Dear Friends,
I'm no authority, but it seems to me that, even though I think it's pretty safe to say that tests and trials result from free-will choices that we make, not all options that we freely choose from are necessarily good vs. evil. When I give a gift to my children, a gift that I've created or bought, there's a whole-lotta free-willing going on in that process. However, I don't think my ultimate, freely-chosen choice, whether I choose to write a little note of affection on yellow, green, or blue paper will cause tests or trials.
Doesn't it say somewhere in the Writings that those in the afterlife can influence the goings-on of this world? I know that we can say prayers for the deceased, and that, supposedly, can be felt by those on THAT side of the thin membrane (right?); aren't we, too, affected by the actions (choices made) by those in the next phase of life? Perhaps we'll be able to choose, freely, to give gifts (of some sort or another) to our loved ones still here in this wombworld. Maybe we won't require tests and trials in the same way we do here. Maybe this seems like it 'limits' our choices, if we can only choose 'nice' actions, but it's not as if we really can choose to do ANYTHING we want here, either. I can't just choose to spontaneously give birth to a child, for example. So far, I can't move things around with my eyes.
Anyway, I guess I'm just trying to say that I don't know if an absence of tests and trials necessarily equals an absence of free-will. Sorry if I've rambled; I'm t-i-r-e-d.
Ben
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I'm no authority, but it seems to me that, even though I think it's pretty safe to say that tests and trials result from free-will choices that we make, not all options that we freely choose from are necessarily good vs. evil. When I give a gift to my children, a gift that I've created or bought, there's a whole-lotta free-willing going on in that process. However, I don't think my ultimate, freely-chosen choice, whether I choose to write a little note of affection on yellow, green, or blue paper will cause tests or trials.
Doesn't it say somewhere in the Writings that those in the afterlife can influence the goings-on of this world? I know that we can say prayers for the deceased, and that, supposedly, can be felt by those on THAT side of the thin membrane (right?); aren't we, too, affected by the actions (choices made) by those in the next phase of life? Perhaps we'll be able to choose, freely, to give gifts (of some sort or another) to our loved ones still here in this wombworld. Maybe we won't require tests and trials in the same way we do here. Maybe this seems like it 'limits' our choices, if we can only choose 'nice' actions, but it's not as if we really can choose to do ANYTHING we want here, either. I can't just choose to spontaneously give birth to a child, for example. So far, I can't move things around with my eyes.
Anyway, I guess I'm just trying to say that I don't know if an absence of tests and trials necessarily equals an absence of free-will. Sorry if I've rambled; I'm t-i-r-e-d.
Ben
On 6/5/06, Tim Nolan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Abdu'l Baha has written:"". . . the tests and trials of God take place in this
world, not in the world of the Kingdom." (Selections from the Writings of
`Abdu'l-Baha, p. 194)If there are no tests and trials in the next world, does that mean there is also no free will? Most of the troubles in this world are the result of people exercising free will.I do not mean that all troubles are due to malevolence. But, aside from natural disasters, the great majority of our pain and difficulties are the result of someone using free will.If souls have free will in the next world, how is it possible that there are no tests and trials there? It seems likely to me that we will not have free will in the next life.What do others think?Tim Nolan
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