Does Heaven have Free Will?

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Is there free will in heaven? But since no sin can be in Heaven, then I don’t see how free will is in Heaven.
 
Those in heaven have made an eternal choice, and the grace of God prevents further sin for eternity. Same with hell and purgatory. The possibility of a wrong choice does not make free will. They can make many choices, intercessions, praises, etc. They can have much variance, but only for God’s glory. They willingly entered this state.
 
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Therefore, isn’t free will restricted (even if perhaps voluntarily) when in Heaven because sin cannot be committed?

I can chose to go play Mario Kart with St. Peter in Heaven. I can’t chose to go rob a bank with St. Paul in Heaven though. Thus a restriction on choice (even if voluntary)
 
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Dolphin said:
a restriction on choice
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If you were with the person you love the most in the world and you just had the sweetest possible time you can ever thought of, would you suddenly start looking for some distraction? A new lover possibly? No.

The point is that you wouldn’t even want to rob a bank (and even to play Mario Kart with St. Peter). Heaven is about love, that’s why there’s no sin. Not because you’re forbidden.
 
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Dolphin said:
Thus a restriction on choice (even if voluntary)
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Also may preclude having the free will to leave such an agreement, but then that assumes there’s time in heaven in the way we think of it here.
 
Sinful choices are due to defects. In Heaven and after the resurrection God has perfected us such that we can freely choose the good without reservation, which is what we are generally ordered towards even now (we’re just imperfect at it). Plus, when you have a perfect good that never fades or tries and it perfectly satisfies you beyond what a worldly, finite good can do, a person will always freely choose that over any lesser good.
 
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Yes, there is perfect free will in heaven similarly as God possesses perfect, supreme, and infinite free will. Sin is a defect of the proper use of the free will, not that which defines it.
 
I think there is a marvelous paradox here. As we grow in holiness, our ability to sin is diminished. It’s not that our free will is diminished, but rather, as @Erundil wrote, our will is guided by love, perhaps even compelled by love.

Perhaps you have seen this in your own life. Are there specific sins that you cannot commit any more? When I was young, I used to steal things. Now I cannot, because it grieves me to think of the harm it would do to others. Am I bound or free?
 
Erundil said:
If you were with the person you love the most in the world and you just had the sweetest possible time you can ever thought of, would you suddenly start looking for some distraction? A new lover possibly? No.
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No but then why do people cheat or sin ever? Because of temptation. Temptation though isn’t a sin, it however leads to sin. So is temptation in Heaven but nobody chooses to fall to it and thus sin because they are with God? Or is temptation not in Heaven either?

Because the Garden of Eden had temptation in it so I assume Heaven does also
 
Wesrock said:
Plus, when you have a perfect good that never fades or tries and it perfectly satisfies you beyond what a worldly, finite good can do, a person will always freely choose that over any lesser good.
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But why do some people still chose to do sinful things on earth despite having what appears to us as humans, an immense amount of goods. People still commit adultery despite being in a sacramental marriage. People still steal despite having money not to. Temptation leads people to that
 
Yes perfect free will. For eternity.

The problem is that in time, which has a before, a during, and an after, people can choose an action. And by temporal nature, all actions can be good, or can be a rejection or a spoiling of good.

And while we should choose good —one example of free will, choosing good—for some reason everybody assumes that only if you can also choose ‘evil’ can you have free will. It’s like “you can only freely choose to sin, not to do good.’ Which is logically risible.

But that doesn’t take place in heaven for two reasons.
In heaven there is infinity, which is like, as far as we can understand as temporal beings, a continuous ‘now’. Only in freely choosing good at death can we enter heaven. We cannot be in a state where we choose evil; we are told by definition there is no evil in heaven.

Which brings us to the second point: Heaven has not been corrupted. There is no evil there. All is good, all is unspoiled, because when the only evil occurred near there, the perps (Adam and Eve) were escorted out. The ‘virus’ was isolated and contained outside, if you will.

The Garden of Eden was not located in heaven; therefore there is no chance that in heaven we can have constant little ‘changes’ with people going rogue and having to be tossed to hell, etc.

Heaven is, as much as we can grasp, simultaneously a place (where one can BE) and a person, God, who IS. The Garden of Eden was not; God would physically ‘come and walk’ in the evening there. Had it been heaven, He would have been there fully (yes, He is ‘around us’ and within us but in a temporal way on earth; in Heaven we will be completely joined with Him in a way we cannot be, or imagine, on earth. CF St. Paul).

SO; A perfect place, perfect union with perfection itself, an eternity already free will chosen for complete and perfect good, and no change.

Free will yes. Believing that means one can do evil? No.
 
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Dolphin said:
But why do some people still chose to do sinful things on earth despite having what appears to us as humans, an immense amount of goods. People still commit adultery despite being in a sacramental marriage. People still steal despite having money not to. Temptation leads people to that
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Also makes something else interesting. Often time the ‘question of evil’, as to why does God allow evil to occur, is answered with “it’s necessary for free will”. But the consensus seems to be there are ways to have free will without evil.
 
Everything isn’t in Heaven since sin isn’t in Heaven and sin is something. So that logic doesn’t seem to work IMO
 
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How can someone be completely free without having the option to sin.

Why is free will necessary? God can’t force us to love Him because that wouldn’t be love. How is it any different in Heaven? Just because we can’t leave Heaven and will always love God doesn’t mean the option magically disappears. It just means we will never chose to sin in Heaven.

Lucifer sinned in Heaven did he not? Lucifer was tempted to leave God despite having the fullness of God and having everything. Therefore, having everything does not mean temptation doesn’t exist. Why couldn’t we fall away from God in Heaven just like Lucifer did? Because our free will to do so has been restricted?
 
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Dolphin said:
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Wesrock:
Plus, when you have a perfect good that never fades or tries and it perfectly satisfies you beyond what a worldly, finite good can do, a person will always freely choose that over any lesser good.
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But why do some people still chose to do sinful things on earth despite having what appears to us as humans, an immense amount of goods. People still commit adultery despite being in a sacramental marriage. People still steal despite having money not to. Temptation leads people to that
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The specific objects they are seeking are goods in themselves. What’s largely disordered is their prioritizing, often seeking the fulfillment of animal appetites (which are good in themselves) while purposely perverting the fulfillment of higher appetites and goods. For example, obtaining the good of a pleasurable experience in a disordered way, or at the cost of someone else that runs contrary to intellectual or spiritual goods or the person’s whole nature. It’s is always a good that is really the object of the will. The evils associated with it are accidental to or concomitant to the desired good. Even the person who says that they desire to kill people has the fulfillment of some type of primal/sociopathic emotion/satisfaction/pride or something of the sort as the good they’re trying to obtain.

This isn’t to say their choice is good. Not at all. It is sinful, evil, and disordered. The (real) object of the will is good, what makes the choice evil are the concomitant evils that come with it, and that they choose to make that choice anyway.
 
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Dolphin said:
How can someone be completely free without having the option to sin.
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Who says there is no option to sin in heaven?
A life of complete freedom simply does not desire sin. Heaven is complete and true freedom, and that kind of freedom is united with the Good, which is God himself.
 
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Wesrock said:
It’s is always a good that is really the object of the will.
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So then what is the ‘good’ that is the object of murder? It feels good to release rage? I see you mention this below, but it seems odd to me how that could be considered good in any way. Basically it seems to suggest any feeling we have is a good one, even if we reach that feeling in wrong ways.

But how is anger good? It’s the sin of wrath
 
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