Mac

Hotei has a point, and one which I've attempted to address in more than one forum. If physical immortality had been part and parcel of the creation of humans, then there would have been no purpose for a Tree of Life. Therefore, the death alluded to by the god must either have been some other sort of death, or we can reasonably assume the god to be senselessly redundant.

Tercel presents a kind of trinity of body/soul/spirit, which effectively excludes death-of-soul (which is apparently regarded to be immortal...otherwise, there would be no concept of heaven vs. hell) but does not seem to give any sort of clarification of how "spirit" differs from "soul"...aside from what seems to me to be a vague and fuzzy mystical ideal that can't be pinned down very well, and is thus open to whatever interpretation is handy at the time.

One of the alternatives offered is that A&A "died to God". If so, then we are left to wonder why the god continued to maintain contact with A&A and their offspring.

Another alternative appears to be that the relationship died. However, again...the god seems to have formed some very close face-to-face relationships with various biblical characters between the advent of Original Sin and the redemption of it. What kind of relationship is dead when it continues much the same as before?

Lastly, the question of time and what it might mean to the god was brought up. Again, this would seem to propose that whatever the god says can be taken in whatever way is handy at the moment. The term "day" is meaningless, since it appears it is unmeasurable as far as divine intent goes. A day may be a thousand years, it might be a hundred thousand years, it might be 24 hours, etc....depending on what fits. Convenient, but hardly decisive.

Did the god lie according to the report? Who knows? It appears to me that at best, he may be considered evasive and unclear. This is not what I would expect from the Sovereign Creator of All That Exists.

Perhaps my expectations are too high.

Mac