Souls Must Be Sinless to Enter Heaven Souls Must Be Sinless to Enter Heaven
When God created humankind, He gave us a body, soul, and spirit. (1 Thessalonians 5:23) The body creates the outward shell of what others see when they look at us. The spirit and soul reside inside the shell of the body. The soul is our mind, emotions, and free will – what makes us human. The spirit provides a way of connecting spiritually with God deeper than using emotions or physical senses.
God created your soul when He created you to be sinless. (Ezekiel 18:4) Once created, the soul belongs to God, and man cannot kill it. However, once someone sins, the soul experiences eternal death and cannot enter Heaven. Therefore, no one can enter Heaven based on their own merits.
What is Sin?
Sin can be many things but essentially 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 set by God. If that’s the definition of sin, none of us could hope to be sinless. Frankly, we can’t hope to be sinless. As stated in Romans 3/23, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”
Since humankind is incapable of living without sin, only those who have accepted Jesus’ gift of dying on the cross to forgive their sins can enter Heaven. The other souls must remain in the world ruled by Satan because their sins remain. People’s souls of this world that don’t follow Jesus reside in Hell for eternity because their sins have not been washed away by Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross.
Believers and Followers of Jesus are Not the Same
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.
Satan Rules Over This Earth
Satan now rules over Earth because we humans are weak. God gave us free will (Galatians 5:16-17) when He created us so that we had the choice to decide if we wanted to follow Him. We want others to love us freely. God didn’t want to force us to love Him either. Since He gave us a choice to decide if we wanted to be followers of Jesus or Satan, then it makes sense that he would also allow us to make the rest of our decisions on our own.
Free Choice Pros and Cons
Though we appreciate the free choice option when making decisions, when a terrorist is blowing up a building, we don’t appreciate that freedom as much. So instead, we cry out, “How could a loving God allow this to happen? Why didn’t he stop it?
While God has the power to stop bad things from happening, each of us controls our actions and chooses to sin or not sin. So, if he removes the terrorist’s free-will choice, He must take yours, too. It’s only fair.
God Works with Circumstances
Rather than remove free will choice, God works with circumstances instead. (Genesis 2:16-17) God intervenes with the events surrounding a decision. He may influence events in such a way as to prevent the event from happening, modify the impact of the event, or provide support to the participants and victims affected by the event. However, He will not stop the individual from following through with their decision. If they were going to push a button, pushing the button occurs. However, once the push occurs, God may answer someone’s prayer by making nothing happen due to pushing the button.
