Genesis 2:17 and Genesis 3:6 clearly teach that the knowledge of good and evil was present in the forbidden tree. Note the phrase in verse 6 where Eve states: "and a tree to be desired to make one wise."
God desired that Adam and Eve live in a state of innocence and fellowship with Him in a blissful paradise forever. But He also gave them freedom to choose for themselves to eat either of the tree of life and remain in paradise forever, or to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and suffer spiritual and physical death; that is, separation from Him. God commanded them and warned them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in order to protect them.
Adam and Eve certainly sinned when they disobeyed God, but all of humanity acquired original sin because of the poison that was in the fruit of the forbidden tree. Mankind acquired its intellectual powers when this poison took effect. The fruit of the forbidden tree contained some kind of serum which altered the nature of man. Man acquired intellectual powers which he could only partly handle. Man was doomed to a life of creativity but also of confusion. He was doomed to do some good things, but also many evil things. His depravity, on the evil side, consists of having no desire to have fellowship with God.
However, despite all this, God in His love for man had a backup plan to rid man of his fallen nature and reconcile man to Himself by His vicarious suffering of man's fallen nature, and by employing man's freedom to be able to receive God's salvation through faith.
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