Is Evil a branch of Life?

5 min read

Deviation Actions

AmbassadorHerald's avatar
Published:
586 Views
Hey all! Welcome to an article that only a week ago I would have thought unneeded. But, as it turns out, I had to deal with it in the previous week, so I am writing this on it. I am trying to have these entries deal with things I am personally going through, yet be teaching tools at the same time.

It is becoming more and more common in modern days for people to twist what Scripture says. We must be careful not to do this ourselves and help others see what they are doing. Here is an example.

A friend of mine recently drew a picture of a Dryad. Well, I took one look at it and thought it looked like the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. She replied back that she was thinking of it as the Tree of Life. She was also of the idea that it was a mythological tree, not real.

Well, I asked her what she thought of Genesis and Revelation, the two main books of The Bible that mention The Tree of Life. To that question she said that she thought the Tree of Knowledge was a "branch" of the Tree of Life. And it is from this that I got the title question: is Evil a branch of Life? Let us examine this question in detail based on what The Holy Bible tells us.

Genesis 2:9 – "And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil."

Here in Genesis we see God describing the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge. If one was a mere branch of the other, why not say so? Why say 'tree' both times? Well, I think it is clear, they are two trees.

Revelation 2:7 – "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God."

Revelation 22:1-2 – "And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

These are the verses which describe the Tree of Life in most detail. In them we find out that the Tree of Life is at this moment in the middle of The Paradise of God. It has The River of Life flowing through its base. It bears 12 fruits and has leaves of healing for nations. No mention of Evil nor Knowledge here.

Genesis 2:16-17 – "And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.' "

Here is God's command to Adam and Eve to not eat of the Tree of Knowledge. No mention of the Tree of Life at all.

Genesis 3:22-24 – "And the LORD God said, 'Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:' Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."

At this time, Adam and Eve had already sinned and eaten of the Tree of Knowledge. If this was simply a branch of the Tree of Life, there would be no reason to ban them from The Garden of Eden, as they already had eternal life. Since they did not, they had not eaten of the Tree of Life yet.

All of the above verses, which is all the big verses on this topic, work together to make it clear that the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil are entirely separate trees altogether. The answer to the above question, "Is Evil a branch of Life?" is "No!"

Genesis 1:31 – "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day."

God made this world perfect, or 'very good' in His eyes. Life was everywhere, but evil was nowhere to be found.

John 14:6 – "Jesus saith unto him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.' "

Jesus is The Life! To say that evil is a branch of Life is to say that Jesus Christ had an evil side to Him. As Jesus the man was also The Christ, or God, it is blasphemy to say that a perfect God, our Creator, has evil in Him. The Yin-Yang symbol is a lie.
© 2009 - 2024 AmbassadorHerald
Comments5
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Starocean980's avatar
You must be having some free time lately to be picking at these sort of things now, huh Nathanael? =P I mean even the Yin-Yang symbol? Wow. =P