Confused About Creation

The following was written by Mounir Murad:

“And out of the ground made the Lord to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” (Genesis 2:9)
This clearly indicates that evil was in existence before the fall of Adam and Eve. If God is “all good” and the sole Creator, why did evil come into existence? Why doesn't Genesis mention anything about it? Some theories propose that evil may have come into existence after a group of angels rebelled against God and were transformed from good into evil beings. In reality, no one knows…
Was it really a serpent that tempted Eve? Did Adam and Eve communicate with all animals, or was the serpent another symbol for Satan?1

God created angels and humans with free will. God knows that true love is a choice and a commitment which is not a thing to be forced out of someone. Adam, Eve, and we, have a choice to obey God or to obey ourselves. Likewise, the angels had a choice to obey God or themselves. Lucifer chose to exalt himself above God,

…Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, and the sound of your stringed instruments; the maggot is spread under you, and worms cover you. How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weaken the nations! For you have said in your heart:
“I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.”
Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit (Isaiah 14:11-15).

One third of the angels chose to follow him and forsake God, becoming Lucifer's angels, "His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth" (Revelation 12:4). Satan seeks to be worshiped even by Christ, During the temptation satan said to Christ, "All these things I will give you if you will fall down and worship me" (Matthew 4:9).

The reason Genesis does not mention all these things in specific is because the information is given elsewhere in Scriptures. God gave us sixty-six books, not just one that includes everything in detail. In fact, the Jewish Old Testament (the Tanakh) is arranged in a different order and counts first and second Samuel as one book as well as first and second Kings and Chronicles. I think that the above quoted writer is surprised that Genesis mentions "nothing" about where and why evil came to be, because we are used to the convenience of chronology. Yet, the books of the Bible are not necessarily in chronological order from Genesis to Revelation.
The book of Psalms contains many Psalms written by King David about events that are recorded for us in books such as Samuel, and yet they are bound together in this one book. In Genesis the same non-chronology is obvious. At the end of chapter 1 man is created, then in chapter 2 the creative work is completed and God rests on the seventh day, then it states, "And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground." Is this as some claim, a contradiction? No, chapter 1 gives a general overview and chapter 2 discuses the creation of man in particular and in detail.

There is no reason to theorize about where evil might have come from. In reality, many know.

…You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in the garden of Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created.
You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, until iniquity was found in you.
By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned; therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; and I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones.
Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, that they might gaze at you. You defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your trading; therefore I brought fire from your midst; it devoured you, and I turned you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who saw you. All who knew you among the peoples are astonished at you; you have become a horror, and shall be no more forever (Ezekiel 28:12-19).

Jesus said, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven" (Luke 10:18).

The serpent is indeed a symbol for Satan and sin,

…that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him" (Revelation 12:9).

"He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan (Revelation 20:2).

Mounir Murad also states the following:

Were Adam and Eve really the first humanlike creatures on Earth, or did they coexist with other humanlike creatures? When Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden of Eden, they had two sons, Cain and Abel. When Cain killed Abel, “…the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.” (Genesis 4:15) Who was there besides Adam and Eve to kill him? Adam was 130 years old when his third son, Seth, was born.

Now consider the passage: “And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he build a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.” (Genesis 4:17) But where did Cain's wife come from? Also, why was Cain building a city? How many inhabitants of Earth were there to justify building a city?...All indications lead me to believe that the Earth was already inhabited by human beings when Adam and Eve were driven out from the Garden of Eden.2

So, who was there besides Adam and Eve to kill Cain? In this case it is important to consider what the Scripture does not say. God gives us the main point in His word; the events He finds important. If He gave us every detail about everything, the Bible would take up the whole world (see John 21:25). We are told that Adam and Eve had two sons, Abel and Cain (after they left the Garden of Eden) we are not told that these are their first two children. We are told about these two because their lives have a lesson to teach us. Even if they were the first two children (which they are generally thought to be), they had other children after them, Seth is mentioned (yet never as their "third" child), others are not.

Keep in mind that the birth of Abel and Cain, the murder of Abel, Cain's punishment, Cain and his wife bare Enoch, Enoch has children, they have children, another murder is committed, Adam and Eve bare Seth, all this and more in one single chapter, in Genesis 4. So obviously a great deal of time passes, about seven generations, and we are only given specific important details. So there were plenty of people who might kill Cain.

Therefore, the question of where Cain's wife came from is done away with. Cain could have been a close or distant relative of hers, a cousin, an uncle or even her brother. But wait, what about incest and the gene pool factor? One answer is in the realm of morality and the other biology.
Morally there was nothing wrong with a person baring children with someone of their own family because God is the law maker, the creator of morality, and He gives no law against incest (as far as we know) until centuries later in the time of Moses.

Regarding the gene pool, the problems of inbreeding, we must understand the science of "The Fall." The fall of man into sin affected not just human life, but it affected all of creation. The genetic makeup of the first humans was pristine, they could inbreed without ill effect. Perhaps incest was allowed at first because it was not genetically problematic and because it had to be done in order to populate a planet by starting with two people. But once our genetic makeup had deteriorated to a certain point God issued His law against it.

When seen in the light of truth and science we can easily accept these "myths" as fact. Adam lived in an unpolluted world with a pristine genetic makeup, this allowed him to live to the ripe age of 930 years (imagine a midlife crisis at 465 years of age). Imagine how many children a 930-year-old could bare. If Adam's age seems mythical imaging telling someone in the filthy, disease ridden Europe of the (mythical) Dark Ages that someday in the future people would live to be 80 or 90 years old, which would be about twice as long as the lifespan back then. They would have not been able to image a lifetime fully twice that which they knew. While Adam's age is more than twice of ours the above example does put things into perspective.

All indications lead us to believe that the earth was not inhabited by human beings when Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden of Eden.

You therefore beloved, forewarned as you are, be on your guard so that you
may not be carried away by the error of the wicked, and loose your own stability.
But grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.
To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen
—2nd Peter 3:17-18

1. 1. Mounir Murad, Daheshism and the Journey of Life (Alexandria, Virginia: Murad Publishing, 1993), p. 10
2. 2. Ibid., pp. 11-12