These questions seem so deep, so thought provoking. By their very nature, the questions seem hopelessly unanswerable.

But, not so. The answer to the last question is obvious to anybody that has a clue about the true nature of God.

Figured it out yet?  HINT: Go back to the first post in this series and take a look at the characteristics of God. Specifically the first one – that God is All Powerful.

Now have you figured out that the answer is. . . YES!! God can do it. It’s our only choice ’cause God is All Powerful, Omnipotent, and can do anything/everything – even this.

But instead of just relying on our “intuitive reasoning” to answer this question, we’ve got evidence! God not only can create a rock so big that even God can’t lift it. . .

. . . it’s already been done.

According to Genesis, God created Adam. . . mankind. . . US! We’ve been created to be like God.

God is love – so if we are like God, then we must be “beings of love”. . . creatures who can receive love, who can give love, who can BE love.

So, what gives? What’s that got to do with a @#$%! rock?

It’s that love cannot be forced. To truly be love – it must be freely given. To be freely given – there must be the ability to refuse. To be able to refuse – there must be a choice. To freely choose – there must be the possibility of choosing badly.

God cannot change that. “But” you say, “God is All Powerful and can do anything.” Can’t do that.

Not because God is unable to or doesn’t have the power to but because God is Love and since God is All There Is, everything must be God. And if everything is God, then everything must be Love and must therefor adhere to the “law of Love” . . . that Love must choose freely.

It’s the ability to choose (some call it “free will”) that is the seed of our “likeness” to God.

This ability to choose “allowed” Cain to sin (Gen 4:7). Cain made a terrible choice, but that ability to choose was the perfection of God’s creation.

(Just FYI: Adam and Eve never sinned because they didn’t “receive” the “knowledge of good and evil” until AFTER they ate the fruit of the tree. They didn’t know that following God was the “good” choice and listening to the serpent was the “bad” choice ‘cuz, well… they just didn’t have a clue. Clueless and thereby  sinless.)

Now, once we’ve got the ability to choose, what do we need next? The guidelines for making good choices.

So, Adam needed to have the Knowledge of Good and Evil so that “good” might be chosen. Without that knowledge, making a right choice is just a 50/50 proposition. This is why what seemed cruel (the tree in the midst of the Garden of Eden in the last post) is the key to mankind’s perfection.