I was working on a really thought-out, philosophical post for my blog today to finish up my free will in heaven series. I have given up on that one. Not that I do not have adequate material, but I just don't have the time to make it coherent. Besides, my posts have just been way too long. Maybe because they are former five-page philosophy papers made to fit in a blog post. At least, that's one theory.
For now, I am concluding that there is free will in heaven and that choice may be something foreign to eternity. God is what we willed all along as we sought to satisfy any desire, rightly or wrongly. We are hard-wired to want Him, but there's that original sin thing that obscures our vision. Then, there was the day we chose Him and not our own selfish misguided ends. By His grace we saw how eternal communion with Him was what we were longing for all along. Nothing else compares; and so, we wait for the day when our wills will be absolutely free from any distraction. They will be at rest in the very God whom we've longed for in every desire we sought to satisfy.
When our wills are at rest, we no longer have to choose. Making choices is just another burden anyway. Especially if you're me. I won't even tell you how long it took me to decide whether or not to scrap the initial post for this one. Its a sickness, but you can bet I'm not going to see a doctor about it. (That's an easy choice.) Lord, haste the day when I can just sit back, relax, and enjoy the rewards of the one choice that is eternal. Loving God.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Free Willy
Spurred on by important comments (1, 2), I will continue to "spout" off some more about free will. I want to FINish this before midnight so I will try to be brief.
By Nature, our souls are created to desire "the good"; but, because of original sin, our minds (intellect + will) are clouded; so, we at times perceive things to be good that are actually not good. We would never choose something we did not perceive to be good. If we choose evil it is because we have seen some benefit in doing it. If someone chooses evil for the sake of evil, they are pathological or under diabolical influences.
In heaven, we are perfected, and so our wills always clearly perceive "the good" accurately; moreover, we see the very source of all that is good face to face; hence, all our choices are compatible with the Divine Will of God. The choices are still ours and they are still free.
Concerning the existence of sin before the tree of the knowledge of good an evil existed: As discussed here, we see that Satan and the other fallen angels could and did sin before the tree existed. I maintain that if man does not always have free will, he ceases to be human. Free will is the evidence of the image and likeness of God in man. Man had it before and after the fall and, to remain truly human, will have it in eternity. A will does not cease to be free just because it does not have any evil to choose. A will can still be free in heaven to choose between two or more perfectly legitimate goods.
By Nature, our souls are created to desire "the good"; but, because of original sin, our minds (intellect + will) are clouded; so, we at times perceive things to be good that are actually not good. We would never choose something we did not perceive to be good. If we choose evil it is because we have seen some benefit in doing it. If someone chooses evil for the sake of evil, they are pathological or under diabolical influences.
In heaven, we are perfected, and so our wills always clearly perceive "the good" accurately; moreover, we see the very source of all that is good face to face; hence, all our choices are compatible with the Divine Will of God. The choices are still ours and they are still free.
Concerning the existence of sin before the tree of the knowledge of good an evil existed: As discussed here, we see that Satan and the other fallen angels could and did sin before the tree existed. I maintain that if man does not always have free will, he ceases to be human. Free will is the evidence of the image and likeness of God in man. Man had it before and after the fall and, to remain truly human, will have it in eternity. A will does not cease to be free just because it does not have any evil to choose. A will can still be free in heaven to choose between two or more perfectly legitimate goods.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Sin in Heaven: Part Two
Before I could finish and post Sin in Heaven: Part Two, Tranquil Thunder stole my thunder with this comment on Sin in Heaven: Part One: "If 'No evil can be conceived of in heaven,' then why did Lucifer get tossed out? How did Jesus see 'Satan fall like lightning from heaven'" (Luke 10:18)?
