Without free will, the our love and obedience mean nothing. I can train a lab rat with threats and bribes, but to call us into Divine Union it takes a human soul.
Personally, I think we tend to worry too much about whether this or that act is sinful, and it keeps us from enjoying closeness to God. I can’t believe God really wants us to go around paranoid about whether we are going to heaven or hell at any moment, and if that was what Jesus was all about then He didn’t do much different than what there already was. That’s not really free will IMO; that’s about as free as if I were surrounded by police officers yelling, “drop the knife.” I’d drop the butter knife, not try to explain to them that it is harmless. I have a choice, but it isn’t “free.”
Alan
