I know so much about God like everyone else, I suspect. Well, probably more than anyone else, since I am a gnostic atheist.
Labels...everyone's got 'em.
Where we obtain our knowledge of God is very important. If you want to know about the Christian God, then go back to the first century. Jesus was born into the Jewish nation and as such he was taught from the Hebrew Scriptures from infancy, obligated by birth to uphold its laws and commandments. But if you check through those Hebrew writings, you will find that the Jews, time and again broke their covenant with their God, requiring him to discipline them, sometimes severely. Why did he do that? Because the liberated descendants of Abraham made a vow to their God to keep his laws. They entered into a legal agreement (covenant) of their own volition to obey the laws given through Moses. The Messiah was going to come through their lineage, so God kept that wayward nation in existence until his part of the covenant was fulfilled. When Jesus made his appearance as the Christ, God gave the "lost sheep" of that nation first option of becoming rulers with him in his kingdom. But when the Jewish leaders conspired to murder him, God abandoned them as his people. They [proved to be incorrigible. The old covenant ended and a new covenant was instituted with a new nation....not a political nation, but a spiritual nation comprised of both Jews and Gentiles...separated from this world in many ways.
If you are a Jew today, you will still be serving the Hebrew God under the impression that Jesus was a fake and that the true Messiah is still on his way.
If you are a Christian, (a member of one of Christendom's many churches) you will be expecting that Jesus is about to return and take you to heaven.
I have come to the conclusion, from a lengthy study of the scriptures, that neither of these scenarios will take place. Expectations inculcated from their interpretation of the scriptures will prove to be false. But it was prophesied to be this way. No surprises for serious Bible students. Knowledge is everything....but it has to be accurate knowledge, not half baked ideas from men.
There can only be one truth, not several versions of it. We are all exposed to the truth in one way or another, but according to that Holy Book, the majority have unknowingly been barking up the wrong tree all of their lives, and when the truth is presented to them, it seems so foreign that they treat it like its a fairytale.
It happened in the first century and it has happened again in our day. If you listen to the wrong people, regardless of how good their explanation might sound, I believe that only God can open a heart to accept his truth. This is why it was prophesied that only a "remnant" of the fleshly Jews would be saved and become disciples of Jesus.....and why Jesus said that only a "few" would be saved out of today's generation of "Christians" in this "time of the end". History is repeating right before our eyes. Few can see it.
And I don't know you, but if I were God and, as omniscient, I would already know that I would spawn a Son of mine, I would make sure He would not be an ape or look like one. That looks like an excessive ungodly concession to evolution and might confuse people centuries later.
You only have the word of men in relatively recent times who assume that apes evolved into humans. I challenge any scientists to prove that this ever happened. They take a bunch of bones and then tell the bones what to say.....seriously, you can believe them if you like. Humans are unique and no scientists can tell you when or how an ape became a human. The gulf between man and apes is unbridgeable.
His Qualities? You mean He made us in His image and then tested us with apples, trees and such?
A flippant approach will not get you the answers you seek.
The first humans were endowed with God's attributes, which are not really seen in the animal kingdom. You can tell animals not to do something but unless you train them with something unpleasant, (like scolding or some kind of punishment) they will likely ignore you.
Words are like that to some humans too, but we have intellect and that unique faculty of imagination. When we hear words we also see mental pictures and can contemplate repercussions and consequences for our actions. Disobedience then is inexcusable. Consequences can be expected and anticipated. Much like a criminal on the run....he knows what's coming.
The fruit of one tree was a simple test that posed no hardship or deprivation of any kind....it represented God's sovereign right to set reasonable limits for his appointed caretakers and to allow them to understand that certain things were his property. Respect for their Creator should have been enough, but the penalty of death reinforced how serious this issue really was. All would have been fine, but someone (a rebel spirit intent on gaining worship for himself) planted a seed of doubt and not only lied about the penalty but accused the Creator of being a lousy parent in holding back something that was beneficial for his children. He made that one tree into something it never was. An issue of sovereignty. By our actions, we choose who our sovereign is.
Was that a quality control procedure? And did the test pass?
It
was a quality control issue in a way....and they failed the test....free will cannot be free if there is no choice.
Both ate the fruit of their own free will. but for entirely different reasons. The devil used the woman to get to the man, dividing his loyalties and as a result, severing their relationship with God. Now they would worship the pretender in all sorts of ways as he introduced multiple forms of false worship to ensure that the human race would serve his interests and ignore that lousy father.
Was the devil going to be able to get all humans to leave God? He was allowed to try, and in the process, humans would choose from their own hearts who was the true God. In the book of Job we see this test in a very intense form, but faith triumphed and Job is in the Bible as the supreme example of a man with outstanding faith, withstanding the devil's multi-level assault on him.
We are all like Job because the devil uses the same accusation on all of us. We can cave in and "curse God" or we can endure the trials with faith that there is a reason for our suffering. Job's reward for his faith will follow him on into the new world. So will ours.
This is how the Bible explains the scenario according to my years of study.
