Flaming Sword

[XChristian]

Why did God set a flaming sword and angels "to keep the way of the tree of life"? What is God AFRAID of? Where is this tree of life? Where is Eden? This confuses me.

 

[theVirginian]

What is God AFRAID of?

Nothing. If God had allowed Adam access to the Tree of Life, Adam would have passed immortality along with the curse to his descendants. You may think, "Well, what's wrong with that?" Ask somebody with a excrutiatingly painful, normally fatal condition if he wants to live forever in spite of the pain. God was actually doing Mankind a favor by allowing us to die physically.

Where is this tree of life? Where is Eden?

Buried somewhere in the Miiddle East. Most believe its in Iraq.

 

[ebia]

Why did God set a flaming sword and angels "to keep the way of the tree of life"?

It's a way of saying "humanity will be unable to access this [until they are redeemed, restored and reconcilled with God]"

 

[XChristian]

Hmmm. I guess the tree of life is probably in the same spot they hid the WMDs.

 

[XChristian]

I think if we ate of the tree of life we would be physically perfect. Incapable of becoming sick or being injured and immortal. We would also have no use for God, let alone worship him.

 

[ebia]

I think if we ate of the tree of life we would be physically perfect. Incapable of becoming sick or being injured and immortal. We would also have no use for God, let alone worship him.

The biblical perspective is that we can't be physically "perfect" without being "morally perfect" (to phrase it poorly), and that's inherently impossible unless our eye is on God. Stop looking toward the creator and one inherently puts something created in his place, that idolatory leads inevitably to sin and death.

But even that aside, the last thing creation needs is physically perfect, morally imperfect, humans.

 

[Catherineanne]

Why did God set a flaming sword and angels "to keep the way of the tree of life"? What is God AFRAID of? Where is this tree of life? Where is Eden? This confuses me.

He did this to prevent Adam and Eve returning to the Garden. God was not afraid of them, but did not want them to be hurt even more than had already happened. Whatever God does, his motive is always about his love for us.

The tree of life is in Eden, and Eden is not accessible to humans any more, because it is guarded by an angel with a flaming sword.

 

[XChristian]

So is Eden a real garden with a geographical location in the middle east? Is the tree of life an actual tree in this garden? If God did not want us to get hurt at all why did he allow us to eat from the tree of knowledge in the first place, why wasn't he proactive and place flaming swords and angels around the trees? I'm still confused.

 

[Catherineanne]

So is Eden a real garden with a geographical location in the middle east? Is the tree of life an actual tree in this garden? If God did not want us to get hurt at all why did he allow us to eat from the tree of knowledge in the first place, why wasn't he proactive and place flaming swords and angels around the trees? I'm still confused.

No, Eden is not a real garden in the Middle East.

Yes, the tree of life is an actual tree in the garden, but the garden is not accessible to humans any more.

Who says God did not want all of the events in the garden to happen?