When God created man, he gave us a body and a mind. The mind and soul are essentially the same thing because that’s where the essence of the real “us” resides. It’s where we make our decisions and exercise our free will. God could have created us like robots. He could have told us what to think and do, but instead, he gave us the ability to choose, i.e., free will. God wanted to let us make our own decisions, good or bad, and he let us do that without his interference. In other words, once we decide on an action, God won’t stop it. He might change circumstances around it, but he won’t take the decision away from us. That’s free will. Every one of us has it. Some of us make good decisions, and some make bad.
Free Will and Bad Outcomes
Many people blame God when bad things are done by bad people, saying they can’t follow a God who allows those things to happen when he could have stopped them. However, if God stepped in at those times, he would have to take away the option of free will from all of us every time we were about to sin. All wrong is sin. If he stops one sin, he must stop all sin. He is fair and just and treats all equally. It breaks his heart when we choose to hurt others, and he mourns what this world has become. By His grace, he has not yet stepped in to destroy this world with all the sin and corruption, but he keeps hoping we will repent and change. But God doesn’t cause bad things to happen and doesn’t stop them because he doesn’t want to take away our free will. However, God will judge those people who do those horrible things one day, and justice will be his.
God is sinless and cannot allow sin to enter Heaven. Each of us came into the world sinless. After we arrived, we had a choice to sin or not sin. Once we sin, we can no longer enter Heaven. Once the soul experiences sin, it cannot enter Heaven because eternal death is its final destination. It’s not a matter of how bad the sin is or how many sins or who the person is. Sin is sin. Any sin keeps the person out of Heaven.
God tried to give mankind a way to repent in the early days of the earth using animal sacrifices, but it didn’t work. The man continued to sin and did not use the rituals provided for purification.
What does God consider a sin?
Sin can be many things, but essentially, it is anything that separates us from God. Sin occurs when a person acts or behaves in a way that does not conform to God’s character or commands. It’s a failure to do the right thing and represents a rebellion against God. In essence, it’s falling short of the perfect standards God sets. Most people have trouble being ideal for a lifetime. Therefore, no one can go to Heaven on their own merits.
The only way to get into Heaven sinless is to accept Jesus’s gift of dying on the cross in our place for the repentance of our sins. He took our sins onto his body and carried them to death on our behalf so that we could enter Heaven clean. If we accept that gift, when we approach the gate of Heaven to enter, Jesus says, “Open the gate; this one is mine,” and we walk right through. The souls of those who have not accepted Christ as their savior are turned away at the gate of Heaven and cannot enter.
Non-Followers of Christ
The other souls must remain in the world ruled by Satan because their sins remain. People’s souls in this world who don’t follow Jesus reside in Hell for eternity because Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross has not washed their sins away.
Followers of Jesus are not the same as those who believe in Jesus. Satan’s followers know and believe in Jesus and his powers and fear his strength and glory. However, Satan does not believe in the written word of God and thinks that in the end, he will overthrow God’s reign and take over the universe and reign in God’s place as ruler of the universe. That belief is why God threw Satan out of Heaven.
