“Which brings us right back to my original question: why not just make man without the posse peccare and spare everyone the drama, bood and guts?”
God does not lack anything in Himself that would prompt Him to create beings that would fall into sin. He wasn’t lonely or bored. He is eternally self-sufficient and perfect and doesn’t need anything. The answer lies within God’s nature; God is love (1 John 4:16, “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love ;…”) and the nature of love is to give, to be other-centered, (John 3:16, “For God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son...”). Jesus said love is to give of one’s self to the point of death, (John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”)
Without this fall, ultimately no death would be necessary to atone for them and without that death, the greatest act of love could not be demonstrated and the truest and most perfect quality of love would not be fulfilled. God may very well have made a universe in which sin existed so that He Himself could show the greatest and most perfect act of love by laying down His life for His friends.
That's certainly the orthodox view of the catholic Church and, I imagine, of the majority of Protestant sects. However, there is a problem with that because either the world is exactly as he willed it or it's not; either he is in charge or he is not.
He wasn’t lonely or bored. He is eternally self-sufficient and perfect and doesn’t need anything
Then why did he bother creating the world? That's is a self-contradiciton. If you are perfectly content then why do something? Speaking of doing, when you say God wasn't bored, what exactly was he "doing" for all eternity by himself?
The answer lies within God’s nature; God is love (1 John 4:16, “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love ;…”) and the nature of love is to give
Well, good, since God is Three, there was plenty of love to give and to receive in this perfect loving triangle, the three divine hypostases entangled in an eternal give-and-take, which is perfect, sufficient and lacking in nothing. Why make the world?
Without this fall, ultimately no death would be necessary to atone for them and without that death, the greatest act of love could not be demonstrated and the truest and most perfect quality of love would not be fulfilled. God may very well have made a universe in which sin existed so that He Himself could show the greatest and most perfect act of love by laying down His life for His friends.
But why was there a need or reason to demonstrate it? Who is God trying to impress and why?
Without this fall, ultimately no death would be necessary to atone for them and without that death, the greatest act of love could not be demonstrated and the truest and most perfect quality of love would not be fulfilled. God may very well have made a universe in which sin existed so that He Himself could show the greatest and most perfect act of love by laying down His life for His friends.
Glad I didn't miss this post.