Reply:

I think the best way to think about the subject is this: We will indeed be free in heaven, and there will be many things we will make decisions about. But we will not be in any way tempted to do evil, and because of this, sinning will not be a possibility for us. I don't think this means we will be serving God mechanically. A loving parent would probably find that she simply cannot do something deliberately to harm her children, but that does not mean she loves them "mechanically"! It is important, furthermore, that it will be as the result of our own choice that we are unable to sin. We pray to the Lord to make us holy, to make us conformed to the image of Christ. The perfection of this process, which God will bring about because we ask him to, is that all impulses to act sinfully will be gone. (It would be a sad state of affairs if we had to go on wrestling with temptations throughout eternity, just to prove we are not robots!)

William Hasker
Huntington College

Reply:

I answer Lilly in my forthcoming Satan and the Problem of Evil. I suggest that libertarian freedom is FINITE. It's purpose is to either bring us to the highest state of freedom, which is to love God without the possibility of falling, or the lowest state of bondage, which is hate God without the possibility of rising.

Greg Boyd
Bethel College

Reply:

Let me begin by admitting that I am not exactly sure what heaven will be like, nor do I understand why God delays bringing about the new heaven and earth. Moreover, I do not have a settled view regarding the nature of our freedom and the ability to sin in the eschaton. Hence, I will lay out some options amenable, I believe, to opentheists.

The nature of "heaven" and the question whether both moral and natural evil will, by divine fiat, immediately cease to exist in such a state raises some interesting issues. Those who affirm a compatibilistic definition of human freedom (you are free so long as you get what you desire) sometimes make the accusation that proponents of libertarian freedom (you are free to do otherwise than you do) are committed to believing that we will be able to sin in heaven. The compatibilist does not have this problem since God will then ensure that all of our desires are only righteous desires. The problem for the compatibilist is to explain why God did not originally create us with only righteous desires.

A number of questions remain for proponents of libertarian freedom. Is the possibility of sin removed somehow? If so, is it removed instantaneously or progressively? In the eschaton will we continue to develop and renew our minds in the likeness of Christ? Will the process of sanctification go on? Will the intimate presence of God so change us that we have no further need of process and transformation? Will we all instantaneously arrive at Christlikeness in our individual and social lives? David Brown argues that the traditional doctrine of purgatory is necessary since God always desires a free response involving complete self-acceptance from the individual and this requires a temporal purgatory for its complete achievement. But even should it be possible to sin in the eschaton it may be that the effects will not then be so deleterious due to the work of Christ and the ministry of the Spirit in our lives.

Will heaven involve the abolition of human freedom so that we are not permitted to sin, or will it involve a process of transformation resulting in the confirmation of our character? Gary R. Habermas and J. P. Moreland suggest that the glorification process involves the free choice to attain the state where we are either unable to sin or consistently able not to sin. Perhaps our spiritual freedom becomes so confirmed and pervasive that we freely never use our libertarian freedom to sin. One might connect this to the Eastern Orthodox notion of theosis whereby we are incorporated into the divine nature (or image of Christ) such that we freely never desire to sin. Peter van Inwagen suggests that in heaven we shall have both the Beatific Vision and the memories of the hideousness of our existence prior to our restoration to God. Such knowledge will prevent us from sinning. Or perhaps, following Greg Boyd, the reason why God granted us libertarian freedom--to make the choice to enter into a loving relationship with God--will have been fulfilled and so there will no longer be need of it.

Will all natural evil and suffering be automatically removed, or will our ability to cope with it and our acceptance of God's help be such that its negative effects are greatly lessened? At the least, it would seem that there cannot be any natural evil which would result in the destruction of or irredeemable impairment of those in heaven.

John Sanders
Huntington College