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Free will
If God is omnipotent (all-powerful) and omniscient (all-knowing), how can humans have free will? Doesn’t God already know what is going to happen? Didn’t he decide to make it happen that way?
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:03 am
This is a very tricky topic to talk about. As a precursor, I will honestly say that I don’t completely understand it. I just know what the Bible says, but don’t necessarily understand the whys.
Saying that, I believe it’s important to make a distinction between knowing what’s going to happen and making it happen that way. God knows everything. I agree. However, God didn’t force it to happen that way. I mean, the way I see it, why would God have wanted all of this to happen? It just doesn’t make sense. A God that loves us and is pained with the fact that not all of us know Him because we are separated by sin, why not just snap His figures (so to speak) and make that not happen? The reason I believe is because God doesn’t work that way. Just like we don’t want forced love, God doesn’t want to force us to love Him. God doesn’t just want “meat robots” (thanks to skeptic Jon for the phrase).
Also, having the negativity in this world and the suffering that goes on in our lives helps us to see God and His goodness more. It’s easier to understand something that’s good when we have something bad to compare it too. In fact, there could be no good without a bad, just as we could not understand the meaning of light if there were no shadows, no places where light was absent.
January 24th, 2008 at 1:20 am
The issue of free will is as clear as mud.
I’ll start off with that.
Let’s start and assume certain things. We’ll assume that the Bible is true and that there was a garden named Eden where man first sinned.
To answer this question, it’s crucial to understand the reason why man was created and we were created by God with the hope that we’d choose Him over every other thing in this world.
So God plops Adam in the garden and later on plops Eve in the garden. The fact that He leaves a way for them to sin (i.e go against what He will) is a decision that He makes out of love. He pretty much says “I will give you a choice to choose me and accept the consequences that come with that” or “You can choose the things that I don’t stand for and accept the consequences of that.”
So that’s the basis of free will.
With regard to whether God knew what would happen or not. Yes He did. Now, God is outside of time (how can you be controlled by something you created) so when He sees history, He sees it beginning to end. He knows every possible combination of choices that we can choose, but He is outside of time and doesn’t plan that we’ll sin. He knows everything that we will go through like the author of a book knows what will ultimately happen. That’s why the Bible is one long story; the fall of man to his redemption.
Hope that helps.
May 26th, 2008 at 11:54 am
If God is omnipotent (all-powerful) and omniscient (all-knowing), how can humans have free will? Doesn’t God already know what is going to happen? Didn’t he decide to make it happen that way?
God is also love and giving us free will is an act of His love. It would be unfair and controlling for God not to give it to us since we will be like robots. God is also outside of time which is why He knows the end from the beginning. Even though He knows it, we as humans, are bound by time and do not know.
As humans, we are free to do what we want to, and God has provided us with a manual (The Bible) to help us do the things that please Him, glorify Him, and honor Him. That is one of our purposes in life as a Christian. It is our choice if we are to obey or not. God also tells us of the consequences for disobedience.
With all kinds of actions/activities in the world today due to the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, God gives us His commands in the Bible for our protection. What God says NO in the Bible, we are NOT to do or there will be consequences.
In conclusion we have free will, but we must exercise our free will according to what the Bible teaches us. Discipline and serious consequences await those who disobey.
God Bless