If that was true even in Eden—the place on earth where the council was present—then being in the presence of God is no guarantee that free-will beings will never stray or act out of self-will. Only God is perfect. Beings that are lesser than God, whether human or divine, are not perfect. The potential for error and disobedience is by definition possible.2 Trouble could happen in paradise, and of course it did. God’s decision to create free imagers involved that risk.
