Is God setting us up for failure?

Is God setting us up for failure? Let us look at God's perspective the best we can. If I was all alone in the universe, and wanted a friend. Let's say I duplicate myself. What problem do I face? What if my duplicate doesn't like me, and decides to kill me? Now I, the one who has always existed am put to death. This I don't want. So then how can I be sure that he always likes me? Well, If he doesn't know what is good about me or what is bad about me as an opinion, Then I have no risk that he will not like me, he will just trust, and be happy, and he will be my friend.

In the age old tale of Adam and Eve God place Adam and Eve in the garden with all the trees and the one they can eat off of. But God is omnipotent and omniscient so wouldn't he have known before hand that they would eat of the forbidden fruit? Now as a duplicate this feature is available, for God himself knows Good and Evil for he is omnipotent and omniscient. So Yes, he would have known before hand that he would eat the fruit.

Whether you believe traditionally that this was a historical event or that it's just a legend or parable meant to educate is irrelavent to my question. But I want to bring this tale into modern terms have their are so many temptations or "forbidden fruits" in the world and we have to make a choice between sin and God. Yes.

But the Bible says in Matthew 17:13-14 "13—Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14—Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." Yes.

To me this suggests that most men will choose sin and hell instead of godliness and heaven. Which sounds like a dumb decision at face value but we all have our "forbidden fruits." Yes.

What I'm asking is why does God allow so many temptations into the world knowing most will choose their flesh rather than him? Temptations themselves are cause by the Knowledge of Good and Evil. That is why not eating the fruit was the only command, and there was no Law. For example: You see the woman bending over over there and you want to do something about it because you "Know that you will like it". No temptation comes from God, it is only our desires that lead us away. It is possible to choose him over your flesh. The exact definition of the Flesh I still need to have perfectly defined. But now I see it as If I wouldn't want it to happen to my Daughter, I shouldn't do it to a woman, and if I don't want my Daughter to do it. I should avoid people that might teach her to do those things.

Is he setting us up for failure know most won't resist their flesh? What if you told your friend that he really shouldn't walk down the hall like THAT because later he will regret how people made fun of him. Then realizing that he had a lot of trouble understanding what you mean, so you tried everything in your power to get him to realize what he was doing.

Falling in Love is an easy thing to do. When we become one flesh we are designed to have an attachment. When that relationship is over, we have heart break, and have been separated from our love, and the end condition is worse. These are things we have been doing to ourselves. Tearing ourselves apart, some to the point that trust is nonexistent. The Law is perfect. If I choose not to trust anyone, then no one will decide to trust me. And If I love no one, then no one will love me. So you can see the natural separation that the flesh causes between you and your Love.

Many often fall because of they fail to love reality, and choose to love the fantasy. Lost in their land of fantasy, they lose touch of reality. Till ultimately reality reveals their death for failing to take proper care of reality. How can the fault be placed on reality? It was the love of the fantasy that caused the separation.

So for our own protection. It has been said. Thou shall not have any god's besides me. For all sin leads to death by our own accord, and the fault entirely rests on our own shoulders. Now if we can carry our faults, and follow the teachings of Jesus. We can live a fuller life, but the failure is all ours for that Is the definition of Sin, and God does not Sin, he is perfect.

We first failed to reject the safety of not knowing Good and Evil, but now that we do know more became required because we added to what we wanted, and what was simple became stressful and argumentative. Rules had to be given to lower the amount of arguments, and peace left our lands. None of this was Gods fault, and when all the hidden things of yourself are revealed to yourself, the stuff we have so carefully hid from ourselves and mistakes we begged ourselves forget, those lost loves, those painful experiences. When we truly face ourselves for what we have done with this time we have been given. It really is only by believing What Jesus said and did, and doing those things, will we be able to look at ourselves in purity, and not hate myself.

... God is omnipotent and omniscient so wouldn't he have known before hand that they would eat of the forbidden fruit?

Yes, He knowns! But Adam and Eve were different of us, they are without sins, so their will was really "free" and it wasn't contaminated like us. The origin and consequences of the original sin are very different of our condition, so God knows why it happened...

why does God allow so many temptations into the world knowing most will choose their flesh rather than him?

When children learn to walk, they need fall sometimes. No pain, no gain... God expects that you learn to walk, but looks that the mankind prefer wheelchairs...

First of all, my reply is from the Reformed Presbyterian tradition.

God is not setting us up for failure. That is, He is not setting up His people for failure. The very phrase "setting up" sounds like people are machines, just automatons. That view does not do justice to the image of God in man. However, it is also true that God is sovereign. God is sovereign, and man is responsible for his own actions, including his sins. See Romans 9:14-24.

So why would God set up a world in which man would fall into ruin? This is akin to asking about the problem of evil. And the only satisfactory answer I know of is that God set up the world this way in order for Him to get greater glory. There are certain attributes of God that show up in greater relief when there is sin in the world: justice, wrath, mercy, grace, and love.

I do believe in predestination: God foreordains whatsoever comes to pass. However, this does not violate the will of the creature, but rather establishes it. That is, the will of the creature is the mechanism through which God most often works. See Chapter 3 Paragraph 1 of the Westminster Confession of Faith:

God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass: yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.

God saves His people. They will go to heaven and be with Him forever. That does not sound like failure!

God is eternal, and He declares the end from the beginning. He gave man a free will, but because He is all-knowing, He also knew the choice that man would make. For example, He knew that mankind would sin before He created them and He made the plan for redemption long before creating the world. That's the reason 1 Pet. 1:20 and Rev 13:8 talk of the Lamb being chosen and being slain before the foundation of the world respectively. That's why Jesus knew beforehand that few would enter by the narrow gate.

However, God still created people and gave them opportunities to turn to Him, knowing that some would reject Him. For example Heb 4:7 gives the instruction 'Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts'. God said this knowing ahead of time that some would listen and obey, while others would still harden their hearts. We definitely know that there are people who have been convicted of sin but have refused to receive salvation.

In summary God has the big picture and He 'works all things according to the counsel of His own will' (Eph. 1:11). Knowing the choices people would make, He fitted all into His eternal plan in a way that all events would harmonize with His eternal purpose. In most cases He does not interfere with the people's free will and just because some make wrong decisions doesn't mean He caused them to do it. He just knew that they would make the choices (no matter how much He tried to influence them to make the right ones) and He fitted it all in His grand plan. He's not setting people up for failure through temptation, because the choice to give in to temptation lies with the people. Scriptural reference: Genesis 4:7 '...But if you don't do well, sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you but you must master it.' and 1 Cor 10:13 'But God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond that which you can bear..' He allows temptation to prove those who will be faithful and obedient.