The Key Thought of this week's study and discussion is, as stated, to show that the Godhead anticipated the Fall, and that a plan was crafted to solve the problem of sin long before it arose.

Why did God do what He did in hopes of saving this world from the results of sin?

In other words, why didn't Adam and Eve die when they sinned?

Why didn't God start again by replacing Adam and Eve with a new and sinless Adam 2 and Eve 2?

I think for two reasons, which in fact are just one - love:

1) Because He loved them (and us), and
2) Because He loved the rest of His creation. What would the unfallen creatures think if God did that? If God didn't destroy Satan at the beginning of the great controversy (although his case was hopeless) because He loved the rest of the universe, why would He destroy human beings?

I agree with the point regarding who God would be viewed by others, but believe God would have done the same thing if the only creatures who existed were Adam and Eve. God is love! It's amazing.

Yes, I'm also sure He would do the same. But my point was, if He spared Satan and his angels (a hopeless case), why would He destroy the human race?

That's a good point.

God spared Satan and his angels so that the veracity of Satan's claims could be seen. Had He not done so, it would have simply looked like Satan's accusations were correct. One can just imagine him saying, "If one do you look for me, and I'm not here, you'll know why" (God killed me). So God was constrained to allow things to play out.

God foresaw the fall of men and angels and chose to create them anyhow.

DA 22
The plan for our redemption was not an afterthought, a plan formulated after the fall of Adam. It was a revelation of "the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal." Romans 16:25, R. V. It was an unfolding of the principles that from eternal ages have been the foundation of God's throne. From the beginning, God and Christ knew of the apostasy of Satan, and of the fall of man through the deceptive power of the apostate. God did not ordain that sin should exist, but He foresaw its existence, and made provision to meet the terrible emergency. So great was His love for the world, that He covenanted to give His only-begotten Son, "that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16.

ST 4-25-92
The purpose and plan of grace existed from all eternity. Before the foundation of the world it was according to the determinate counsel of God that man should be created, endowed with power to do the divine will. But the defection of man, with all its consequences, was not hidden from the Omnipotent, and yet it did not deter him from carrying out his eternal purpose; for the Lord would establish his throne in righteousness. God knows the end from the beginning; "known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world." Therefore redemption was not an afterthought--a plan formulated after the fall of Adam--but an eternal purpose to be wrought out for the blessing not only of this atom of a world but for the good of all the worlds which God has created.

God saw the *possibility* of sin. Sin was not a certainty.



Our conceptions of the future should allow the possibility of:

a.The risk of Christ being lost.
b.Heaven being imperiled.

Do they?

Things could have played out a zillion different ways, but this doesn't mean God didn't know precisely which way it would play out. Neither does knowing mean the future is fixed or rigged or that FMAs are robbed of the ability and freedom to choose as they please.