If everything we do is part of God's plan, how can he say we have free will?

Answer 1

Yah exactly,,if he knows what we will do,,and he can "stop" us whenever he wants,,where the hell is our free will?

Answer 2

I think the distinction of 'permissive' will helps, so God knows all, and even if it is 'wrong' or a poorer choice, He permits it. Such as in the Garden with our first parents, he gave them a chance to freely choose, but when they chose for the worse consequences, He let them be to experience the consequences, but even so He had a greater plan to recover us from this poor choice of our parents. So He let the Chosen People choose but with consequences even when they knew better too. So when He finally sent His Son, He again permitted 'us' the ultimate sacrifice of His Son, the Lamb as prefigured. Our choices were very cruel and extremethen but He let them be, and turned them around to save us if we choose well. So we can choose to go to Hell or turn away from God, or try to follow. That is our free will. He offers and we have a choice. Because the consequences are different depending on our choice doesn't mean we didn't have a choice or free will. We need to educate our 'free will' as often we are not acting out of a real choice, but only drifting. But free will just means choice, and we have that, and as long as we live/breath we can correct or atone for poor choices. God writes straight with crooked lines, and life here is like the back of a tapestry-not pretty, but when we see the other side, very beautiful. Hope this helps a little. God knows but doesn't force us, and often uses our 'errors' to help us learn better the next time while we still live and breathe. DNA is God's plan but how varied?

Answer 3

Not everything we do is part of God's plan. Sure, He knows that we make mistakes, and that puts us out of the "plan". Our free will is in what we do, which God does not have control over. Like one of my pastors said, "We have a choice in whether or not to believe in God, and He doesn't force us to love him." That's our free will. We don't have to follow what He has in mind or even believe He exists, and a lot of people don't. But if you're a true Christian, you'll understand that the choices we make within our relationship with Christ IS our free will.

Answer 4

There's not one scintella of evidence of a pre-ordained plan. What makes a person stand out anyway?

Greatness may last a thousand years for a few and eternally for none. On the scale of earthly time, individual lives are but mere blinks of an eye. We're born, we live, we die and then you're not heard from ever again. There might be a tombstone or family tree made with your name on it, but eventually the tombstone weathers from age and who knows what media your family tree will be used. All the memories and accomplishments will be totally forgotten, unless you're a Hitler or Alexander the Great type person.

In a thousand years, your bones will be dust and no other trace of your existence will be seen, unless, of course you become fossilized for some reason, but even then, after thousands of years more, that will be disintegrated into dust. We influence the lives of our children and others, but they too will eventually die. So what's the point of living?

In astronomical terms, the Earth will eventually succumb to the supernova of our Sun, it's an astonomically certainty the earth will be burned to a crisp.

So does death render our lives meaningless. If we were immortal, that would be the ultimate in boredom, repetition, day after day, of doing the same thing for thousands of years (hundreds may be OK, but nothing beyond that)....but i digress, back to your question.

It all boils down to how creative we can be in the short period of time we have on this earth....Our activities (ie, free will) need to be worthwhile for their own sake, not because they fulfill some supernatural transcendental purpose....LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST DAMNIT, YOU WON'T GET A SECOND CHANCE!!!!

Answer 5

In all reality, God's will is His word, which is the Bible. As ourselves, we can choose to do His will, if we are doing what is in His word. When we give our lives to God, he can't make us do his will, but He can tell us the right decisions to make (whether we take the advise or not). We do have free will and can do whatever we want, but God had a better plan for us before we were even formed in our mothers' wombs. Everything we do isn't God's plan.

Answer 6

I don't think everything we do is part of God's plan. He has a plan for us that would make us happy but we need to be still and listen otherwise we are just listening to the voice of the ego. We have free will in the sense that we can choose to listen or not. God created our will free but we imprison it.

Answer 7

Not what WE DO, but what happens to us, is part of God's plan, We have free will to do what we want according to the choices we have every day

Answer 8

To put it simply, He is all knowing and all seeeing, and He created time as well. Think of it as everything happening at an instant and everything point in time at once. God is an enigma, and beyond our comprehension - yet he cares and loves all of us.

We have free will to choose to believe or not. What else is there? This is a perpetual argument, like time travel, or what is the deal with the platypus or dinosaurs?

Another question in a long list to ask when I see Him someday.

Answer 9

Because I believe just because its part of his plan does not mean we always follow it...this is how we can say we have free will...I am sure that it is not in gods plan for anyone to be an addict, or to be verbally or sexually abusive to anyone...these are choices we make on our own....god has his own ideas of what we should do and say and how we should be but not everyone does what god has intended for them.

Answer 10

You do have free will, God's plan is for you to do what you want to do with your life it's all about you it all depends on what you want to do. God will throw some curves or put some obstacles in your path and it is up to you to choose what you will do. You put this question for every body to express their opinion and why did you do it? because you chose to do it out of your own free will. Don't think you don't have free will you have had free will since the day you were born you chose to come out into this world, no wait actually that was your mom's choice to push you out of her body. see that was your mom's choice, her free will to have a son "you". We all have free will we all make our own decisions. The people that placed their opinions for this question they did it on their own free will nobody stopped them nobody force them to do it.

Answer 11

God doens't map out our lives. He doen't pull strings like we are puppets. Although He certainly has the power to do so, He gives us "FREE WILL" to live our lives the way we choose. We have the choice to decide if we want to follow His plan for our lives or not. This is what's called 'free will'
When we get to decide for ourselves.
When you graduate college, you have a plan for you life.
You still have the choice to decide if you want to follow through with that plan, or give it up for something else.

For example you may plan to become a fashion desinger but then you are in a horrible car crash and have trouble even walking. You get to decide if you want to continue your plan or chuck it. If you want to work hard enough to continue your plan or not.
That's called free will.