Free will in Heaven

I dont believe that humanity has to fear the prospect of free will when in Heaven. By definition, any rational creature who was in the presence and communion with the Creator would be irrational to not freely choose to be with that Creator and indeed to surrender the need to change anything.Satan freely chose to become Satan. God never created Satan, remember. God created a freewilled Lucifer who chose to become Satan.Prehaps the implication of freewill in Heaven means that the final choice of our allegiances is yet to be determined (or decided).Satans choice showed irrational behavior. Perhaps once we are allowed to see and experience what Heaven is like, we will have the option of choice at that point.

To paraphrase, "You can have Heaven in any emotion/color/flavor/preference that pleases you--as long as you are pleased by God." In other words, by definition should we not have to agree that God is the ultimate security...the ultimate parent...the ultimate source of stability...before we could be happy in Heaven?Its not as if Heaven is a democracy, after all.Its also not a Theocracy in the sense that humans have grown used to defining theocracies...but I would conclude that any free will that we had going in to Heaven would be laid at the feet of the Master.What use would there be to reserve the right to disagree with the source omniscient?Any free will that we had in Heaven would of course have to be given to us by God. (or allowed to be kept)Edited by Phat, : add by edit

It just occurred to me that many peoples idea of Heaven equates to our idea of what a good parent would do with adult children.
(After all...don't we have to become like a child... to enter into Heaven?) Consider Adult Children

Some return to the empty nest to surrender their responsibilities and allow the aging parents to not only be in charge but to pay the bills and again support them.

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Others return home to support the aging parents and take over.

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Within the context of our idea of God, some of us may think that God wants us to deposit our brains in a jar by the door and allow Him to be our pilot. (Is God my co-pilot or am I His co-pilot? )

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Others may see God as a proud cosmic parent who rejoices in a creation that has learned to think and grow and discover.

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The latter beliefs would welcome a free will in Heaven, as God sends His kids out into the universe for further adventures.

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The former beliefs would shun a free will in Heaven as disobedient and rebellious towards an obviously superior intellect and leader.

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Our perspectives on Heaven are framed by our ideas about God.

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Personally, I can't see a place where people sing and praise God 24/7 and have a grand time doing so. Why would the Creator need such a display? If He deemed it proper, I would gladly praise Him. I guess that I believe that surrender of free will is what got me to heaven in the first place, so its all His show!

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Edited by Phat, : add by edit

If you are on a hike and you are unsure of the territory, don't you defer your right to guide yourself to the leader who knows where he/she is going?What is it about surrendering free will to God that strikes such a terror in peoples hearts?Sometimes, its wise to listen to Daddy....especially if He knows the territory and we don't.Edited by Phat, : title

I dunno. Maybe...

They had to do things Gods way or take the highway. So they chose the highway? What was it in them (and in us) that seeks to find new ways to do things? Is it an altruistic emotion or is it a greedy self vindicating emotion?

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Perhaps God foreknew that Satan would have to rebel...if for no other reason than to personify what God was not. In the human realm, we often rebel against bosses who are not the brightest bulbs in the room. In Gods case, however, God was and is the brightest.

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What always trips people up in these debates is the idea that for God to allow us freewill is an honorable action. How is the right to make a wrong decision honorable? (Assuming, of course, that there is only one right decision among a choice of options)

Using your analogy, I am assuming that the Guide is God, the map is the Bible (or any other spiritual book, perhaps?) and the territory in this thread is Heaven.

In order to test the Guide I would have to allow myself to question my belief. While healthy, how am I going to question an absolute without dismissing the absolute and going with my own reasoning? And is this not what leads to rebellion?

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It is said that people often construct God in their own minds as to their own image. (imagination) How will I know if the God I worship is the real McCoy? (Aside from God drawing me)

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What sense does it make to do my best if by losing God I become an independant thinker? Is'nt that the whole root of rebellion anyway?

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Edited by Phat, : edit

So to begin with, we as Christians need to come to terms with what it is that God expects of us.It makes some sense to me that to worship God means that we stive to do our best each and every day in our relationships with others. This would go nicely in line with The Greatest Commandment. It also makes sense that if I don't worry about eternity and Heaven since I cannot possibly know the expectations and dynamics of such concepts but, rather..concentrate on my daily walk it is the best and noblest thing I can do. And so here we are! Well, that flows nicely with much of the theological precepts that I had been taught. Namely, Does it not logically flow, then, that if we are to consider others better than ourselves that we should consider God in the same way? Of course not. But the summation of everything God intends
or foreknows is in fact the best plan, wouldnt you think?

We exist to please Him rather than He existing to please us. The question is also this:

Does God plan on dealing with freewill humans who wish to have a democracy with Him?

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I will agree with you on only one basic point.

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Ringo writes:

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What do we know about "the summation of everything God intends or foreknows"?

And the answer is that we do not collectively know.

I thought about this, and I suppose that were it not for humans there would be no need for Heaven,no?But by the same logic, we could assert that God created the entire universe for us, could'nt we?