The Default — Heaven or Hell?
2/24/08 Inspirations Just because sin is the default condition of our world, doesn’t mean that hell is our fate unless we do something to prevent it. I believe heaven is the default in spite of the sinful world. We need to realize the inexhaustible work of the Holy Spirit in us that is toiling to keep us from the occasion of sin. We would have to actually fight against God’s help in order to lose our inheritance in Heaven. I realize that there are people who try to do just that. Temptation, though, isn’t a choice. We are not condemned because we are tempted. So many lives are ruined with guilt over things that aren’t even in our control. Our free will has a limited application – our power in this regard has been overrated by well-meaning preachers who forget that God does not give us trials we cannot overcome. For at the point that we can’t overcome them is the point that we know they are part of God’s plan for us.
You aren’t going to get your mind around this principle until you understand that free will has only one function – to accept or reject God’s spirit in you. It is God’s spirit in you that is keeping the propensity to sin away from you or letting the temptations of a sinful world creep in. This is done behind the scenes, with no human input whatsoever, for reasons we can’t categorize. The function of an individual’s free will is to accept or reject the grace of God. The fact that we must exercise this free will over and over gives the impression that it is we ourselves building virtue in us. If it’s rejected we simply don’t act on it and our protection from temptation is rejected as well. We don’t sin so much as we reject the grace that keeps us from temptation.
Turned around, when we do not sin we are not virtuous, only accepting of the grace that brings virtue into our spirit. It isn’t our work but God’s that brings virtue to our spirit; sin is not our work but the work of evil until we succumb to it. We become implicated in it when we use our free will in the rejection of the Holy Spirit’s gift of protection from it. This distinction is important to our concept of heaven and hell. Neither is won by our actions but by our choice of forces we accept.
In Mysticism we make this choice once and for all by giving up the choice to God as a gift. That isn’t to say there isn’t an ongoing process, because we can’t be perfect in this world. But the gift is the desire itself. Like the “born again” phenomenon of Christian religious dogma, it is a promise given once and built upon through the work of the Holy Spirit.
Mysticism’s principle of abandonment of our will to God’s will guarantees our union with the powerful forces of good. By giving God our free will we are infused with the grace of His own will. Heaven follows with surety because God’s will for us is eternal life in His full presence. It is God’s will – it is the default. Therefore hell would be impossible to attain – you could choose to fight against all-powerful forces of good bent on your salvation, but we are much too puny to win this fight and that’s why I don’t believe in hell.
That isn’t to say there isn’t a necessary, painful preparation for heaven beyond the scope of free will choice, which ends at death. Or that there are sub-perfect levels of heaven that is instantly existence upon our deaths. These things aren’t meant for us to know until the time of our deaths. That makes our choice all the more urgent at this very minute, and this in itself is part of God’s plan.
