Can Free Will Stop God? Is There Free Will In Heaven Or Hell?

My wife and I heard a traveling evangelist categorically state that man’s will is greater than God’s will. Perhaps you have never thought about it, but if you attend a traditional Christian Church, while you may never have voiced it, you too, believe your will is greater than God’s. God’s hands are tied or chained, so to speak.

Tradition says that God only wants children in heaven that truly love Him. We must “choose” to spend eternity with Him. That is why He gave everyone a “free will” according to this tradition. People must believe Jesus died for their sins, receive forgiveness and show some kind of signs that they truly believed in their heart in order to be with God forever. And the only time God has allotted for each human being to make that critical decision is now, while they are here on earth. This traditional belief raises a host of questions to which people are entitled good answers.  What about the insane? What happens to children who die before rationally being able to use their “free will.” When does free will begin? What about those who have never heard the name of Jesus? The list of questions is endless and the answers are very unconvincing. Let’s take another look at the “free will” doctrine of the traditional church.

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise. (Proverbs 11:30, KJV)

One of the main things that grieved me when I was in traditional churches (and believed most people were headed for Hell) was how little time, energy and finances the average Christian put into spreading the gospel. It would frustrate me seeing cults like Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons spending more of their time, energy and money trying to share their message than Evangelicals. Of all the traditional denominations, the Southern Baptists seemed to have “witnessing” down better than most. They had it down to a science. In 1911, famous evangelist Billy Sunday estimated the cost of saving a soul in metropolitan areas was around $450. Other ministers in the Boston area calculated the cost of saving a soul by taking the expenses of running the church and dividing it by the number of converts or saved souls in their congregation. Accordingly, the cost of a soul in one particular Methodist Church is Boston was $3.13, $70 in a Baptist church, and $143 dollars in a Congregational Church. How much is a soul worth?

Rev. A.A. Berle, pastor of the Shawmut Avenue Congregational Church said in the New York Times in 1911, “A soul should be saved if it costs thousands of dollars, because one never knows whom one is going to save. In saving a soul we may plant a seed that will blossom and in time shed its fragrance where thousands may be influenced by it. The cost, to begin with, should not be considered. Dollars and cents are out of place. If a man preaches to save one person from dying a non-Christian, all his efforts, and time, and money, are well spent.”

In the year 2013, according to statisticians, there are around 2 billion people who espouse the name of Jesus Christ. If every single one devoted all their time, energy and money towards saving souls, according to the traditional model, heaven would be increased and Hell would be decreased significantly, right? Jesus said that to be one of His disciples that it would cost them EVERYTHING! But those who claim to be His disciples spend very little of their time, energy and money saving souls, don’t they? Why are they not exercising their “free will” to expand heaven and emptying Hell? Is it lack of love? Is it hypocrisy? What gives? I have heard a LOT evangelists and pastors begging for dollars with which they would save souls. But the missionary budgets of most churches is usually one of the smallest items. Christian “free will” does not seem too bent upon saving souls.

This whole “free will” business which, according to Church tradition, set the whole universe on a course of going either to heaven or hell all started with an angel named Satan, the Devil, Lucifer, the Dragon leading a third of God’s angels into rebellion against God. Somehow Satan became god of this earth and deceived the head of humanity (Adam and Eve) which plunged humanity into death and sin. Can these angels repent and return to God? Could others exercise their free will and rebel and cause even more problems in the future? Do human beings have “free will” in heaven?

Do Human Beings Have Free Will in Heaven?

Imagine yourself in heaven while most of humanity is in torments unimaginable. Surely you have friends and loved ones who didn’t exercise their “free will” towards surrendering their lives to obedience to Jesus during their brief stay on this planet. What if you can’t stand to see billions upon billions of your fellow humans being continually tortured? Could you exercise your “free will” to try to do something to free them? Or is “free will” not allowed in heaven? C.S. Lewis and millions of evangelicals tell us the gates of Hell are closed from the inside. Are they? Can those in Hell exercise “free will” and escape? If free will was the instrument that sent the vast majority of God’s own children, living souls, into eternal damnation, was it really a gift? If you, as a parent, knew that 99 percent of your children would be born with horrible defects which would make your life and the children’s lives miserable, would you risk having children to get that one normal child? Please! Think about it.