In Part One I concluded that those in the presence of the Divine Essence cannot sin; but, as Mr. Thunder (may I call you Tranquil) accurately quoted in his comment, I used the word "heaven". I should have thought better of the term. "Heaven" in scripture can mean the sky, outer space, or any "level" up to and including ultimate bliss in the presence of his Divine Essence. (Paul speaks of a 3rd heaven in 2Cor 12:2) In my conclusion, I am referring to the face to face encounter with God. When the scripture says that "Satan fall like lightning from heaven" or that he was "thrown down" from heaven (cf. Rev 12:7-9) it is referring to one of the former concepts, not the face-to-face vision of the Divine Essence.Concerning the angels, the Compendium to the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us:
Satan and the other demons "were angels, created good by God. They were, however, transformed into evil because with a free and irrevocable choice they rejected God and his Kingdom, thus giving rise to the existence of hell." (74)Like Adam and Eve and their descendants, the angels "have intelligence and will"[1] and they also have choices to make. Their first choice, whether or not they would love God above all else, is clearly not unlike the one we must make in our lifetimes.
With the understanding we have gained, we can correctly conclude that God did not create the angels in the immediate presence of His Divine Essence (or beatitude), for if he had, then some could not have fallen. So, Satan and the demons have not fallen from the state of being in the abode of God; rather, they presumed upon it when they sought to ascend to it and rebelled against God (Isaiah 14:12-15). Conversely, the holy angels were granted eternal communion with God as their reward for choosing Him.
1 Catechism of the Catholic Church (1993), 330.
Monday, June 4, 2007
Sin in Heaven: Part One
Can there be any sin in heaven?
The simple response to the first question is "No," but it does require a more in-depth, philosophical answer. According the Catechism of the Catholic Church:"[T]he souls of all the saints...who died after receiving Christ's holy Baptism have been, are and will be in heaven. [T]hese souls have seen and do see the divine essence with an intuitive vision, and even face to face, without the mediation of any creature. This perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity is called "heaven." Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness." (1023-1024)Here, the key words are divine essence, vision, ultimate end, and supreme happiness. Using the reason of Saint Thomas Aquinas to define these terms can help us provide an appropriate answer to the first question.
The divine essence is God. God exists eternally in and of Himself and is the primary cause of everything that exists; therefore, every existing thing derives its essence from God. Saint Thomas tells us that there are five transcendental attributes that each thing receives from God as part of its essence. They are "being", oneness, goodness, truth, and beauty. God possesses them in absolute perfection, but everything else possesses them at various, lesser degrees of perfection. The transcendental attribute pertaining to our current argument is goodness.
Since humans comprehend things through the senses, we come to know that something is "good" when we desire it; hence, the essence of goodness is desirability. "Now it is clear that a thing is desirable insofar as it is perfect."[1] If you had to choose between sleeping on a lumpy old mattress and a brand new one made of the space-age foam they use in the space shuttle, you would likely choose the latter because it is more desirable, or better (more perfect), than the former. If you merely desire the good, space-age mattress, though, you will not be happy. In order for your will to be satisfied, you must actually have the mattress and delight in it (which in my case means sleeping on it). But, alas, even this mattress will become old and lumpy some day and your happiness will be lost and you will desire anew.
What you really desire is supreme happiness, "the perfect good which lulls [satisfies] the appetite altogether...This is not to be found in any creature, but in God alone"[2] as alluded to above. God is the most desirable since he is perfect goodness and the source of all goodness. As Saint James tells us in his epistle, "All good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights" (1:17 NAB). So, the lesser goods of earth are just shadows of God’s goodness. Their goodness directs us to Him as our ultimate end because "God...created man to...share in his own blessed life [i.e., heaven]."[3] Which is to say: Our purpose for existing in the first place is to be in perfect communion with God forever. Or, in a more thought-provoking manner, "the last end is considered first because it determines everything else in life."[4]
Herein, we must discuss the term vision, namely that eternal face-to-face encounter with the Holy Trinity in heaven, for "perfect happiness can consist in nothing else."[5] This vision, therefore, must extend beyond simply knowing that God exists to knowing what His very Essence is because "the object of the intellect is what a thing is...[w]herefore the intellect attains perfection."[6] In other words, if you don’t know what a space-age mattress is, you won’t desire it; yet, if I tell you about the mattress and all its benefits, you may then desire it, but you still won’t know what it is until you see it and experience it. Once you do, your intellect will be more perfect in regards to the mattress since your desire to know will be satisfied. In this manner, we desire to know God and supreme happiness.
