. I was just stupid or insane. God is not. So, why did he do it?

Did you ever notice that Satan did not lie when he told Eve that eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil would make her “like God?” Listen,

And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever… (Genesis 3:22)

This shows us that although God declared in Genesis 1 that he created man in his image, the more complete record shows that he did not fully make man like him in the initial creation. This must be true because man’s eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil made him “as one of us,” that is “as” the Elohim which created him. If Adam was already “as” God, then God would not have made this comment. In addition, it was because of this added aspect of “likeness” to God that God now had to prohibit man from eating of the Tree of Life. This shows that man was not created fully “like” God, but that he became more like God when he ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Now, applying what we learned above, we understand that God must have intended that Adam take this particular step in becoming “as” God (Elohim) even though this step, which God called a sin because it was an action done in disobedience to his command, led to Adam’s death. So why did God want Adam to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?

I do not know for certain why God chose to do things the way he did, but I do know that he says, “My ways are not your ways, O man.” Clearly, a lot of pain, misery, and evil came into the world because God allowed Satan to come here, rule here, and tempt Adam in the very beginning to disobey him. I have often become very frustrated with God for the utter lawlessness he has allowed to rule this world. My best guess, though, is that God planned for evil to reign in the affairs of men so that a select few, those who the Bible calls the predestined ones (or, the overcomers, the remnant, the 144,000, the Sons of God) would learn to discern good and evil and willingly choose the good. He could not simply create or “program” man to always do what is right and good for to do that would have been to infringe upon his free will.

God purposed that man have a free will because God himself possesses a free will. For this reason God determined to place men into this lawless environment and yet command us to choose and act lawfully. He allowed the world to be filled with pornography and said, “Do not look at a woman with lust or you have committed adultery.” He said, “Do not steal,” and yet allowed corrupt governments to rule over us which steal us blind. He said, “Do not kill,” and allowed those same governments to send our young children to die in unjust wars. He said, “Do not repay evil for evil for vengeance is mine,” and yet allowed every sort of evil contemplated by the defiled minds of lawless men and demonic spirits to be heaped upon us while we yet live in this flesh. Why? Why? Why?

Because he is conforming us into his image, and don’t forget, his ways are not our ways.