@brilliant: I kinda lost ya at your points 1 and 2, above. Clearly, I'm not on the same wavelength as you, but that's OK. That reminds me of a sermon by Ken Davis, a Christian humorist, public speaker, and motivator. He said, "I'm not OK, and you're not OK, but that's OK"! I like that. I am not saying, of course, there' s something not OK with your points 1 and 2, I'm just recalling the wisdom of Ken's words and their relevance to the message of the Gospel.

Best wishes to you in your seeking and searching for answers.

@rhetorician “I kinda lost ya at your points 1 and 2, above. Clearly, I'm not on the same wavelength as you, but that's OK”

– No, that’s not OK. Look: I keep loosing you when I try to understand your logic in your assumption, and you keep loosing me trying to understand mine. That shows that both of us in the very beginning made some erroneous assumptions on each other’s way of thinking – that’s why we cannot understand each other as we go further.

I suggest that instead of saying “wish you the best” we locate the “whole” and fix it. I don’t mean that one of us should necessarily agree with the other one’s view in the end and recant his own, but at least we could try to fully understand how and what each one of us thinks.

So, please, tell me where exactly you lost me in those two points. I will try to break them up here again in a more detailed way, and you, please, tell me where, at which point, you are loosing me.

So, Adam fell. Both of us would agree that now there is a bad result of partaking of a “bad” tree – now Adam knows good and evil.

Now God says: “lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever" (Gen. 3:22)

From these words of God we can see that partaking of the tree of life will not save Adam from knowing good and evil (that’s what I meant by saying that the effects of both trees are not mutually-excluding) it will only make him able to live forever, i.e. make him lose the ability to die. So, are you still with me here? If no, please, tell me what according to you is not right here. If yes, then let’s proceed.

Now let’s go back in time a bit to that moment when Adam has not yet partaken of any of the trees.

You assume that he partook of the tree of life at some time before he partook of the tree of knowledge. So, let’s imagine he has just done exactly what you assume – he has just partaken of the tree of life for the first time.

What kind of Adam is he now? Does he have the knowledge of good and evil? – No, because he hasn’t partaken of the tree of knowledge yet. So, is there anything different now in Adam? – Yes! Now he lives forever, that is, now he cannot die – even if he partakes of the tree of knowledge. So, are you still with me here? If no, please, tell me what according to you is not right here. If yes, then let’s proceed.

Now let’s fast forward the time again to the time when Adam is already fallen and God is saying those words. So God is saying, “now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever”…, but wait a moment, is Adam not already living forever?

If your assumption is correct, then Satan could’ve said to God at this moment, “Too late, God. Adam has already partaken of the tree of life. He’s already living forever. I am the winner!” However, we don’t see anything like that in the Bible.

Instead, Satan gets a curse, and God DOES block the way to the tree of knowledge. So, from this I conclude that Adam has NEVER partaken of the tree of life; otherwise God’s actions here would really make no sense. So, do you get my thinking now? Yes? No? Please, tell me.

* Sorry, typo: not "locate the whole", but "locate the hole", of course.