Free Will in the New Earth

As Christians, our understanding from the teachings that have been passed on and from our Scriptures, the Bible, is that the new heaven and the new earth after the resurrection will be perfect places. We have also been taught through these same sources that the original creation was likely perfect, as God seems to have pronounced all of it good.

How this perfect creation then became so utterly marred is something we can see evidence of all around us. How that could happen to begin with is another story. So, who is to say that in the new heaven and new earth post-resurrection, which we often refer to as heaven, and this is one of those questions that one is sometimes hesitant to ask, the same thing could not happen again?

We were talking about these things in our LIFE Group yesterday evening when an answer to my question dawned on me. Thinking about it again this morning, I think it must have been a flash of insight implanted by the Holy Spirit.

Again, we are taught, and learn to know from our own experience as believers, that God is love. As imperfect as our experience and understanding of love is, we have now in our vocabulary something we understand as “unconditional” love. Like all good things, we believe this originates in the love of God, whom we believe created all things.

Most of us are fortunate enough to experience some of this love in one way or the other in our short pilgrimages on this earth. We know how wonderful that is. But what we experience here will pale in comparison, and we can only imagine what this would be like, to what we will experience when we are actually in the presence of God and he has removed all sin. Indeed, for those of us who believe in the death and resurrection work of Christ, our sin is removed now. However, we continue to live in an imperfect body and imperfect world. Only after the resurrection will that ultimately be changed for the better.

And therein lies my answer to the question I shared in the second paragraph of this blog.

Perfect love does not force anything. Perfect love seeks a voluntary and willing response to love offered. That is our position in response to the offered love of God, most perfectly expressed in the death and resurrection of the Christ, which, as I write, we will shortly be celebrating once again in the season we now call Easter. We who believe have voluntarily submitted our will to our Creator God. The only thing that keeps us from actualizing that submission perfectly now is our imperfect body and the imperfect world we still live in. However, when we are removed from that, and that is removed from us, we will be freed of the inability to respond as perfectly in love to God as how he offers us his love.

I believe this is why there will not be another rebellion in the new heaven and earth, as there was and is in this earth. At least, that is an answer that satisfies me at present. As always in this journey, one is open to further insights.

The Devil Made Me Do It

The Devil Made Me Do It

Some of you who are older will remember the 1970s television comedy show starring Flip Wilson. Frequently, when caught in some prank, he would do a defensive little dance and say, "The devil made me do it."

I think that excuse was not original with him and has certainly proliferated since. But can the devil really make us do something? Think about it for a moment. Take a look at the other side, as we often categorize it. Can God make us do something? I think we more are more used to, at least coming from Christendom, believing that God can't make us do anything because he created us good with free will. As our Bible tells us, the misuse of that gift by Adam and Eve was what led to their downfall and the spoilage of the whole human race and earth ever since.

So, who do we think is more powerful? The devil or God? Again, according to Christian teaching, the devil is simply one of God's creations, an angel gone bad. If that is all he is and even God can't or generally won't make us do something, where does that leave the devil? When have we ever thought any other angel made us do something?

There is another significant aspect to this that I really had not given thought to until it was raised in a recent discussion I was having with my pastor, Tim Kuepfer. As he so obviously pointed out, again challenging the thought expressed in our title: as a creature, the devil is finite. He is not God who can be everywhere and anywhere at once, as we believe as Christians about our Creator. He would have to be doing a lot of lightspeed scurrying around if he was responsible for all the evil in the world. Now, of course, there has always been the thought that he also has a number of subordinate angels who serve him and delight to encourage us in evil directions as well. This is no doubt true, but again, how many of these angels are there? To be sure, they are spirit and can move around differently than we do, but they are still creatures and limited in their ability. If neither the devil nor his angels can be everywhere at once, it is also then impossible that they are directly responsible for all the evil deeds done in the world. Of course, we could argue that their influence was what led to evil in the world, but man still had to make a choice when offered those possibilities.

Of course, what happened with Jesus and what the New Testament also teaches is that the devil has been beaten at his own game. Jesus’ death removed for all of us and our earth the death that is the consequence of our making wrong choices, particularly choosing not to believe in God or follow the teachings of his son Jesus. So, if Jesus has overcome the devil with his death and resurrection, which demonstrated his power, as St. Paul says, what have we to fear (first Corinthians 15, especially 54-57)?

Now, that is not to say that we do not have to be on guard to a degree. St. Peter (I Peter 5:8) cautions us about that in his description of the devil as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." On the other hand, if we are Christians, living in Christ as our Bible-based belief holds, we have access to Jesus’ power and as James says, if we "resist the devil, he will flee from us." (James 4:7).

All of this does not mean that we can take the casual attitude about the devil that much of our world nowadays seems to have. The devil and his minions are still our enemies. We still do need to be on our guard to a degree, but it is more about the choices we make when tempted, not that the devil or one of his impish angels is going to suddenly appear and make us do something evil that we cannot resist. Unless, of course, we have entirely aligned ourselves with him as others do with Christ. But that is another story. If we as Christians are confident in our salvation and our faith, we need to be ever watchful, but we do not need to be, indeed must not be, fearful. And we should not use the excuse, "the devil made me do it," as that is all it is.