Bible
Free Will
Free Will
"To the non-Christian, especially to atheists, they declare that if there is a God, and that God is all powerful and that he created us, that we would not have free will because God knows what we are going to do every moment until the day we die. Since God knows every detail about our future, then our future is set and therefore we can do nothing about it. This being so, then don't bother telling us about Jesus for we have no responsibility in the matter.
"The issue of free will does not come up nearly as often as the other topics. That is why it is last in my list. But it does come up. The issue is pretty easily solved. The statement that we do not have free will comes only from bad logic, more specifically, a simple nonsequitor."
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| # | Question | Answer |
| 1 | According to God, do we have free will? | Yes. And it is obvious from the Bible that God holds you accountable for the decisions you make. |
| 2 | In Ro 8:28-30, God knows the future, and has "predestined" some of us to become Christians, does that mean we do not have free will? | No. Foreknowledge does not imply interference. Putting it a more scientific way: Foreknowledge does not imply causality. Just because God knows our future does not mean that he has personally fixed it. For example, I know that the sun is going to rise tomorrow, but I did not make the sun rise. Likewise God knows which people will choose him ahead of time, but he has not interfered with the minds of people. God just simply knows. |
| 3 | But God has the power to fix our future and to treat us as puppets! | Yes. He does have the power to fix our future and to treat us as puppets. He chooses not to use that power. Even if I had the power to make the sun rise, that doesn't mean I make the sun rise. |
| 4 | Why does God not use his power to conform our wills to his will? The world would be a better place. | God does not treat us like marionettes because that defeats his goal for himself. He wants men and women to freely come to him, to freely want to live with him, to love him freely. In the Bible, God uses the groom-bride illustration to explain his relationship to his people. Like any husband, God wants his bride to choose him out of her own free will, to love him because she wants to. It is as simple as that. God, therefore, will not force himself upon anyone--for no husband wants a bride that does not love him. As for the second comment, "the world would be a better place," God first and foremost purpose is to build his own bride, not to eradicate evil. |
| 5 | God should just perform some giant miracle in the sky. Wouldn't that help people freely choose him? | No it wouldn't, and it also produces people who are attracted for the wrong reason. When you read about the miracles in the Bible, only a few people put their trust in Jesus on account of the miracles. Most of the time, miracles begat moochers. After Jesus miraculously fed the 5000 men, the only people who stuck around were his twelve original disciples who had been following him all along. While miracles are spectacular, they do not attract the bride. They attract spectators. Most people back then as well as now, just want to be entertained. Here's another example: The miracle of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead brought some people to faith, but at the same time others grew fearful and plotted to kill him. Miracles are not the method God uses to draw people to himself. So why did Jesus perform miracles? Every one of Jesus's miracles helped a person. The person is important to Jesus, not the miracle. |
| 6 | What then is the method which God draws his bride? | Just ask your wife. Humility, gentleness, compassion, love, self-sacrifice and adventure. Jesus is the definition of all that. |
| 7 | If I do not choose God, God sends me to hell. What kind of choice is that? | The same kind of choice as "You can either live on dry ground or submerged in the ocean." Live on land and live. Try to live in the water and drown. It is your choice of where you live, or die. God only sends you to hell if you request it. He has already warned you that that environment is not healthy to the human spirit. But if you insist on not wanting God, so be it. Hell is the place where God does not hang out. If you don't want God, hell is your ideal home. God designed man to live with him. That is our purpose. Life outside our designed environment is not pleasant. Jesus said, "I am the vine and you are the branches. Remain in me and I will remain in you." The vine is what gives life to the branches. |
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