Q: God told Adam you can eat from any tree except one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If evil has not always existed who made that tree then? And could you please tell more about the tree of life? After man disobeyed God why did He put a flaming sword which went in all directions to stop man from getting to the tree of life? If they did eat from the tree of life would man still live forever? Another point I find confusing is the Bible says no man has seen God. If this is so what about Adam? Did Adam see God or did God communicate to Adam invisibly?A: The tree is called “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” – not because it was evil in and of itself, but because choosing it would make Adam know evil. In other words, if Adam chose to rebel by disobeying God’s command, then he would know the difference between good and evil simply by his act of rebelling. Does that make sense? In a manner of speaking, Adam created evil by rejecting his Creator’s command.

Yes, the tree of life would have allowed Adam to live forever. Since Adam rejected his Creator, he received the consequence of disobedience of death (just as he had been warned – Genesis 2:17). The angels with the flaming swords were to make sure that Adam was separated from the other special tree in the garden, the tree of eternal life (Genesis 3:22) – the wickedness of man could not be allowed to go on forever. Trees of life reappear in the book of Revelation in the description of heaven (Revelation 22:1-3,14,19)! We get back the tree of life, because of Jesus!

The statements about no man seeing God can be very confusing. Sometimes the Bible talks about people who did see God like Hagar (Genesis 16:13). Other times it makes the clear statement that if anyone sees God that person will die.

I think the best way to understand this is by looking at the passage where Moses asks to see God. God tells Moses, “You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live” (Exodus 33:20). But God did permit Moses to see His backside (Exodus 33:23). Apparently in all the examples where God did appear to people, He appeared in a veiled or partial manner – not in His true essence. The descriptions of His appearances bear this out. When God appears to Jacob, it is in a human form (Genesis 32:22-30). When He appears to Isaiah it is in a vision in the temple (Isaiah 6:1-5). When He appears to the apostles, it is in the veiled glory of Jesus, His Son (John 14:8-9). These appearances were awesome and frightening and inspiring, but they were apparently not seeing God’s face (that is, His true essence, holiness, power, majesty).

Why can’t we see God’s face? Apparently it has to do with our sinfulness (Habakkuk 1:13). Perhaps it also has to do with the frailty of our earthy human form (1 Corinthians 15:50; 2 Corinthians 5:2-3). In other words, our bodies cannot tolerate God’s purity and glory.

Coming now to Adam, I don’t know whether Adam saw God’s face or a human form of Him. Prior to the fall, sin was not a problem. However Adam was still flesh and blood in a natural body (1 Corinthians 15:45-49). The one clue we have is that apparently Adam and Eve were used to meeting with God in the evening and “walking” with Him in the garden (Genesis 3:8). Sounds like Adam and Eve walked and communicated with God in human form (Jesus?) every evening. So this appearance of God was not God in His complete and utter glory, but some sort of veiled revelation, such as when Jesus walked with the disciples.

The beautiful thing about all of this is the statement in Revelation 22:3-4 which says that in heaven we WILL see God’s face! This is also one of the promises of Jesus: “Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God!” (Matthew 5:8). Apparently with our sins forgiven, in a state of perfect righteousness, and in our resurrected bodies, we will finally have the joy of seeing God in His true essence and majesty!