God And His Word - A Question And Answer Approach To Understanding The Bible

LESSON 2: THE EDENIC COVENANT (ADAM IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN) 1. WHAT WAS THE EDENIC COVENANT? The Edenic Covenant was the agreement and relationship that existed between God and Adam in the Garden of Eden before Adam sinned. 2. WHAT WERE THINGS LIKE UNDER THE EDENIC COVENANT? Genesis 1 and 2. [1] Man bore the image of God (1:26), and had unashamed fellowship with God (note 3:8-11). [2] Man had dominion over all God's creation. 1:26; 2:15; Psalms 8. [3] Man was fruitful and productive. 1:28. [4] Man was innocent of lust (2:26), and had but one wife (Matthew 19:8). [5] Man had creative genius. 2:19, 20. [6] Man was a vegetarian (no blood was shed to provide food). 1:29. [7] Man lived and worked in a garden prepared for him by God (2:8), and used the 7th day of each week as a Sabbath (2:2). 3. WHAT DID GOD REQUIRE OF ADAM AND EVE IN THIS COVENANT? God's covenant with Adam required him to be productive (1: 28), subdue and dominate the creation (1:28), dress and keep the Garden of Eden (2:15), and ABSTAIN from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (2:17). 4. WHAT (IN SIMPLE TERMS) DID ADAM DO WHEN HE SINNED? To put it simply, Adam's sin was being disobedient to God's Word. Man transferred the control of his life from God to himself. 5. WHY DID GOD MAKE MAN SO THAT HE COULD SIN? Well, is there any other way He could have made him, except as a machine, a puppet, or an animal guided only by instinct? Could there be a moral creature without the power to choose? FREEDOM is God's gift to man - freedom to think, freedom to choose, freedom of conscience - even though man uses his freedom to reject and disobey God.

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