Finally, we arrive at the heart of our answer. In order to be supremely happy, your desires must be at rest without any fear of losing the delight you have gained. In addition, you must be assured of retaining that delight; else, you have not attained perfect and sufficient goodness.[7] Aquinas argues that "the vision of the Divine Essence fills the soul with all good things since it unites it to the source of all goodness;" hence, it would be impossible for you to reject it by seeking something better.[8] Unlike the things we seek on earth, which are insufficient to satisfy since they come with some inconvenience, God fulfills every longing completely and perfectly; therefore, no evil can be conceived of or perpetrated in heaven even though we retain our free will.
1 Peter Kreeft, Summa of the Summa (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1990), 91.
2 Summa of the Summa, 375
3 Catechism of the Catholic Church (1993), 1
4 Summa of the Summa, 349, footnote 2
5 Ibid., 381
6 Ibid.
7 ibid., 396
8 Ibid., 397
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Real-Time: Part Two
I concluded Part One saying, "Since God, being eternal, is outside of time and has no beginning or end, how does time, which has a beginning and continues to unravel unto an end, intersect with that eternity?" Putting the substance issue aside, I wish to focus on how God knows the end from the beginning whilst addressing the related issue of His sovereignty and our free will.
Many people err by rejecting free will in the face of God's sovereignty, as if God could not be be truly sovereign and create beings along with physical laws that are totally free, independent of His will in every way except that He allows them to exist and act. On the one hand, to say he would not or could not implies that God is not all-powerful, but he is and he can. On the other hand, to deny the free will of mankind denies that we are created in the image of God for surely it is not our bodies, but our souls which bear the image of God. We manifest His image through the operations of intellect (reason) and free will (choice). Additionally, if men and women do not have an absolutely free will, then we are not really persons, but pre-programmed automatons. As Dr. Theresa Farnan (book, series) said in my philosophy class, "We experience our personhood in a unique way every time we freely choose something."
Now, free will may seem like a fly in the ointment of eternity and sovereignty, but I don't think it's all that complicated. (Trying to fathom it is the hard part.) Since God is eternity, the creation of time along with everything else, is an eternal (timeless, outside-of-time) action. The result of that action has a beginning, middle, and end; but, we must make every effort to avoid understanding it as if God is thereby subject to time. In this eternal action, God sees the whole chain reaction of all the physical laws and the free choices of all men and women which God, in His sovereignty permitted. Intrinsically to the action, God knows about the fall of man, the need for a Redeemer, and how He wants it all to end. So, for lack of a better way to say it, God "decided" at what points to inject Himself into time in manifest ways to draw us to Himself as our ultimate end.
The most important intersection of time and eternity is the crucifiction of His Son, Jesus Christ. It is the focal point of all history. These encounters with God that occur in time are all part of the eternal action to begin with (if we can even use that terminology). We see this in Sacred Scripture, especially in Revelation 13:8 where we are told that Jesus is "the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world."
Ultimately, we cannot accuse God of any mistakes. His plan was The Plan all along. It is an eternal plan in which we are totally free, permitted by His sovereignty to choose. As part of the plan, God guarantees that every person will have been offered sufficient grace to be saved from final damnation, but they must choose to receive it. In this way, He remains a merciful Father and just Judge.
It is at this point that I have discerned how highly improbable an entirely satisfactory conclusion* on the matter is attainable in my lifetime; however, I won't let that keep me from seeking one.
Many people err by rejecting free will in the face of God's sovereignty, as if God could not be be truly sovereign and create beings along with physical laws that are totally free, independent of His will in every way except that He allows them to exist and act. On the one hand, to say he would not or could not implies that God is not all-powerful, but he is and he can. On the other hand, to deny the free will of mankind denies that we are created in the image of God for surely it is not our bodies, but our souls which bear the image of God. We manifest His image through the operations of intellect (reason) and free will (choice). Additionally, if men and women do not have an absolutely free will, then we are not really persons, but pre-programmed automatons. As Dr. Theresa Farnan (book, series) said in my philosophy class, "We experience our personhood in a unique way every time we freely choose something."
