The Sin of God in Fundamentalist Ethics

If placing something in someone's presence that can be a huge temptation to them is wrong, then God is the biggest sinner in the history of sinners for placing the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden, knowing full well that the man and woman would be tempted by it. Indeed, everything we are tempted with has been created by Him and placed near us, i.e., made accessible to us, by Him.

In biblical ethics, however, there is no sin in the matter. Placing a created thing that can become a temptation in someone's presence is not a sin, but instead must be seen as a good. The difference is that God does not tempt Adam and Eve with it. The serpent does that. God merely creates the good thing and makes it accessible to the man and woman, but the devil distorts its use and tempts with it. Hence, the world of created things and people is a world of good things placed in our presence that only our corrupt nature and the wicked around us use to tempt us for evil. The things themselves are not tempting, nor the situations in which they are placed. The problem is us, not what is created or where it is placed.