This month, we’ll concentrate on answering more of the questions the youth came up with at their annual lock-in back in February. Here are two more questions they offered:
1 – Why did Jesus want to save our sins?
This is a little “word-smithing” on my part, but I don’t believe Jesus wanted to save our sins; it is more likely that He wanted to save us from our sins! That makes a big difference. Our sins are deadly; they come with a very high cost. Sin is death. It is lawlessness. It is cosmic treason. Jesus came to save His people from the punishment due their sins. Sin is our biggest problem, and Jesus went to great lengths to make us right in His eyes.
Are you a believer in Jesus Christ? Rejoice that your sins have been erased at Mount Calvary. Are you not a believer in Jesus? Or, you don’t know for sure? Come to Jesus – “God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we (you & me) might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
2 – Did Eve actually eat an apple?
No, it doesn’t look as if Eve actually ate an apple. We do not know for certain what fruit Eve ate. Turning to the Bible, this is what we know from Genesis 2:16-17 – “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 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.”
As you can see, the text demonstrates that our first parents, Adam and Eve, were forbidden of God to eat from a tree (the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil). Does that kind of tree bear fruit? We don’t know; the Bible doesn’t reveal that to us. Could it have been an apple? Yes, it could have, but we don’t know for certain.
As you might expect, there is much speculation and conjecture as to what Eve (Adam, too!) ate. One theory is that Adam and Eve ate figs, because that is what they covered themselves with after committing sin in the Garden of Eden. That supposition comes from Genesis 3:7 – “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.”
Another theory concludes that the fruit Adam and Eve ate was the pomegranate. This fruit is referenced more than 30 times in the Bible, first mentioned in the Bible’s second book, Exodus. Pomegranates are a common fruit native to the Middle East.
A third possibility is the art work of Milton, the poet who wrote Paradise Lost nearly 360 years ago. His fruit? The apple. The possibilities are endless! That’s all for now.
Have a great July – see you Sunday! Pastor Daren
Trinity Presbyterian Church 