Now, free will may seem like a fly in the ointment of eternity and sovereignty, but I don't think it's all that complicated. (Trying to fathom it is the hard part.) Since God is eternity, the creation of time along with everything else, is an eternal (timeless, outside-of-time) action. The result of that action has a beginning, middle, and end; but, we must make every effort to avoid understanding it as if God is thereby subject to time. In this eternal action, God sees the whole chain reaction of all the physical laws and the free choices of all men and women which God, in His sovereignty permitted. Intrinsically to the action, God knows about the fall of man, the need for a Redeemer, and how He wants it all to end. So, for lack of a better way to say it, God "decided" at what points to inject Himself into time in manifest ways to draw us to Himself as our ultimate end.
The most important intersection of time and eternity is the crucifiction of His Son, Jesus Christ. It is the focal point of all history. These encounters with God that occur in time are all part of the eternal action to begin with (if we can even use that terminology). We see this in Sacred Scripture, especially in Revelation 13:8 where we are told that Jesus is "the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world."
Ultimately, we cannot accuse God of any mistakes. His plan was The Plan all along. It is an eternal plan in which we are totally free, permitted by His sovereignty to choose. As part of the plan, God guarantees that every person will have been offered sufficient grace to be saved from final damnation, but they must choose to receive it. In this way, He remains a merciful Father and just Judge.
It is at this point that I have discerned how highly improbable an entirely satisfactory conclusion* on the matter is attainable in my lifetime; however, I won't let that keep me from seeking one.
*Note: Satisfactory Conclusion = Full knowledge and understanding of the matter.
Friday, June 1, 2007
Real-Time Part One
I have spent a lot of time thinking about time in the past year. Ever since I began studying how you can prove the existence of God as a metaphysical reality without appealing to faith, I have spent many moments pondering time. The connection may seem loose at the moment, but it all has to do with the nature of God.
God is an eternal being, and the supreme being for that matter, who created all things. Time is one of those creatures. Additionally, we only exist because God wills us to, as Saint Luke says, "In Him we live and move and have our being." (Acts 17:28)
Now, many would say that time is unraveled like a time line on the table in front of God, but I struggle with this concept. Not that I doubt the infinity of God, but because I don't think that there is any substance to the past and the future. I propose that the present is the only aspect of time with substance; therefore, any notion of time travel introduced into science fiction ruins the story for me because I find it not only unrealistic, but unrealizable. I can't even bring myself to imagine it just for the sake of the story. (Basically, Star Trek IV and Star Trek: First Contact were impoverished by the time travel plot.)
To say the future is unraveled before God would imply that it has substance already, but it doesn't exist yet even if God knows what we are going to choose and how it all ends beforehand. Since God, being eternal, is outside of time and has no beginning or end, how does time, which has a beginning and continues to unravel unto an end, intersect with that eternity? That remains a great mystery to me, at least for the moment.
God is an eternal being, and the supreme being for that matter, who created all things. Time is one of those creatures. Additionally, we only exist because God wills us to, as Saint Luke says, "In Him we live and move and have our being." (Acts 17:28)
Now, many would say that time is unraveled like a time line on the table in front of God, but I struggle with this concept. Not that I doubt the infinity of God, but because I don't think that there is any substance to the past and the future. I propose that the present is the only aspect of time with substance; therefore, any notion of time travel introduced into science fiction ruins the story for me because I find it not only unrealistic, but unrealizable. I can't even bring myself to imagine it just for the sake of the story. (Basically, Star Trek IV and Star Trek: First Contact were impoverished by the time travel plot.)
To say the future is unraveled before God would imply that it has substance already, but it doesn't exist yet even if God knows what we are going to choose and how it all ends beforehand. Since God, being eternal, is outside of time and has no beginning or end, how does time, which has a beginning and continues to unravel unto an end, intersect with that eternity? That remains a great mystery to me, at least for the moment.
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