A Very Good Question

"Is there free will in Heaven? If there is free will in Heaven is it possible to sin in Heaven? If the answer to either of those questions is no then clearly either free will is not as important as you make out OR it is possible for God to give people free will AND remove the ability for them to sin. God can apparently do anything. So why could he not have created beings that had both free will and lacked the ability to sin?" Rabbitpirate

Most Christians believe that God allowed the Fall because He didn’t want to make us as "robots." He therefore gave us a free will, and that entailed the freedom to choose right and wrong. That explanation has never satisfied me. This is because it is (hopefully) evident that in Heaven, God isn’t going to give the vast sea of redeemed humanity the ability to sin. That didn’t work with just one couple, so it’s not going to work with innumerable multitudes. So we will clearly live in a state where we aren’t robots but we won’t have the capability to sin. That makes sense. The question then arises as to why God didn’t do that with Adam and Eve. Why did He create them with the freedom of choice, and therefore allow them to bring all this misery, death and an impending Hell upon the entire human race.

That’s the first of two questions that I will humbly and with due reverence ask when I get to Heaven.

The second is, "Why does God allow children to suffer?" I’m not talking about suffering the pain of a broken leg or some sort of temporal disease. I’m talking about excruciating pain from a disease that sucks out their life, leaving them as a skeleton, and then taking them terrified to an untimely grave. If He is loving and kind, why doesn’t He heal them? He has the power to do so. Nothing is impossible for God. So why not heal them? The atheist therefore concludes that God is either a tyrant or He doesn’t exist.

Here’s why I am still a Christian despite my unanswered questions. I know that the sun exists. I also know that it is directly responsible for the agonizing deaths of many innocent people. Deserts are littered with the dry bones of those who found themselves under its terrible burning heat. I know that there are holes in this analogy because the sun isn't a thinking rational part of God's creation, but my point is, do I then conclude that the sun doesn’t exist because it killed these people?

I can't deny the reality of the existence of God simply because I have unanswered questions. I know He exists because of the axiom of creation. I know He exists because I know Him experientially, and have an all-consuming love for Him that embraces all of my heart, mind, soul and strength. I’m not angered, worried, frustrated, concerned or upset by these questions, because I love and trust Him. I know that the time will come when I find out the answers, and I don't mind waiting.