1. The main facts of the story are straightforward. Eve violated a direct command from God. There was no secret here, so no need for God to play a psychological game with them. Yet, when He comes to them He does not mention the fact that she ate of the tree. He does not appear to be upset. It is clear that something more profound is going on.

2. Moses says that the serpent was crafty, yet there is no craftiness in his question. He simply asks her for information. If she had heard it from God that would be the end of the story. He would then have had to make a plain temptation to go against God's word. As it is, he never asked her to do so. He simply provided information to her about the tree; informatation that God admits to be true.

3. The "punishments" meted out have nothing really to do with the fact that they disobeyed God. He does not appear to be concerned about that.

4. Then there is Paul's comment that Eve was deceived. If she had known directly from God there is no way what transpired could be labelled as a deception. It would be a blatant act of defiance.

I am going to be studying these points. I think generally sin is not so much the act but the fact that we set out to do something on our own, whether or not we explicitly have God’s approval. I know that the discussion is about Eve, but I would think largely both Eve and Adam had the same issues with the tree – the same basic – root issues.

“Adam was created perfect -- by which we mean that he was without imperfections because by God -- but that he was not yet perfected. He needed a finishing touch somewhere. God had not yet done all that He intended to do in Adam. There was more in view, but it was as yet in abeyance. God was moving towards the fulfillment of His purpose in creating man, a purpose which went beyond man himself, for it had in view the securing to God of all His rights in the universe through man's instrumental in this? Only by a co-operation that sprang from living union with God. God was seeking to have not merely a race of men of one blood upon the earth, but a race which had, in addition, His life resident within its members. Such a race will eventually compass the downfall of Satan and bring to fulfillment all that God has set His heart upon. It is that that was in view with the creation of man.

Then again, we saw that Adam was created neutral. He had a spirit which enabled him to hold communion with God; but as man he was not yet, so to speak, finally orientated; he had powers of choice and he could, if he liked, turn the opposite way. God's goal in man was 'sonship', or, in other words, the expression of His life in human beings. That Divine life was represented in the garden by the tree of life, bearing a fruit that could be accepted, received, taken in. If Adam, created neutral, were voluntarily to turn that way and, choosing dependence upon God, were to receive of the tree of life (representing God's own life), God would then have that life in union with men; He would have realized 'sonship'. But if instead Adam should turn to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would as a result be 'free' to develop himself on his own lines apart from God. Because, however, this latter choice involved complicity with Satan, Adam would thereby put beyond his reach the attaining of his God-appointed goal.

The Root Question: The Human Soul

Now we know the course that Adam chose. Standing between the two trees, he yielded to Satan and took of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. This determined the lines of his development. From then on he could command a knowledge; he 'knew'. But -- and here we come to the point -- the fruit of the tree of knowledge made the first man over-developed in his soul. The emotion was touched, because the fruit was pleasant to the eyes, making him 'desire'; the mind with its reasoning power was developed, for he was 'made wise'; and the will was strengthened, so that in future he could always decide which way he would go. The whole fruit ministered to the expansion and full development of the soul, so that not only was the man a living soul, but from henceforth man will live by the soul. It is not merely that man has a soul, but that from that day on the soul, with its independent powers of free choice, takes the place of the spirit as the animating power of man.

We have to distinguish here between two things, for the difference is most important. God does not mind -- in fact He intends -- that we should have a soul such as He gave to Adam. But what God has set Himself to do is to reverse something. There is something in man today which is not just the fact of having a soul, but which constitutes a living by the soul. It was this that Satan brought about in the Fall. He trapped man into taking a course by which he could develop his soul so as to derive his very life from it.

We must however be careful. To remedy this does not mean that we are going to cross out the soul altogether. You cannot do that. When today the Cross is really working in us, we do not become inert, insensate, characterless. No, we still possess a soul, and whenever we receive something from God the soul will still be used in relation to it, as an instrument, a faculty, in a true subjection to Him. But the point is, Are we keeping within God's appointed limit -- within the bounds set by Him in the Garden at the beginning -- with regard to the soul, or are we getting outside those bounds?

What God is now doing is the pruning work of the vinedresser. In our souls there is an uncontrolled development, an untimely growth, that has to be checked and dealt with. God must cut that off. So now there are two things before us to which our eyes must be opened. On the one hand God is seeking to bring us to the place where we live by the life of His Son. On the other hand He is doing a direct work in our hearts to undo that other natural resource that is the result of the fruit of knowledge. Every day we are learning these two lessons: a rising up of the life of this One, and a checking and a handing over to death of that other soul-life. These two processes go on all the time, for God is seeking the fully developed life of His Son in us in order to manifest Himself, and to that end He is bringing us back, as to our soul, to Adam's starting-point. So Paul says: "We which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh" (2 Cor. 4:11).

What does this mean? It simply means that I will not take any action without relying on God. I will find no sufficiency in myself. I will not take any step just because I have the power to do so. Even though I have that inherited power within me, I will not use it; I will put no reliance in myself. By taking the fruit, Adam became possessed of an inherent power to act, but a power which played right into Satan's hands. You lose that power to act when you come to know the Lord. The Lord cuts it off and you find you can no longer act on your own initiative. You have to live by the life of Another; you have to draw everything from Him.

Darius, can you please state plainly your new conclusions? what you call the truth about the Fall? Thank you. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Here's what I hear you saying. God purposefully did not warn Eve Himself against eating the forbidden fruit. He left that to Adam. He did this knowing that she would be deceived into sinning, and by not warning her Himself her sin would somehow be excusable and as such He would be able to offer mankind salvation.

But if God was able to manipulate the Fall of mankind in such a way as to ensure a viable escape plan should they fall (if that's what you're saying) - then why wasn't He able to do something similar for the fall of Lucifer?

Doesn't Sister White teach that God pleaded with Lucifer to abandon his rebellion, that he could be restored to his former position, that Lucifer recanted for a time?

If God did not build in an "escape plan" for Adam and Eve (by not personally warning Eve about eating the forbidden fruit) - then just exactly what are you saying about why God did not warn her Himself?