Did God set up man to fail?

During a recent Faith Forum session at the Church, the question came up out of nowhere, "Why did God have to create that apple tree in the Garden of Eden?" In other words, was it necessary for God to tell Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of the tree? If it was not meant to be eaten, then why created it? In essence the argument was that God, by creating this tree and then telling the man and woman not to eat of it, created the source of temptation which eventually led to the fall of humanity, His beloved creation. So the ultimate question is: Did God set up man to fail?

When God created everything in the beginning, He found them to be good. If everything was good, then where did  the evil come from? Evil came into existence when some of the angels under the leadership of Lucifer chose to disobey their Creator. So at the time of creation of humanity, evil was already present in the universe in the form disobedience. 


Out of love, God created humans with the ability to think for themselves. This was actually a risky proposition because freewill also enabled humans to walk away from the love of God if they chose to do so. But a merciful God took that chance because He wanted the epitome of His creation to be absolutely free - under no obligation to love Him back out of necessity. God wanted humans to love Him as an expression of their freewill, rather than as a gratitude for creation and provision. 

Since humans were given freewill, God had to allow evil to interact with humans and try to sway them away also. God couldn't have kept humans blind from knowing about evil because it would have made freewill inconsequential - by creating humans with the ability to choose, God had to make both good and evil accessible to us. It would have been cheating from God's part had He chose to hide evil to the human eye. 

Nowhere in the Bible does it mention that the fruit in question was apple. In truth, it doesn't really matter. What matters is the tree itself - the tree of knowledge of good and evil. When man was given the knowledge of everything that exist in the world, he was also made aware of the good and evil that is present. Comprehending the concept of good was easy because everything God created was good and it was all around the man and woman to see and feel. However evil was a concept humans couldn't understand because the only form of evil existed in the universe - disobedience, was not applicable to humans at the time. When God empowered humans to rule over everything that was created, it also meant that man didn't have to obey to anything else in this world. By giving humans freewill, God also allowed man to stray away from God - it wouldn't be considered as disobedience, instead it would be a separation between God and man. With their freewill, strayed humans could always come back to God, and the relationship would be re-established without any other consequences. When angels walked away from God, it was considered as disobedience because they were created to carry out the will of God. Humans were created to, "have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the tame animals, all the wild animals, and all the creatures that crawl on the earth." (Genesis 1:26). In short, there was nothing that existed in this world at the time of creation that would make humans disobedient, thus committing evil. 

But the Creator is also a just God who couldn't have been satisfied knowing that humans would never be able to exercise their freewill as intended as long as disobedience remained a concept. Since evil couldn't create anything, not even ways to commit evil, it was up to God to create the means for humans to be disobedient. It is important to remember again that God didn't create the evil of disobedience, rather He facilitated a way for humans to access if they wished to do so. That is love in its purest form - willingness to sacrifice everything for the happiness of the loved ones.

 To accomplish the goal, God planted a tree in the Garden of Eden and told man and woman not to eat its fruit. In doing so, God prohibited them from doing something. Up until then nothing was prohibited to humans, everything was allowed. By telling them not to do something, God opened the way for disobedience to enter the world. Disobedience was no longer a concept, it became real.

So why did God create the "apple tree"? He did so because He respects our freewill. The goodness in Him couldn't have been real had He chose to hide evil from us. Without the option to follow evil, all of us would have definitely followed God. But that would have been deception from God's part - a just and loving God could never deceive His beloved creation into loving Him. God din't create evil, it was created out of creation's pride. All God does is give us the access to both good and evil, and a freewill to choose between the two. 

Why was the tree called "tree of good and evil"? Because the tree represented both good and evil - both obedience and disobedience. It is the "tree of good" as long as humans chose to obey God and choose not to eat the fruit. It became "tree of evil" when they chose to eat the fruit and disobey God.

"I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God, obeying his voice, and holding fast to him. For that will mean life for you, a long life for you to live on the land which the LORD swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them." (Deuteronomy 30:19,20)