Agreed but for one thing.
We truly have free will when we obey God.
We are free to love and be our true selves, we can enjoy the nature God meant for us to have. Those who serve satan are slaves.
Indeed. The only time humanity had freewill was before the Fall and now, if we are in relationship with Christ.
I also think I understand what you say about evil being the opposite of good. I can't think of it this way. Even in Catholicism evil is seen as a true force, not as an absence of good (which is what I believe you're saying).
Evil is not the opposite of good. It is a broken or misused form of good. A broken glass is not the opposite of a functioning glass - it is a broken form.
If it were just an absence of good, what would be creating a hurricane?
Absence of good means the weather would not be so nice. It would be neutral. Hurricanes are infested with evil. They are not neutral. They cause death and harm.
Hurricanes are bad for humanity, but they are not bad, in and of themselves. Calling them bad is the same thing A&E started after the Fall - labeling God’s good creation in relation to ourselves - ‘hurricanes destroy our cities and kill people who remain in their path - therefore they are evil’
What or Who put the evil in the tree of the knowledge?
The tree was good. There was no evil in the tree or the fruit. We generated the evil by eating the fruit instead of using it for what God intented it to be used for.
Why did A and E sin if concupisence did not exist yet?
Concupisence is the desire to do good. If we are experiencing a vulnerable, loving relationship with God, like A&E were doing before the Fall, the concept of concupisence is moot. It would be like breathing air - we only long for air when we feel the pain of not getting enough. So i agree, it didnt exist pre-Fall. I am not sure about the relationship between the lack of concupisence and the compulsion to commit the first sin....
I tend to think A&E decided to experience sin rather than just understand it as a concept because it seemed mysterious and compelling. Here was a secret that God was keeping from them and they wanted to feel what it was like rather than just seeing it as a concept; much like experimenting with drugs, i suppose.
Original sin did not exist yet, how did they sin?
They knew that the fruit was not for eating. They knew that God intended it for other purposes. I have a sneaky suspicion that they knew, intellectually, that all creation could be misused. The incident with the Tree was simply the result of choosing a target for misuse. It didnt have to be the tree; the tree was not magic - it taught us nothing. In fact, it could have been named ‘The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, after the incident; sort of like a strench of highway that is notorious for accidents being labeled ‘Slaughter Alley’. Much of the lands in the OT were named for events that occured or promises made.
Do you believe evil is a real force or the absence of good?
I believe evil is the absence of, or misuse of Gods Good Creation. This is not my idea - Augustine taught it during his lifetime.
