steve7150 wrote:I'm not so sure we have "free" will and i don't know where the bible clearly affirms this.
It is self-evident. It was a matter of natural revelation long before there were enough printed copies of the bible to go around. Everyone intuitively knows they are a moral agent. Every moral choice we make assumes our freedom. The belief in free will is a necessary assumption or intuition of a mind making a moral choice.
Also, the conscience affirms free will if it ever accuses of sin, because if the will was not free, the conscience would accuse the underlying cause and not the helpless person who lacked the freedom to avoid sin.
Also Romans 1 teaches that moral obligation is self-evident. Moral obligation presupposes freedom of the will. Obligation can not be self-evident unless ability is self-evident.
The bible affirms human freedom every time it talks about commandments, law, reward, love, righteousness, sin, punishment, guilt, forgiveness, atonement, justification, and so on.
Did Eve have a free will with no experience with evil tempted by her eyes, her flesh and her pride and on top of that tempted by Satan.
I don't know about Eve's transgression and accountability because the Bible says she was deceived but Adam was not.
God expected her not to sin. Sorry i think not.
Why not? The Bible says "love believes all things". God's commandment implies the expectation that they would obey.
It seems to me God uses sin as a learning tool for us to overcome it and to grow spiritually.
He works with us even though we have rebelled against Him. But it is not like it is better to do evil that good may come as some people actually teach. The path to holiness is not sin. The path to righteousness is not unrighteousness.
If we never faced sin and overcome it we remain spiritual babes or maybe robots.
Jesus said that He overcame. It is always better to overcome temptation than to rebel against God.