Did God Set Adam and Eve Up for Failure? | Why I Don't Go (Q&A Ep. 1) #WIDG #apologetics

i don't think that i get it though i can understand why you would see god setting them up for failure but i don't see it as a setup for failure as much as i do an opportunity to choose um because anything short of the ability to choose what make them something other than [Music] human [Music] what's up everyone this is lisa fields the founder and president of the ju-3 project and if you've been tuning into the g3 project you know we just did a series why don't i go and you know that in that series questions were asked that we didn't answer because we wanted to listen but now we're back with our q a edition and i brought two friends along to help me answer some of those questions flame aka marcus gray also marcus garvey we have the truth aka emmanuel lambert i don't have a civil rights hero but we also have our panelists back jason crystal and vince fun story uh before i started my journey into apologetics it was actually flames rewind cd that got me to enroll in a new testament course that started me on this journey to be here today so kind of a full circle moment to have flame here and i was a huge fan of the truth uh growing up in the faith and so it's nice to have both of these gentlemen here to help me answer some of their questions some of the questions from the panelists and they have a podcast called complicated ish so make sure you check that out as well after you watch these episodes make sure you subscribe to their podcast but before we get started i just want to hear from y'all what did it mean for me to listen to y'all the first um few episodes uh for me it was like a first because like when you have certain type of questions that i was asking on that one something i'm asked today it's like you can't ask that question you are um being influenced by the enemy for asking these types of questions and just kind of get it kind of gets shunned so it was good to have you have a listening here awesome that's encouraging to know i think it was really good because it was a safe space to have a conversation that people are typically sometimes afraid to have topics that are afraid to be talked about you know trying to be politically correct or to be i don't know the word but just to not ruffle any feathers so it was just nice to have a space where you could have just an open conversation honestly i'm a piggyback off of that but at the same time i'm gonna say that it was it was something it set the president like it it showed what could happen when questions are asked and i think that's important um not only for myself but for viewers i had several people dm me you know saying that great job this was great i learned a lot even questions that they had you know were answered so it definitely was something great to see awesome that's that's encouraging um to note that i don't have to give you the answers at every juncture i could just listen to you and i think that will help the church know that it creates a healthy space where you listen first even if you don't have the answers and even if you have the answers sometimes it's just good to let people get out their questions and their frustrations so i think that's very instructive but we're going to answer some of your questions today that's why you're back jason i'll let you go first what was the what's one of the most pressing questions you have for it for us um can i start with a question that i asked in the last one yeah go ahead um yeah because the space there wasn't really about getting answers just by getting it out so question i asked in the last one that i want to get answered today is the garden of eden's story where it kind of felt like a setup for failure where you have you know adam doing what he's asked to do and then eve comes in but then you have an influencer to do the very thing that you're not supposed to do and they don't have any experience in life that the first humans ever you know they're told if you surely you'll surely die if you you know do this they ain't never died or seen nobody die before so with with the lack of experience you bring someone to deceive them that has thousands of years of experience as a higher being it's like how could how were they supposed to pass that test or what is supposed to fail for this grand plan in the end um so if that makes any sense that's a very good question you want me to start you want to fire it sparky yeah that's a great question i love that great question bro um well i think i would start with um i'm not sure that god sent the serpent to deceive them based on the the narrative as we understand it is that jesus said that he saw satan who was previously lucifer fall from heaven and i think revelation gives us a context for how satan ended up being exiled to begin with right doesn't you don't get the sense when you read that narrative like this where the scene seemed to be a bit of a coup in the heavens you don't get the sense that this was the design of god if um you get the sense that this is actually all that is not what god intended you said i mean um so i think that's one thing that i would say just to not to try to absolve god because i think that sometimes we can run into a brick wall trying to rescue god so to speak you know um i don't think that's our job it's not our responsibility there are some things that we will not really understand about god that will baffle our minds probably all throughout eternity right because he's just that vast just that big um but i will say in this instance just based on our understanding of what is clear to us in the scriptures you don't get the sense that this was the design of god that he sent the serpent to deceive them that actually is something that happened as a consequence of his rebellion against god and if he he because remember when god creates hell he