He never wanted that. In fact he did all in his power to prevent a knowledge of evil from ever contaminating his human creation
He didn't do everything in his power. He could have restrained the Devil from entering the garden in the first place or not left Adam and Eve to be such stupid creatures as to listen to a talking snake.
Free will had to be free. God didn't create us to be robots.
Enlightening all people would not be a violation of free-will. My understanding is that you are a Jehovah's Witness. If that is the true faith, why on earth does God give the grace of understanding the truth to so few people.
I and many others who don't belong to your system of belief have been praying for the grace of understanding and for God's will to be done in our lives (incessantly). We're simply making the best with what limited understanding God has given us.
Truly that is what I want from God more than anything is simply his will to be done, understanding of the truth, and understanding of what I'm suppose to say and do in order to fulfill his will and plan. Easy is such a grace for God to grant, yet he refuses to
Our first parents did do something to deserve it...it was their children who didn't
Exactly, the children don't deserve to be born defective and then be punished for it. What Adam and Eve did was stupid, but it is nothing people should still have to suffer for.
That is absolutely God's fault that people are born children of wrath and cursed for their parent's sins. God doesn't have to curse anyone. Neither does he have to leave them spiritually blind. He isn't bound by any laws that force him to curse people.
You don't know much about the Bible then do you?
I have read it from genesis through revelation and am deeply frustrated with how many verses say the opposite of what other verses say. Much of the Bible is symbolic, Hyperbole, parable, allegory, and poetry, yet people take it literally.
I see chronic battle amongst Theologians studying God's word. They dedicate their life to the study of his word and claim to have the Holy-spirit, yet wind up at opposite conclusions of interpretation, and each have Scripture verses that state the opposite to defend the interpretation that is opposite of another Theologian's understanding.
For example, a person can Biblically defend a premise that God is angry, jealous, and vengeful. A person can also defend the premise that God is love, kindness, and merciful. Who is right Biblically? They both are.
GE 4:15,
DT 32:19-27,
IS 34:8 God is a vengeful god.
EX 15:3,
IS 42:13,
HE 12:29 God is a warrior. God is a consuming fire.
EX 20:5,
34:14,
DT 4:24,
5:9,
6:15,
29:20,
32:21 God is a jealous god.
LE 26:7-8,
NU 31:17-18,
DT 20:16-17,
JS 10:40,
JG 14:19,
EZ 9:5-7 The Spirit of God is (sometimes) murder and killing.
NU 25:3-4,
DT 6:15,
9:7-8,
29:20,
32:21,
PS 7:11,
78:49,
JE 4:8,
17:4,
32:30-31,
ZP 2:2 God is angry. His anger is sometimes fierce.
2SA 22:7-8 (KJV) "I called to the Lord; ... he heard my voice; ... The earth trembled and quaked, ... because he was angry. Smoke came from his nostrils. Consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it."
EZ 6:12,
NA 1:2,
6 God is jealous and furious. He reserves wrath for, and takes revenge on, his enemies. "... who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and rocks are thrown down by him."
2CO 13:11,
14,
1JN 4:8,
16 God is love.
GA 5:22-23 The fruit of the Spirit of God is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
A person can both argue that God hates graven images and that God channels his grace through graven images and is quite fond of them, because God healed the Israelite's through a bronze serpent and met with Moses and spoke to the Israelite's through two golden Cherubs.
God literally often commands people to do the opposite of what he formerly commanded, such as telling people to kill after he ordered them not to kill, telling them to make images after forbidding it... Jesus often preached against what was taught in the old Testament and lost many followers for it . He commanded people to eat his flesh and drink his blood when drinking blood was forbidden.
Teaching people to love their enemies and turn the other cheek was the opposite of what God formerly taught.
There are many other contradictions. My point being, I've read the Bible and I'm frustrated with it. It often has two verses that say the opposite and lead people to opposite conclusions, divisions, and sometimes violence and war (See the thirty years war
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Years'_War. 8 million casualties over Christians disagreeing about the interpretation of a sacred text that is full of contradictions and never was to be interpreted literally).
Evil exists as an equal opposite of good, like everything else has an equal opposite. You must have learned that in your High School science class?
Satan was in the garden as a "covering cherub" according to Ezekiel.
God knew what would become of Satan when he created him. Obviously Satan was created different than the loyal angels because he had the inclination towards pride and rebellion. The other Angels that didn't fall never had that power.
If God wants those evil powers to exist and have power, which he clearly does, it is clearly because He wants them to deceive and torment the world for now. If God was sick of it, he would restrain them or kick them out of earth.
The Devil can only be the god of this world if God wills him to be god of this world.
God clearly wants there to be confusion or he would give enlightenment and understanding to all who seek it. He also obviously gives the ability to interpret Scripture to a select few people. If most people had the ability to interpret Scripture, there would be less division.
Since most people don't have the ability to interpret Scripture, it can be hazardous for them to read it.
God has told the truth in his Word, but the churches have not passed on that knowledge....it is they who have hidden God and fashioned a religious system that only enriched themselves.
The Churches are passing on the knowledge as they understand it, and they are filled with errors because of God's refusal to give them understanding.
God has hidden himself. No Church can hide him. I'm waiting patiently for him to enlighten me. As of now, I see Scripture as poetry, parable, codes, hyperbole, and allegory not meant to be taken literally that has lost some of it's meaning through translation and coming from an ancient culture very difficult for modern foreign culture to understand.
The answers are all there in the Bible if you just look for yourself and stop listening to the "weeds" of fake Christianity
So, if two branches of Christianity claim to be true and both have Scripture to support their basis, where do we turn? You say the Bible, but if both arguments have verses of Scripture that state the opposite of other Scriptures, and both have a Scriptural basis, then where do we turn?
Jehovah's witnesses are a relatively small branch of Christianity and didn't exist until the late 1870s. W
hy did God wait so long after the death of Christ to found the "True" Church?
To say it is the true Faith is to say
the many centuries of Christians before them got it all wrong.
If God let more than 19 generations of Christians go astray without a true Church on the face of the earth, how is such a God a trustworthy guide or Shepherd?