And you seem to be missing my point. If God is all powerful, all knowing, then he surely could create a being with free will and that would make perfect choices because he is perfect as well. Is this something God can or can not do.
Okay, why would God want them to be tempted? And could God create a being that even if they were tempted would always choose to obey God?
Again, if God was all powerful, and he knew they were going to fall, why not replace them? If his intent was to have a perfect place for us to dwell, why not create what he knew that would follow his intent?
If you and your spouse have a child together, you love that child right? You would die for your child right? Even if your child disobeys you, you still love them, even if you aren’t happy with the choices they make, right? Or would you say you would kill your child for disobeying you?
Now think, why God would want to destroy something he loves unconditionally and totally? He wouldn’t, and that’s the point. And, for all we know, there are other universes, other space-times, where God has made other creations that He also loves, and potentially haven’t fallen, but we have.
I agree, but why are we in this postion to start with? If it was God’s intent for Adam and Eve to not partake of the fruit. Why did God place the fruit in the Garden? Why did he allow Lucifer to tempt him? There has to be a reason.
Maybe it was just another one of God’s creations, like plants and fungi that are poisonous. The Bible only really says it is a serpent, but it is usually assumed that it is Lucifer. And, like us, Lucifer had fallen (before us), and wants us to follow him instead, and his will is against what God wants. I can already hear you asking, “Why would God create Lucifer if He knew he would disobey?” And something you also have to realize, not everything is known about God, and more than likely never will. There could be many different reasons why.
Sounds like a pre existance to me.
Again, you confuse our understanding of God in relation to space and time. God is outside of time. He can see the future, the past, and (our) present all at the same time. This is different than pre-existence. Pre-existence means that we have always existed, which is not the case. Our souls were created at the moment of our conception, of which God knew He would do and knows He did do.
Think of a piece of paper with a line drawn on it. The line does not extend all the way across the paper, and it isn’t that big. Let’s say it’s an inch long line, just for the sake of the imagery. Now imagine the line as time. You can see the start of the line, the end of the line, and all in between at the same moment. This is a thought experiment to describe what time is like to God. He can see time’s beginning, end, and all in between.
With this line, you can draw a dot on any place on the line. Imagine this dot is your conception. This is how God could know you before you were conceived, just as you could know that you were to draw a line on the paper, and place a dot on the line.
This is a decent example with the exception of scale. In reality, the dot (your conception) would be incredibly small in relation to the length of the line, and the line would be infinitely
small compared to God.
