If God wanted people to have free will, why all the talk about Heaven and Hell?

Question

Are your really making decisions free from interference if you think you may go to hell if you don't obey god?

so what is the "Lake of Fire" Russ J and my question still applies as there supposedly is a heaven, if god tells you that you will go to heaven if you do what he says, do you really have free will?

of course you aren't paul, what was your point? no one ever promised you that you would be free to do what you want in our society, but the bible supposedly claims that we have free will.

you are correct pyth, the problem is that if you ask things like "if god is omniscient, do we have free will etc?" no one understands what you are trying to ask

Answer 1

then all people will choose to go to heaven

Answer 2

There are even larger questions that can be derived from your question. Such as, what is god like. Is god all knowning and all powerful. If he is then doesn't that mean when he designed the universe that he already knew what was going to happen in the end. Therefore he already knows who is going to heaven and hell and there is no such thing as free will.

Then one might argue that god is not all knowing and all powerful. Does that make him/her any less of a god? Does that mean that there could be a way to not obey god and still go to heaven, because god has not planned out and does not know everything?

This is stuff that can really make you think.

Answer 3

Heaven and Hell exist as living testaments to the fact that all of our actions carry a consequence. Simply because accepting Jesus Christ leads one to Heaven and rejecting Him leads to Hell does not mean that we do not have free will. We still have the freedom to choose our path, however baneful it may be.
Let's take an example. In our democratic government, the powers of the law are restrained to protect our basic rights as human beings. So, we have freedom to do whatever we want. So, a man can go out and decide to work for his money to feed an addiction, such as to a drug. Of course, this man, like any other man, knows the natural repercussions to follow (since warnings are plastered everywhere and are in commercials): a broken family, an inability to survive independently, etc. People warn him not to continue because they know the consequence: if he keeps doing this, his life will take a downturn. He ignores it, thinking that they're just trying to scare him. His friends warning him think: "Would to God that I would be able to scare him from destroying himself!" But he doesn't listen.
The tell him he might even beome homeless if he gets thrown out on the street. He knows all of this, but continues. And then he ends up homeless and his wife and children have left him.
So, he continued, knowing the consequences, and ruined his life, knowing that he would. Does that mean he didn't have free will?
No; he could have decided to be afraid because of his friends' warnings and make the step to quitting anytime. He could have chosen (note that word; it indicates he had free will) to be scared and could have saved himself. If he did, however, that does not mean he did not have free will, for he had the free will to ignore the warning and continue down the path.

In the same way, if an upright, circumspect Christian urges a person to get saved, or else suffer eternal damnation, and the person sees the need and becomes saved, it does not mean that that person did not exercise his free will. The person could have decided otherwise; he could have decided to get caught up in the moment and forget the warning. He could have decided to forget it. Then, though, he would have suffered the natural consequence of going to Hell. Just because he saw the need to be saved because someone warned him of a real consequence (a consequence as real as the destruction that follows an addiction), or because he was somehow frightened, doesn't mean that his free will was, in that short time, rescinded. That person acted on what he himself felt and wasn't forced into the decision.
Besides, what if someone told you this and you ignored him? You just made a choice of your own volition, right? Therefore, if you chose opposite, then you still have made a choice of your own volition. Free will is the ability to choose, period.

Answer 4

Yes, a freewill to choose between Heaven and Hell. So, choose wisely.

Peace and Love

Answer 5

I like people that ask good questions yes you have the choice to go to heaven or hell so you do have free will......

Answer 6

your allowed to believe what you want, just as long as it's the beliefs god told you to have.

of course, one could argue that everything we do is part of "God's Plan". Technichally, we don't make decisions, they are made for us by god and we have no free will. but the bible says we have free will.

[sniff sniff] what's that smell? i think it's the odor of contradiction... in the christian beliefs. of course i smell that whenever thinking about their beliefs.

Answer 7

God don't want people to have free will

Romans 9:18
So then He has mercy on whomever He wills (chooses) and He hardens (makes stubborn and unyielding the heart of) whomever He wills.

Answer 8

there is no heaven, hell or god. which is why none of it makes any sense.

however it's funny to watch the circular, illogical and entirely improvised reasoning of the godbots. It's a wonder they don't get dizzy.

Answer 9

Well, a lot of people who profess to believe in God still seem to break "his" rules a lot. So I guess the threat of helll isn't any better a deterrent than the death penalty is, eh?

Answer 10

It's exactly like some thug in a protection racket: You have the "free will" to not pay him, but he's gonna break your legs if you don't.
Oddly enough, that behavior is illegal among us humans....yet praiseworthy when a deity does it.
Weird, huh?