This is getting too good, Salty, can you start your topic in another thread?
We'd lose the original context!!! That's why it's good to jump onto someone else's bandwagon.
So perhaps then knowledge of good and evil was the decent into dualism losing the pure oneness?
Yes.
Expanding on my theory.......
According to Jewish and Islamic theology, the angels don't have free will and therefore aren't very smart.
Does Judaism Believe in Satan?
Angels in Judaism: Introduction
Islamic view of angels - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is where I introduce my own "innovations" to the story.
When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they became so much smarter than the angels that they became a threat to God's heavenly realm of angels. Adam and Eve could have become "evil" and started manipulating and tricking the angels into doing naughty things. God could not have the two causing mischief in the heavenly kingdom and that was why God drove them out, not because they disobeyed the command not to eat that forbidden fruit.
The serpent in the garden probably ate the fruit himself. God probably drove him out as well. Many other angels probably ate the fruit as well, but they were not cast into this world.
The difference between humans and the angels is that humans were forced to experience hardship and death in the physical plane. The angels did not get exposure to that experience and therefore could not evolve to respect humanity even if they had tasted the fruit and become smarter.
This is perhaps one of our strengths as humans. We can learn something from World War II and the Holocaust in ways the angels cannot even if they have free will and are just as smart as us.
Being an angel is a bit like playing a computer game. You shoot up a few baddies, get killed but you get to play again right from the start. You never really die because it's just a game. For a human to die it's game over. We don't take life for granted. We play the game from start to finish. There are no second chances. That's why we're better than the angels.
This is where I deviate from Jewish and Islamic theology -- bringing it back to Christian theology.
In the Book of Revelation it says there is a war in heaven.
Because there are angels with free will and angels without free will, humans may play a role in the heavenly war without realising it. The ancient serpent (Satan) who tasted the forbidden fruit became smarter than the other angels and likely saw this as an opportunity to mess up the heavenly kingdom.
Adam and Eve were driven out of heaven/Eden so that they could not mess up the kingdom. This banishment of the human race may be temporary. We may one day be returning to the heavenly kingdom to fight against the serpent. The physical world is like a training ground. The constant threat of death makes us consider our choices carefully. The experience of pain, death and hardship makes us wiser and humbler.
The angels try to influence our thoughts without alerting us to their activity. However, because we are smarter (or wiser) than them, they may be influenced by us in the process. This may be how we affect the heavenly war above.
Perhaps the dead people who went to heaven are participating in that heavenly war as well. The wisdom gained in the world below guard them against following the ways of the serpent. The physical world therefore is not just a training ground, but part of a recruitment process. God foresaw the rebellion of the serpent and drove Adam and Eve out of Eden in anticipation so that they could later be recruited into a resistance movement against the serpent.
The serpent will gather an army of fallen angels and will be defeated by a wretched horde of humans. These humans will be wiser than the angels and will not be deceived by his tricks -- which don't work on humans. Actually, the humans may actually convince some of the fallen angels to return to the light. The serpent will be forced to attack because he's losing converts. His propaganda campaign will fail. His army will desert him and he will finally be driven out of heaven for good.
Meanwhile, in the world below, the apocalypse has begun.
The fallen serpent failed to mess up the heavenly kingdom so now he will mess up our world by mucking around with international politics, provoking the USA and China, Iran and Israel to war, stirring up fear of immigrants, spreading Islamophobia and turning Western governments into totalitarian regimes. He will use a special group of Illuminati to manipulate world politics to create fear among people so he can control them.
The global financial crisis, 9/11, SARS, swine flu and natural disasters were part of his plan to create fear so he could control people. Humans start destroying each other with nuclear weapons and making the planet uninhabitable. The end of the human race is inevitable -- without divine intervention.
This is when the messiah appears and the "general resurrection" takes place. The humans who helped defeat the serpent in heaven suddenly reappear on earth to save those below. The messiah and resurrected humans will perform a massive miracle, causing heaven to break in and shield the remaining humans from nuclear radiation.
Another one of my theories.
