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and made known to Adam that which He would have him to do. Both good and evil were
made known to Adam by direct communication with Yahweh God. Yahweh told Adam the
things that were good and desirable; Adam should tend the garden and eat of its trees.
Yahweh also told Adam what constituted evil. There was only one thing that was described
as being outside of the will of Yahweh. Adam was not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge
of Good and Evil.
Things were very simple for Adam. If he did the things Yahweh commanded him to
do he was walking in obedience and adhering to good. If Adam did the one thing Yahweh
commanded him not to do he would be walking in disobedience and this would be evil. Both
good and evil for Adam were made known through direct communication with Yahweh. In
this we see that good equates to doing Yahweh’s expressed will, while evil is doing that
which is not His will.
We know the tragic occurrence that took place in the Garden of Eden. We are told that
the serpent came and deceived Eve. He tempted her to eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree.
What he revealed in the temptation is highly important.

Genesis 3:5
"For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you
will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Let us examine these words closely. The temptation that Satan brought to Eve was
the temptation to “be like God,” and the particular attribute that was characterized as
unique to God was the ability to know “good and evil.” Up until this time neither Adam nor
Eve were able to determine good and evil themselves. There was only one who determined
good and evil, and this was Yahweh. What Yahweh declared to be good was good, and what
He declared to be evil was evil. He alone could make such judgments. He alone had the
authority to determine what was allowable and what was forbidden, what was righteous
conduct and what was unrighteous conduct. Yahweh alone could determine what activities
should be performed, and which should be abstained from.
In all of creation, Yahweh did not create a single being that was endowed with the
authority to determine for itself good and evil. All created things came forth from Yahweh,
and for all things to be at rest they had to be in a state of perfect harmony with His will. No
created being had the authority to will things of its own initiative. All things found their will
in the mind of the One who was the Creator.
What the serpent offered Eve was the ability to do something that was reserved for
the Creator alone. Eve could determine her own way. She could decide for herself what
activities were good and which were evil. She could, within her own being, find the ability
to govern herself.
Some saints have the mistaken idea that the tragedy of eating of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil was that evil activities came forth. They look at Cain murdering
Abel, they look at the selfishness, lying, coveting, adultery, and all manner of evil that came
upon the Earth and they say, “This is the great evil of eating of the forbidden tree.”
The great evil was not these things. The great evil was that man began to look within
himself to perceive what was right and wrong. Man ceased to always look to Yahweh to
discern what His will was. Man now had his own initiative and a will that was severed from
the will of God. It was not that man began doing bad things that was the great tragedy, it
was that man began to have a will of his own that initiated things apart from the mind of