linearAQ writes:
You imply that God can make someone have free will but can't think of any way to convince that person to remain obedient.
It seems to me that God had to find an absolutely perfect balance between drawing a free-willed man to obey him and allowing a free-willed man to disobey him. And the scene had to be perfectly tuned in order for free-will to be the very free-est of wills. Anything shy of perfect balance means that God would have stacked the deck.
Imagine it as a perfectly pointed cone, balanced on it's point on a perfect knife edge. And once balanced and in equilibrium there would be nothing to move it - all the forces equally effective: Gods command vs Satans temptation.
And only something within the cone that is able to shift the centre of gravity on way or the other.
That God knew what would happen in no way influences the result. The cone is given the ability to shift as it wants. God just set it up that way.
™ Version 4.2