<i>Why would God need to rest on the seventh day?</i>
In the book of Hebrews, it says, "For we who have believed enter that rest, just as he has said, 'As I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest,' although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: 'And God rested on the seventh day from all His works'; and again in this passage, 'They shall not enter My rest,' " Hebrews 4:3-6. So, we can see God did not rest in the sense that He was tired, but rather rested in fellowship with the world He had just created; or in the sense that believers will rest with Him for eternity.
<i>Why would a loving God place the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden?</i>
Lets say you're the parent of a child. Obviously, you don't want your child to make a bad decision, but does that mean you become overprotective of the child and never allow them to make a decision on their own? Sometimes a parent has to allow a child to make a bad decision because they love their child. If God created Adam and Eve but only gave them the option of serving Him, what kind of God would that be? Then God truly would be a fascist God.
However, it is incorrect to say that God made the pleasing in order to draw Adam and Eve in. As it says, "Let no one say when he is being tempted, 'I am being tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then, when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death." James 1:13-15
Adam and Eve did not need to be taught obedience because they were created in the likeness and image of God. When God told Adam not to eat of the tree, it was not like a parent telling a child to stay away from a hot stove, but rather a mutual understanding between God and Adam. However, Adam and Eve were both carried away and enticed by their own lust (not meaning sexual lust). They saw the tree was good for food, it was a delight to the eyes, and it was desirable to make one wise. They lusted after the fruit, and it gave birth to sin. Lust is simply desiring something God has created in a way that God did not intend. Sin is simply separation from God.
Now, if God is the source of life, and sin is separation from God, then it follows that sin is separation from life. That is to say, death. Not spiritual death, as you have supposed, but condemnation of eternal death. As it says, "When you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness." Romans 6:16 and "The wages of sin is death." Romans 6:23.
As to why Adam and Eve didn't just drop dead on the spot, "Do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promises, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance." 2 Peter 3:8-9
<i> Why did God ask Adam ""Where were you and who told you to eat from the tree?"</i>
I would suspect for the same reason a parent would ask a child what happened to the cookies in the cookie jar, or how the window got broken, etc. We see God doing the same thing with Cain: "Then the Lord said to Cain, 'Where is your brother?' and he said, "Am I my brother's keeper?' He said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying up to Me from the ground." Genesis 4:9-10.
<i>What was the serpent doing in the garden, anyway?</i>
It is true that the serpent could only have been in the garden if God allowed him to be there. Furthermore, God would have known full well of what the serpent was doing. So why did God allow it? God could have been overprotective and overbearing, I suppose, but once again, that would make Him a bit of a fascist.
<i>Why are we all condemned because of Adam's sin?</i>
In many parts of the Bible, it seems like God punishes the children for the sins of the parents. However, as it says, "Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned." Romans 5:12. It does not say death spread to all men because through one man sin entered the world, but rather, death spread to all men because all sinned. We are each responsible for our own sin and no one else's. There has only been one man who took the sin of others upon Himself, and that is Jesus Christ.
In Him we have the choice of Adam once again. Do we take from the Tree of Life, that is to say, Jesus Christ, or do we continue to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil?
