Saturday, April 15, 2017

Do Christians Have Free Will? Will They Always Have Free Will in Heaven?

People talk a lot about free will and Christianity. That Christians have free will and that is somehow a special trait that makes everything right. The Undercover Adventist has some bad news. Christians now do not have true free will, and we will ultimately give up virtually all free will as we know it. Let's talk about present tense first.

You take the first step using your will to become a Christian. Then it might come as a shock to many of you that we now must rely and trust on The Father's will. Not what I want, but what God wants.

So we are in fact giving up our free will. Just like the song....Thou art the Potter, I am the clay. Mold me and Make after Thy will.....

That song is not a lie. We choose to follow Christ. In doing so, we are to strive to give our will over to God. Let's look at a part of The Lord's Prayer: "...Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." There's that "will" part again.

In fact, why would you want your will to even survive? And that leads to the second part. Our free will in the future, heaven.

God will not allow anyone in with a sinful nature. Our free will on Earth is part of our sinful nature. If you think you could not sin with your present free will, then you could save yourself.

We will be new creatures. What does that mean? Do you really want all aspects of your old self tagging along with you to heaven? Do you think God will put a seal on people who cannot let go of their free will? The seal of God alone will make it impossible for you to sin.

The Apostle Paul wrote many times about how we will become incorruptible. We will be completely new creatures devoid of our human weaknesses. The Undercover Adventist could not stay one minute in heaven without thinking an unclean thought if our free will was intact....completely.

Still not convinced? Okay, let's try a different and logical approach. Wouldn't you love to have your wife in heaven? Or husband? And be married forever? But what does Jesus say? We will not be married in heaven. My free will would love to remain married to my spouse in eternity. But I must give that person up. Jesus makes it very clear that humans in heaven will not be the same humans as earthly ones.

Here are more examples. Whatever your lot in life affects your free will. Whatever you are affects your free will. I would love to to fly like a bird. But I am not a bird. I cannot flap my arms fast enough to fly...even though I WANT TO FLY! My nature does not allow it. I do not have the choice to fly like a bird. Likewise a bird cannot do anything man can do. The bird's choices are limited.

Our choices will not be the same as they are now. We will only have good choices to make. Our free will is not going to be able to choose bad things. Bad things will not be an option for us to choose, no more so than keeping your spouse.  We will have freedom to choose whatever good things are in heaven. Earthly sinful choices will not be around. We will in fact be NEW creatures, devoid of human sinful natures. It is our sinful natures that we will not be able to choose anymore. So yes, as we conclude this, you will only be able to choose right, holy, good, decent, obedient, and Godly things. All other "free will" choices will be off the table.

On Earth we have a choice, go to church on Sabbath or go to a bar and drink. In heaven, we might have a choice to sing on Sabbath or fellowship with Jesus and drink His full measure. The free will choice of going to a bar and drinking, will not be there.

Be careful when you talk about free will. Your choices will be holy, not unholy. There will be no unholy choices in heaven. The thought of going to a bar on Sabbath will be totally removed from your memory.