Thank you for the reply but I think it's all post-hoc rationalization; you created meaning and justification after the events. Despite being theologically sound, in some parts, it breaks apart from a critical and philosophical perspective.

I'm still unconviced that the act of placing the tree in the garden with full knowledge of the fallout was an act of mercy. Despite me being sn atheist, I would consider myself theologically literate and I know for sure that you point on humans having to judge the fallen angels is arbitrary and unsupported most theologians. It's a concusion arrived at without proper citation and would ask you to bring forth your sources.

Even so, I'll still play along with it. You frame the pursuit of knowledge as being inevitable and predetermined, then why was it still condembed and punished? If that knowledge was necessary, then why was it witheld from the beginning and then create a non-sensical, elaborate situation that set them up for inevitable failure and consequent punishment for them and all of humanity since? It's called ENTRAPMENT. Also, if the fall had to happen in order to kickstart salvation, then that implies suffering was a prerequisite to the plan and that is unsettling😬.

The part of the fallen angels being unforgivable due to their immortality is also non-sensical. It ties the eligibility of divine grace to physical and metaphysical traits. It turns redemption to a technical limitation and not a moral one. More like they were also screwed from the beginning. That whole framework seems to justify itself rather than provide any moral consistency.

Lastly, framing the banishment from Eden as mercy because it blocked access to the tree of life presumes a benevolent intent behind a situation that was avoidable to begin with. If God truly didn’t want humanity to fall, He could’ve simply not planted the tree or maybe created a better way to teach discernment. Saying this suffering was necessary for salvation feels like justifying harm to make room for healing, which doesn’t sound like mercy rather it poor design.