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But it may be argued that at least in Eden Adam and Eve had freewill, or freedom of
choice. Is this so? Gen. 2: 16, 17 tells us "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". The freedom to eat of every tree was commanded by God! The
prohibition to refrain from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was
commanded by God! The word for `command' is so translated well over 400 times, the
other 60 or so alternative translations all have the underlying sense of command, e.g.
appoint, forbid, etc. Even in Eden man was ordered to do right, and to refrain from
wrong. "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was
pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit
thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her; and he did eat" (Gen. 3: 6).
Immediately, in accord with the command of God, `death (entered into the world) by sin'
(Rom. 5: 12). From that moment the situation was radically changed.
Until death entered into the world `as by one man', Adam and Eve were `free' to do
God's Will in the sense that to obey Him they had to do nothing. The only other course
open to them was to disobey, and to do this they had to act, and from the moment they
acted, a reversal of the situation took place. The Concordant Version of the New
Testament translates Rom. 5: 12 thus:
"Therefore, even as through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death,
and thus death came through into all mankind, on which all sinned . . . . .".
The `natural' result of the entrance of death into the world by sin, was that all men sin:
the result of sin is death, for `the wages of sin is death' (Rom. 6: 23). In consequence of
the Fall mankind has ever since been held in the bitter bondage of the vicious circle of
death giving rise to sin, and sin resulting in death. From that sequence man cannot break
free. In his bondage man is free to sin, free to disobey his Creator: he needs to do
nothing to remain in rebellion, and the life of obedience is beyond his power.
Neither in Eden, nor at any time since, has man had freewill. Freewill implies that
man can do anything, but as we have seen, man has at all time been strictly confined so
that at best he might be said to have freedom of choice. In no sphere of life is man able
to do anything or everything. A topical illustration of this point is the environment
where, in the opinion of many, pollution has reached a critical level. Persistently man has
exploited nature and is now reaping what he has sown. It has been suggested that the
atmosphere is so badly polluted that there is sufficient oxygen for only twenty years left.
While this may be panic conclusion, it is true that the Mediterranean Sea is becoming one
vast sewer, already bring death and desolation to vegetation on its shores in some areas.
Man has flouted and continues to flout God's will in the laws of nature: if the laws of
nature are obeyed, all is well; but if the laws of nature are disregarded disaster inevitably
follows. There may be many different ways of disregarding the laws of nature, but the
outcome is always the same--disaster. In the sphere of the environment there are only
two courses open to man: to accede to the laws of nature . . . . . or, to choose disaster.
The `freedom' accorded to man is very limited: he has, basically, the choice between two
ways, one result in blessing, the other in disaster.