~IF~ Adam had freely chosen to obey God, there would be no need for Salvation because there would have been no fall. Craig's presumption seems to be forgetting that Adam and Eve were already in Paradise!!!!!
God had already created everything ~good~ and ~perfect~.
"Heaven" for us, in reality, will be a New Earth -a new creation! The new "Eden", if you will.
The difference being that Adam was corruptible, we will not be "corruptible" in the New Earth.
Craig's comments are ultimately irrelevant to my point as your author insists that "evil" is a necessary "side effect" of creating a world with "love".
Your author also makes the contention in the very next sentence that "a world possessing both evil and love is superior to a world where neither is possible"
In the New Creation, there will be no possibility of "evil".
Thus, according to your author's argument, there will be no "capacity to choose" in the New Creation.
And, according to your author's argument, a world without the "capacity to choose" is incapable of "real" love and is inferior to the one we have.
Thus, if I am to hold to the position that "evil" will not be possible in the New Creation, I must conclude, according to your author's argument", that there will be no "real" love in the New Creation (since we don't have the possiblity to "choose" which is necessary for "real" love) and I must condlude that the New Creation will be inferior to this current creation.
Jean
Yes, and therefore the fall must not have taken place because that would have required man's free will. </sarcasm>