Page 50 - Advanced Genesis - Creationism - Student Textbook

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around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria.
And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

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15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And
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the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely
die.” (ESV)

God planted a garden in an area of the earth named Eden. This was to be a special dwelling place for
man where he would have perfect fellowship with his creator God. It was in this setting God would
provide all the instructions to live on this world, how to manage and steward the creation and how to
interact with the creation both animals and other men, even though there was no one else around.

Some people believe that the exact location of the Garden of Eden could be found since there are
names of rivers listed here. There is also a lot of specificity concerning where the rivers flow, however,
we must remember this is the pre-flood world. These rivers would have been destroyed in the flood.
The names are the same as other post-flood rivers since the memory of certain rivers would still be in
our collective memory and as they saw rivers appear after the flood it caused them to think back to a
better time and select names that remind them of something from when the earth was perfect.

To answer the question, “Where was the Garden of Eden?” the answer is, “we have NO IDEA specifically
where it was. We can presume upon a general location in the Mesopotamian Valley, but cannot be
dogmatic. The Garden of Eden, like the rest of the pre-flood earth was destroyed with the global,
cataclysmic flood recorded in Genesis 7.

Many have questioned why God placed the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” in the garden. One
thing we can be sure of is that it was for man’s good. It was also not to tempt mankind since James 1:17
says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I have been tempted by God”, for God cannot be tempted by
evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone”.

One thing to consider in answering this question is why God created man in the first place. Man was
created to have full, freely chosen fellowship with God. God was going to lavish his love, attention, and
blessing on man and His desire is that man of his own free will would choose to reciprocate. When we
consider choices, an action is not a choice if there is not an alternative action. For God to allow man to
choose to return His love, He must give man the alternate choice to say no.

The “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” was that choice and as long as man
obeyed God and His one command concerning creation he demonstrated that he
chose to return God’s lavish love back to Him through obedience. We find
throughout Scripture (Genesis 22:18, Exodus 19:5, Deut. 11:27, Samuel 15:22,
Hebrews 5:9) that God honors and rewards obedience even more than sacrifices,
prayers, and religious activities. The tree was a way that God could provide man
with the opportunity to demonstrate his love for God by daily choosing to obey
Him in the daily presence of the choice to rebel.

Genesis 2:18-25 – The creation of woman, institution of marriage
18 Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit
for him.” Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the
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