Heaven on Earth

[vhawk01]

Rarely do I spend much time contemplating Heaven, but I had occasion to do so today. A few things confused me, and seemed like obvious contradictions, at least to my naive perspective on the topic. I'm wondering if anyone can set me straight.

How can Heaven be any better than life on Earth? I'm constantly told that you cannot have joy without sorrow, happiness without sadness and good without evil. I am also told of the primacy and sacredness of free will. So, I know that the most important determinants of my joy and happiness are that I am free to choose unhappiness and that I suffer at times, in order to better enjoy my pleasure. But I'm also told tha God cannot tolerate sin, and that Heaven is being with God. So, my question is, is there suffering in Heaven? Can I choose to do wrong?

I assume the answers to these are no, I cannot suffer, and no, I cannot choose to do wrong or sin. This follows from the idea that being with God means being without sin. But I am curious, how do these ideas impact my free will? If I cannot suffer and I cannot choose to sin, obviously I do not have free will. Is that just not a big deal up in Heaven? And if that is the case, why is it so cherished here on Earth? I am often told that the reason Adam HAD to be tempted was because creating a world free from sin would have created a human race of automatons. So....how is Heaven different? Why was the Earth ever created in the first place?