8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.
v. 8 forgot, "and all infants." What's that!?, you say.
Well, in discussions between Arminians and Calvinists, the Arminian likes to rail against compatibilism. "If an act is determined," they say, "then it is not free." "And agent has to be able to actuate alternative possibilities. We then inquire about heaven. Will the saints be able to sin in heaven? Are they free to worship God or actualize the alternative state of choosing not to? In other words, is it possible that the saints will sin in heaven? Given how heaven is described, many have answered in the negative:
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
[...]
22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26 The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. 27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.
If one can have libertarian freedom in heaven, and if they never do what is wrong, then it is possible for God to actualize a world where people always do what is right, and do it (libertarian) freely. This undercuts Victor Reppert's argument since we can turn around and ask him why God didn't make the world where we always do right and do it (libertarian) freely.
Or, if this cannot be achieved, then is sinning a live option for the saints?
If it is said that a glorified saint cannot sin, then does not this nature determine their choices?
Now, here is one particular libertarian response that I thought was interesting. It comes from the mind of philosopher James Sennett, self-described "die-hard Arminian." Here is what was claimed:
I'm going to be shamelessly self-serving and point out that I developed many of these ideas in two articles in Faith and Philosophy: "The Free Will Defense and Determinism" (vol. 8, 1991, pp, 340-51), and "Is There Freedom in Heaven?" (vol. 16, 1999, 69-82). In the latter, I develop a notion of "proximate compatilibilism," which allows for the coherence of determined free actions, provided that they contain in their causal history libertarian free actions by the same agent.
This is interesting! Let me note two points:
i) If our actions are determined in heaven, then there is nothing incoherent, pace almost all the Arminians who frequent here, with a determined free action. if the action is "determined" and if it is "free," then so much the worse for the old "robot" canard.
ii) More interesting, though, is that since the requirement for having compatibilist freedom in heaven is that any actor in heaven "contain in their causal history libertarian free actions by the same agent," we can see the rules out infants who die in infancy (the womb included) from being in heaven since they did not have libertarian free pre-heaven actions. Well, perhaps it doesn't rule this out necessarily. I'll offer three points of analysis: (a) Perhaps they will have libertarian freedom in heaven, but then this ruins the motivation for Sennett's arguments in the journals: if they can have libertarian freedom, and not be able to sin, why can't everyone else?; (b) perhaps only these agents (infants who died in infancy) can sin in heaven, but this also seems to ruin the motivation for Sennett's arguments in the journals: if they can sin in heaven, why the desire to make sure everyone else can't?; and (c) it is often argued by libertarians (e.g., some that grace our blog site, Moreland and Rea in Body & Soul: Human Nature and the Crisis of Ethics, Moreland and Craig in Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview) that since God has libertarian freedom, and we are made in his image, then we have it too. But this likewise destroys the motivations for Sennett's arguments in the journals: if God is in heaven, and God cannot sin, and God has libertarian freedom, then why can't the saints?
Thus the question of sinless action in heaven on a libertarian model still looms large on the horizon.
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