How come God didn't just make us in heaven if He knew what was going to happen?

A: Dear Katie, Thank you for a very good question. The answer is that God did try to stop what was going to happen. First of all, just because you know what’s going to happen doesn’t mean you can stop what’s going to happen. God knew Adam and Eve were going to sin, and I suppose He could have said, “Because I know they will sin, I just won’t create them. I will create some people who won’t sin.” The problem is that God is a God of love, and wants his creatures to serve Him out of love. But love requires us to be able to choose to give our love. And the only way a person can have the freedom of choice is to have the freedom to do wrong if they so choose. God allowed Satan, and his angels, and Adam, and Eve, and you and me to choose who we would obey. His only other option would be to either force everyone to obey, or just not create anyone who would think of disobeying. But there are many, like me, who were once disobedient, that God was able to teach to become obedient to Him.

His plan is to teach all His creatures the dangers of sin and the importance of obedience so that when He does take us to heaven, even though we still could choose to do wrong, never would choose wrong because we have learned the importance of choosing what is right.

Why didn’t He make us in heaven? Because we have selfish sinful natures. You see, once Adam and Eve sinned, their natures were corrupted. That means that their thoughts and feelings became very self-centered and selfish. Before their sin, they were naturally kind, loving and honest. After their sin, they became selfish, mean and dishonest. They had to really work at doing what was right, when before sin they naturally did what was right.

They passed that sinful natures on to their children, and their children’s children, all the way down to you and me; so instead of you and me being born with holy natures, we were born with sinful natures. God couldn’t allow us into heaven with sinful natures, because our sinful natures would lead us to do the things we sometimes do here on earth, like lying, or cheating, or being angry and mean with people, or just being selfish and not sharing. Can you imagine a heaven with people that acted that way? It would be like the earth is right now!

So God came up with a plan to change our natures back into holy ones so that He could take us back to live with Him in heaven. Then we can live forever with Him, and we won’t ever choose to do anything that would jeopardize the purity of heaven.

I know sometimes it’s hard for us to understand why we have to live here in a sinful world, but we need to remember that God the Son, Jesus Christ Himself, came and lived in this sinful world. He lived a hard life, suffering from hunger , cold, and homelessness, as well as ridicule, mocking, mistreatment and crucifixion. Should we expect better treatment than Jesus? And Jesus promised that He will come again and receive us to Himself, so that we can be with Him (John 14:1-3). What is important for you and me and to decide to live for Jesus and believe His promise to come again and take us home, so that we can be with Him forever.

Thanks for writing, and remember, there's never been a better time to share Jesus!

Your friend, Pastor Howard