In traditional churches, Christians are not allowed ask these kinds of questions because there are no biblical and reasonable answers. In the traditional model, God somehow will give you one chance on earth to escape eternal damnation. However, some people get many chances. Furthermore, some Christians claim they went to Hell and God let them escape to warn others that Hell was eternal. Can you see the inconsistency? Most denominations of Christianity inform us that even after we have taken the chance and bet on Jesus, that we can still lose and burn in Hell forever.

If one spends some serious time reflecting on the traditional view of man’s “free will,” one will eventually see the insanity of the teaching. Is man’s will greater than God’s in heaven? Can a person in heaven decide that the God of Christianity wasn’t as nice and loving as (s)he thought? What if a person in heaven decides (s)he is going to try to get someone out of Hell? What if someone decided they didn’t like heaven or hell? What if they decided to start a new place and offered those in heaven or hell to come with them?

Dear Christian, please consider: Humans must decide if they want to spend eternity in heaven by accepting Jesus, right? God gives them a free will to chose, right? If He decided to save everyone, that would be rape; forced love and God doesn’t force anyone to love Him, right? But then you turn right around and say that God will force every knee to bow down in worship and force every tongue to confess Jesus as Lord to the glory of God the Father. Since most of the knees and tongues are in Hell according to tradition, isn’t God “forcing” them to worship Him? Isn’t that “rape” according to the traditional understanding. (Rev. 5:13; Isaiah 45:23; Phil 2:9-11) So then, is God a hypocrite? Or is the traditional teaching of heaven and hell full of inconsistencies?

You see, dear Christian, there is a very serious flaw in the traditional Christian view of free will. Jesus paid for all of mankind. Mankind BELONGS to Him. YOU, belong to Him. Do you understand that concept? The universe and everything in it, including you, your family and friends AND enemies BELONG to the Creator. He made it. It rightfully belongs to Him. YOU belong to the one who made you. And He loves you! And He doesn’t think you are trash fit to go into an eternal dump!

God is not stupid. He is not subservient to man’s will. And He does not force people to love Him. God knows how to free rebellious people from their hardness and pain. He has all the time in the universe at His disposal. Jesus is Lord of the dead and the living. He holds the keys to death and Hell/hades. Man’s “free will” myth will NOT hold Jesus captive.

While reflecting upon the parental love of God, a story came to mind that I read some months ago. In this story a man who was entirely careless of spiritual things died and went to hell. And he was much missed on earth by his old friends. His business manager went down to the gates of hell to see if there were any chance of bringing him back. But, though he pleaded for the gates to be opened, the iron bars never yielded. His cricket captain went also and besought Satan to let him out just for the remainder of the season. But there was no response. His minister went also and argued, saying, “He was not altogether bad. Let him have another chance. Let him out just this once.” Many other friends of his went also and pleaded with Satan saying, “Let him out, let him out, let him out.” But when his mother came, she spoke no word of his release. Quietly, and with a strange catch in her voice, she said to Satan, “Let me in.” And immediately the great doors swung open upon their hinges. For love goes down through the gates of hell and there redeems the damned! Our Father and God, incarnate in the Person of Jesus Christ, holds in His nail-pierced hand the keys of death and hell. O grave, where is Your victory? O gates of hell, you shall not prevail, for the Redeemer of Israel and the Saviour of the world, the God who IS LOVE holds in His triumphant hand your key!

Is your heart right now longing to be free, truly free? Surely, the drawing power of God’s love expressed through His Son, Jesus Christ, will continue to pull until all of creation is in perfect harmony with God’s will.

“God will have all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” 1 Tim. 2:4, KJV

“For is good and worthy of all acceptance. And to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God who is savior of the world, especially those who believe. These things command and teach.” 1 Timothy, 4:9-112