Over in Theology 101 where I can't post, siliconwafer asks (as part of The Problem of Evil topic, February 11th 2012):
I have some questions for those of you who hold to the Free Will Defense. Why does free will entail the ability to do evil? I was just wondering because God has free will and He doesn't have the ability to sin. Do the saints in heaven have the ability to sin? If not, does this mean that they don't have free will?
If the will is free (ie completely without any outside coercions or constraints) then the possibility of pure good being chosen means that the possibility of pure evil may also be chosen or there is no true choice. Thus free will entails the ability to do evil.

Angels are elect:
1 Timothy 5:21 I charge you, in the sight of God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels,

They worship:
Hebrews 1:6 says, "And let the angels of God worship him."

They can be holy or evil, ie fallen:
Matthew 25:31, when Jesus comes to judge the world He brings with Him all the "holy angels."

Notice the "I wills" in Isaiah 14:13,14: "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High." The angels of God, and the demons as well, each exercise their own wills.

Just like love, holiness and worship must come from a true free will choice. Make a robot to say "All glory to God!" and it is not worship. Make it so it never breaks a commandment of GOD and it is not holy.

Therefore, contrary to casual thinkers, these holy angels who worship must have made a free will choice to enter GOD's service. They chose to be true while the demons rejected GOD and fell.

So, if the angels are holy, like their GOD is holy, can they sin?

The only constraint upon them, and us all, would be the proof that JEHOVH was indeed GOD Almighty which they learned after they chose to accept HIS will for their creation by HIS revelation of HIS divinity and power, by the creation of the physical universe before their / our eyes. Since they have never chosen sin, they are not constrained by the enslavement of sin like we are here on earth.

[It is a tenant of PCE free will that proof destroys the freedom of the will by constraining it to choose in favour of what is now known to be best for it, so it is not free to choose by faith a reality hoped for.]

So, while they do not technically have a truly free will, ie they can still sin...in the same way we who have no true free will since HIS revelation can still achieve a sinful decision that makes us guilty. In this way I think that being holy does not negate the ability to sin but it does abrogate sin by the overriding commitment to holiness in the face of the revealed divinity of GOD ALMIGHTY!

And so I also apply this logic to the Trinity - THEY love each other so purely and are so dedicated to THEIR will, ie holiness, that THEY will never sin.

As for the saints in heaven or the sanctified sinful elect, they too have been brought by sufferings and grace to choose holiness until they too will never choose sin again, not because they can't but because they will not.


A little clumsy without the background in the nature of a truefree will choice but that is about it,

peace, Ted