By: Timothy Homan
11/7/23
To the Christian. Do you believe there will be a second fall in heaven or the new earth? Another way of asking it is will a second fall be possible to happen again like the first fall in the Garden of Eden?
It’s an interesting question that I think exposes an issue about free will.
The answer to those questions is no, as Christians we don’t believe there will be a second fall. Why? One easy answer to that question is found in Revelation 21:4
He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (NIV)
That sounds pretty perpetual for me. So God will have to do something to our “free wills” in the future restoration to prevent us from falling again. Whatever that mechanism is, whatever you want to call that, God will do that and we won’t have the free will to choose to sin anymore or to rebel against God.
I see a couple implications of that point.
First is that this point flies right in the face of the Arminian “free will” mentality here on fallen earth that says that God can’t violate our free wills to get us to love or choose him otherwise we would just be robots and it wouldn’t be genuine love. But here’s an interesting point, God will “violate” (maybe influence is a better word) our free will in eternity to not fall again. Why are we ok with God being sovereign in a restoration scenario in the future to keep us there so we don’t choose wrong but we aren’t ok with the idea that God influenced our free wills in the first place to get us there? There’s no seeming difference in my mind.
If eternal torment in hell is true, meaning that not everyone will be a part of heaven/the new earth then this would seemingly make God into a monster. This is the main problem Calvinists have in their view. For the Arminian, once we realize that eternal torment isn’t true then this need to focus on free will as the blame for non belief goes away. We can now just trust in God to do the work in ourselves and others around us.
The second point I want to bring to this issue is this, if redeemed humans won’t have the possibility of a second fall in the future restoration, then what does that say about the first fall?
In the first fall God did not have a mechanism in place to prevent our wills from falling. If God will have a mechanism in place to prevent a fall in eternity but he didn’t in the garden, that was a conscious planned decision by God.
Also, do you think eternity will have serpents crawling around tempting people to sin?
The fall in the Garden of Eden is often spoken of by Christians as heaven on earth that we screwed up in rebellion, that God intended it to perpetually exist. It’s clear to me that wasn’t the case. God clearly opened the door for us to fall, something he won’t be allowing in the future restoration and I believe that shows it was part of his plan from the beginning for the fall to happen and God takes responsibility for the outcome including coming himself to demonstrate his love and destruction of death through his resurrection and the promise of a future restoration of everything and everyone as mentioned in Acts 3:21 . God didn’t lose control at the fall, it may seem that way from our perspective but not from God’s as the evidence shows. The fall is part of the magnificent story he is telling.
Clear Biblical evidence that the fall was known and planned on by God is found in 1 Peter 1:20.
God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sake. (NLT)
Revelation 13:8 mentions the Lamb slain from the foundations of the world.
If Jesus had metaphorically or in some quantum physics crazy way been slain before the creation story and the fall, then that clearly supports the idea that God at a minimum knew about the fall but I believe this means he planned it. What God allows to happen and what God wills happen are really one and the same when you’re God and you have the ability to stop it.
We really need to rethink what we mean by free will. Do we really have free will in the sense we have always thought? I don’t have all the answers to exactly how the balance between our wills and God’s works but if I had to break a tie, I say God’s will wins.
When I write article’s my desire is to tie in the discussion to the larger picture that brings us not just a wanting hope but a certain hope. This is just intellectual noise if it doesn’t benefit us or bring us hope as humans walking through this journey that feels like a nightmare at times and that none of us asked to be born into.
My hope is that we may trust in the hope of a future restoration that God intended from the beginning knowing the fall didn’t shock God or surprise him and the fix is coming. It’s His story, it’s for you and for everyone around you in time. May our faith grow into the knowledge of a magnificent ending. If it’s your first time here see What I believe or Additional Resources for more.