doesn't even create hell for people bible says that he creates it for the devil and his angels right um so satan didn't want to he didn't want to go alone he didn't want to go at it alone he said i'm bringing some of your people with me and so i think that it was it was he acted on his own at that point fully depraved will an evil plan strategic plan in order to pull you know adam and eve with him you understand that makes sense so i think that's one thing that i would say i think another thing i would say is i don't think that i get it though i can understand why you would see god setting them up for failure but i don't see it as a setup for failure as much as i do an opportunity to choose because anything short of the ability to choose what makes them something other than human right so imagine if we had it the other way where god determines for them all that they will and will not do all that they can and cannot do well that would make them something other than human because part of what it means to be human is to have the ability to choose and what i believe is that god gave us a will and has gone to great lengths to honor it he said in other words that that's you know that's from the moment in which adam and eve had the capabilities of choice to present day god honors the will in fact i'm so convinced that god honors the will that i believe that he would rather us choose something that would harm us than berate our conscience and force us to do something that we didn't want to right yeah now here's the downside of that god's so honest to will that he grants us the prerogative to choose but not the privilege of determining the outcome and therein lies the rub for us because we want the best of both worlds we want our cake and needed to we want to be able to choose what we want when we want how we want and control the consequence god says does that make sense yeah i would say that's a flaw of man you see what i'm you said you said what i'm saying yeah so so i would say that i don't think it was a um god setting adam and eve up to fail i would see it as an opportunity for them to choose to be human to engage and activate the will and um what other and then i'm give it to flame after this but how do we what is the true test of genuine um faithfulness i mean in any relationship how do we truly test the genuineness the depth of a person's commitment the only way you really test the genuineness of a person's commitment is if you present them with options and they constantly tease you and they constantly choose you you see but but independent of options there's no way to truly test a pers the genuineness of a person's commitment to anything you follow me and i think that that's what we get in the garden what we get is really god granting them the opportunity to choose him yeah so now i love that i mean it's hard to add to it only thing it makes me also reflect on is um the backdrop also is just this vast expression of love as well right so it seems to be something to uh it it's it's better to be created than not created so the fact that they exist uh is an expression of god's love towards his creatures and then they have this garden to explore which is an expression of god's love so it's so much good there and he says all of this is yours right explore enjoy live life this is the kingdom of god right so it's just this um this intimate connection that they have with their creator unique to anything we even can experience on this side of things um so i think i just want to add that to the conversation that it would be really more love in the scene than we give credit to uh when we just sort of see it at face value but it's like look what he did though you know um and then immediately after they sort of dropped the ball he runs in with the rescue plan to sustain them to cover them with the tunic skins to rescue to show them even this picture here reflects what's to come later in christ and his death and sacrifice so with so much love there so much goodness there of his good plan is good idea that even when this deviation happens he runs in to make things right yet again you know what i'm saying but i think crystal even said this on the first segment that some of these answers just may not be as satisfying because of that deep longing for yeah it couldn't be those dots there would there would be follow-up questions but i think that rabbit hole will go so deep at some point you just gotta have faith and you just had the faith yeah so and i think to speaking on the testament of god's love for us just as humanity is just he created this this environment this beautiful earth for us despite knowing what our decision was going to be whether it was to follow him or not follow him like he still gave us all of this so yeah i think just kind of holding on to that yeah yeah and um i think this has been a phenomenal uh session uh and we'll be back with more questions and answers in the next episode so stay tuned when you confess your faults one to another and pray for one another healing comes and that means that confession of people brings healing confession to god is where i get forgiveness of sin confession of people is where i get healing from the sins that have been done to me

Channel: Jude 3 Project

Views: 18,495

Rating: 4.9099336 out of 5

Keywords: Young adults, Church attendance, apologetics, Christianity, millennials, Jude 3 Project, Why I Don't Go, series on black faith, black faith, church, black church, why i don't go to church, is the church still necessary, candid conversations, courageous conversations, cogic, ame, baptist, nondemon, non denominational, paw, multiethnic churches, black churches, white churches, Da Truth, Flame, Christian Hip Hop, Adam and Eve, the bible, urban apologetics, lisa fields, Q&A

Id: HY1aO0oyqBA

Length: 13min 16sec (796 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 17 2021