The Knowledge of Good and Evil

But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will
surely die.49

These two trees represented the extremes of the patterns of life that the earth was designed to host.
They embodied the existing conflict between God and Satan, and were the two extremes of the
choice that mans nature would require him to make. The compendium of knowledge represented
by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the basis for an alternative reality to man as spirit
representing his Father to creation.
I nstead, the knowledge of the tree offered an order of life in which the creature might live in
complete independence from his Creator, like Satan. This independent order obligated the creation to
duplicate the functions of God on its own and forge a destiny of his own choosing. This was true of
both man and Satan.

The knowledge, symbolized by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, is the result of a process of
observation, analysis, comparison, theory, and activity; in a word, reason. Eve observed that the
fruit on the tree was pleasing to the eye, and she had been told that it was desirable to make her wise.

By eating the fruit of the tree, Adam displayed the necessary recklessness that permitted him to throw
off the restraint of his Father in order to enter a world in which he was required to supply all of the
answers to the question of his being.

Then, by reason, the man concluded that his reality was not spirit but flesh; he began to engage
that reality by fashioning clothing for his flesh.

His flesh was the clothing with which God clothed the spirit, and he was not naked, but was a spirit
clothed in flesh. Both Adam and Eve made a conscious and deliberate choice that permanently
altered their vision of reality.


After the fall, mans own perception of good and evil replaced Gods impartationwhich man
received during his daily visit with God. Mans spirit became insensitive to the voice of God, and he
was no longer informed through his interactions with God. Although God would continue to speak to
humankind, mans new culture of heeding his own wisdom had taken root. From that time on, mans
own voice would constantly compete with the voice of God.

As long as the earth continued to revolve, the gap between the realities as perceived through the spirit
and the soul would widen, and the ways of man would depart from the ways of God, until the results of
both would be presented in stark contrast at the end of the age.


A Change from Spirit to Soul

The underlying intention of God in putting His son into the earth was to cause Himself to be seen and
understood within the natural world.

The body, created of dust, was material and compatible with the physical world. The environment of
earth was neither harmful nor detrimental to the human body, but perfectly compatible and supportive
to human existence. Indeed, God designed the physical world to be both useful to and harmonious
with mans physical form. The spirit within man, originating out of the person of God as a gift
from God Himself, was native to the world of God, that of spirit and of heaven. This aspect of
mans being is, therefore, as much at home in the invisible realm of spirits as his body is at home in the
natural world. Within man, the soul bridges the gap between the natural world and that of the spirit.
The purpose of the soul is to translate the realm of spirit to the natural.

Mans soul, then, is meant to interpret and present Gods divine nature and eternal purposes to the
natural world. The soul itself is a mirror image of mans spirit, meant to function in tandem with the
spirit. A similar relationship exists between the Spirit of God and the spirit of man. God imparted His
own spirit into the being of man so that the spirit of man could function in perfect harmony with the
Spirit of God.


For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the mans spirit within him? In the same way,
no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world,
but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given to us. This is what
we speak, not in the words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing
spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from
the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are
spiritually discerned.1 Cor 2:11-14

The mind of the soul receives its information from three sources: the World, the Flesh, and the Devil.

. The world, the flesh, and the demonic appeal directly to mans soul and come from sources that are
subject to the control of the enemy.

James 3:14-15 KJV
14But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the
truth. 15Such wisdom does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16For where
you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

Also 1 John 2:15-16 KJV:
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not
in him. For everything in the worldthe cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of
what he has and doescomes not from the Father but from the world.



When God told him, From now on, by the sweat of
your brow you will eat bread all the days of your life, He was not cursing Adam for his
sin, He was telling Adam the state to which he had fallen. When you catch up with Adam
6000 years later, the culture of the orphan is fully blown. The cross restores the right of
Adam to be a son and the Spirit of God restores the man to the culture common to spirit.

we described world as: an
orderly arrangement of systems under the sway or rule of the kosmokrator, who is the
god of this world. And we saw that this was Satans scheme to draw man into reliance
upon his systems in lieu of relying upon God. We gave an example of one of these
systems before: the adversarial system for the adjudication of disputes creates
adversaries as opposed to reconciling people. The kingdom has its ways of doing things
and the kosmos has its ways of doing things. The kingdoms ways have and promote the
kingdoms value and the Kings value. So in the example given before, the Kings value
is to die for the person. The person is important to the King; therefore the kingdoms
value in the adjudication of disputes is to save the relationships.

The
kingdom has in itin its matters relating to the saving of relationshipsopportunities for
repentance, forgiveness, for confession, for reconciliation, for restoration, for renewal.
The world has in it: apportioning blame, fault and guilt and distributing goods and
compelling results that fracture and damage relationships. So these systems are in the
kosmos and the kingdom has its parallels but the world, or the kosmos, reflects the value
of the kosmokrator. The kingdom reflects the values of the King. The King is a healer, a
reconciler, one who is loving and kind. The kosmokrator is a devourer, an accuser, a
prosecutor. So the relative values are displayed in the systems that reflect the rule of
both rulers.
Now here is the secret: in the kosmos there is an absolute draw to the things that will
appeal to the human soul. What appeals to the human soul? What is in the human soul
that desires to be drawn? His sinful nature: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and
the pride of life. What is in the kosmos that draws him like a magnet? The appeal to the
sinful nature, the appeal to the lust of the eyes and the boasting about what a man has
and does. How do we understand these things? In the world man is lead to believe that
he and he alone is responsible for his provision and his protection.