Not sure how this comes into play. We, for one thing, will always remain created beings, whether or not we’re granted eternal life.
For me. it is a simple observation that heaven is not the same place as the Garden of Eden or our current world.
See, I don’t see how the world they live in, by itself, can guarantee eternal communion with God.
The world of the Garden of Eden and the our current world have no power to guarantee
eternal communion with God. The power to choose God was in the hands of Adam and is now in the hands of his direct descendents, you and me.
There has to be other factors involved. Otherwise God created man in an imperfect dwelling-one he couldn’t help but sin in, perhaps, …
The concept that environment such as an imperfect dwelling–one in which humans cannot help but sin --is a modern fallacy which denies human nature’s faculty of free will and it also underestimates the power of the Holy Spirit to touch an individual soul.
… then cast him out of even that place after he did sin, then saves him later anyway by placing him in a world where he won’t sin for some reason? .
This misses the point of the Garden of Eden. My humble suggestion is to start with the human nature of Adam and God’s purpose for creating him.
I know you don’t intend that scenario but I’m still not sure how the world man inhabits guarantees anything-I thought he needed to be made just first, with his own cooperation.
In itself, human nature unites the material and spiritual worlds. Because of the spiritual rational soul, humans have the ability to choose to sin or not to sin. In that regard, our current world is similar to the Garden of Eden. This is because in each there are choices to be made.
Because human nature is an unique unification of the rational/corporeal, spirit/matter, material/non-material, soul/body, we alone are called to share through knowledge and love in God’s own life. This is what is meant when we say that we are created in the Image of God.
Looking only at the current world leads to deep problems regarding Adam’s human nature and consequently ours. Last year, one poster, wearing a Catholic label, claimed that humans are sin machines. Fortunately, there were some good Catholic apologetics in reply.
I believe “if” does count, because our salvation, into a world where no sin will exist, depends on our wills having been perfected first.
You must be referring to heaven.
In my humble opinion, the topic of original sin becomes complicated because it is taken out of the beginning context which is the creation of the first, two, sole parents of humanity. Then it becomes more complicated as people try to reconcile a contracted state with personal sin in the economy of God’s salvation.
Finally, people should not underestimate the power and love of God.
