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Originally Posted by Igzy
The item in question is called "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." It is not called "the tree of knowledge," neither is it called "the tree of good and evil."
Lee would often call it "the tree of knowedge," and use that to indict knowledge. I don't recall Lee calling it directly "the tree of good and evil." But his oft-quoted assertion that "good and evil are from the same tree" basically did that.
Both of these ideas, that the tree was "the tree of knowledge," and that it was "the tree of good and evil" seriously distort the meaning of the picture.
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I hear what you are trying to say. But, I still wanted to point out that Wikipedia says
Tree of Knowledge may refer to Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
I don't think Br. Lee asked brothers to remain ignorant/illiterate. He may have said 'knowledge is bad'. But, at least I understood that knowledge without Christ is bad. Just as I know that 1 Cor 8:1 (knowledge puffeth up) is not indicting knowledge.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Igzy
So what does "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" mean? I think it clearly means trying to live morally independent from God. Man cannot live with some kind of guide as to what is good and what is evil. We are supposed to look to God for this knowledge, not make ourselves the source. And the latter is exactly what Adam and Eve did when they reinterpreted God's command!
But to take this symbol so far as to indict knowledge, or to say good and evil come from the same source contradicts the rest of the Bible. The Bible upholds proper knowledge as as goal to aim for. The whole book of Proverbs is about this. And again and again the Bible says do good and abstain from evil.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Igzy
Yes, eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil results in death. That is, seeking to know good and evil apart from God results in death.
So saying "knowledge results in death" or "good and evil come from the same tree" are flat wrong teachings
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I agree with you about what the Bible says about knowledge. And, that is what I understood from Br. Lee's writings as well. I never felt Br. Lee was asking anyone to give up knowledge in the literal sense of the word.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Igzy
God said that eating from the tree would cause man to be "like us [God], knowing good and evil." But obviously, man did not become like God. He didn't truly know good and evil. What he became was an entity which thought he himself was a source of knowledge of good and evil and so would not need another source of such knowledge other than himself. In other words, he became morally independent. This is what "like us" meant.
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Gen 3: 22 And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil