Shalom Paul N.F., and Doves,
     Thanks for this post....this is a basic that I have always believed in.  But:
      How does that effect and affect the theories about Adam's Sin?
     When YHVH placed Adam in Gan Eden...He told Adam NOT TO EAT OF THE FRUIT OF THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE for in the day that Adam did so he would surely die...my paraphrase.
    Whenever anyone tells someone NOT TO DO...it is inevitable that will be precisely what they WILL TO DO.   So in essence was YHVH suggesting, because He Knows the beginning from the end of things....that Adam should take this route of knowledge between good and evil?
    He wanted us to choose righteousness, I believe; but He also wanted us to have a choice between good and evil.   But without tasting of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge....we would not have had anything to chose between.  Therefore, from the day that Adam did eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, and mankind became a knowledgeable creation.
     In heaven, there is only the Tree of Life!    I wonder if ever there was a Tree of Knowledge in heaven.
    So, in light of this....could one say that Sin is Knowledge of Good and Evil?  If, as we believe YHVH created all things...then He created at least the dividing line between the two.  And for 6 mellinium mankind has been making a decision on which side of this line he will walk.  And, no one other than Ya'Shua the man, has ever walked totally on the side of Righteousness.  So He is the Plumb line, and our choice is either Him or evil.  And Satan is the other side of that line, and the god of evil, and we know that our YHVH rules over satan, and has even prepared a place for him and his followers.
    So....what if Adam had not chosen the taste of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge....would he never have had a free will to choose?   I think so.   And therefore, God created mankind in His Image with free will....and so by necessity He also had to influence Adam to eat of that Tree!   Perhaps that Tree of Knowledge did exist in heaven in the beginning, and YHVH transplanted it, at the moment that sin entered heaven...when satan decided that he was a god.  And he was cast out of heaven along with the Tree!
     These are just thoughts.....discussion encouraged....but I am content with the choice of Righteousness over Evil.   And I am glad that I can have this free will to choose.  Praise be to the One who gave me the choice....I doubt satan would ever offer a choice..he would be a dictator!

Shalom,
Meriam Brown