Do you think freewill and a Creationist God are contradictory?

Question

If God created all including time, then wouldn't he stand outside of time and know all that ever was and shall be. Therefore making any "choice" you make an event that was/is and always has been?

Answer 1

Hi, an interesting question!

Of course this is just my opinion but I will give it a shot.

There are scriptural references pertaining to foreordination, foreknowledge, and predetermination that would at a first glance seem to support the idea that you are suggesting.

Then there are also references that explain that while certain people were called before they came to earth or foreordained to do certain things at certain times upon this earth, it is contingent up on their willingness and faithfulness to accept and carry out that roll. If they would not, there would be another raised up to carry out the plan of God.

We were sent here to prove ourselves, weather we would keep our first estate or not. It is our freewill or agency to choose to act in accordance with His plan or not.

As the creator of all he has knowledge of all, he as at times shared with prophet's through the quickening of their spirits, visions of the fullness of times.

So yes in a way, you may say that what you do or say and as a matter of "freewill" will not have an significant impact on the course of time and the outcome of God's plan, because if one fails to live up to his calling or foreordination, another is raised up in his place to accomplish the work of God. God knows our actions therefore has the ability to intercede as necessary.

However, as a matter of personal freewill or free agency, our decisions and actions will stand before us at the judgment for us personally and determine our next estate.

As for God standing outside of time, time as we understand it is a relative definition of measurement. Even the in translation of the creation story of Genesis it is acknowledged that the more literal translation would have been periods of time rather than the "days" as it now reads in the English translations. As a relative concept of measurement, God's time is likely not on par with man's standard of measurement.

Food for thought.

Answer 2

If "God created all including time", then Yes, I would agree with you.

However, God did not create "time"; man did. "Time" is nothing more than the measurement of the passing of events, a creation of man in his need to organize life. Existentialism has limited application here, and you're using it a bit too liberally to question the validity of religious belief.

Faith in God, which is ultimately what you're questioning, is a matter of "free will" (i.e. it is a conscious choice and a result of critical thinking and deductive reasoning), and "free will" is among the many things that God granted to man. There is right and there is wrong, and God gave man the ability to choose between the two.

Answer 3

An excellent question in temporal mechanics ...

Existing outside of time as God does, it would indeed be possible to see everything that time contains. The problem with your premise is this: Any choice requires more than one option and so it is no longer a linear event... now there are angles, so to speak. The fact that this "Creationist" God, as you call Him, exists outside of time means that He can see the choices that lay before you. The part we are missing is that He knows us... extremely well (one text says He knows the number of hairs on your head)... which means that he knows what choices we will make given certain circumstances...

A quick example (and glimpse into my childhood)... my grandmother kept a cookie jar on the kitchen cabinet and she knew me well enough to know that if she was in the dining room, I was not going to try to open the jar... however, if she was in any other room in the house (the dining room was the only one adjacent to the kitchen), I might try to open it... and the further away she was, the more likely I was to try to get into the jar.

So God's existence outside of linear time does not prevent us from having free will.

Answer 4

As a parent of a child most of the time one can usually tell what he is up to and what he is about to do next even though we give him limited free will (for example you can let him around the house but you don't let him out of the house). Similarly God is omniscient meaning He knows past, present and future. He gives us limited freewill. Ultimately this freewill is to love Him or to turn our backs to Him.

Answer 5

No I don't think that your statement is contradictory. Yes God does stand outside of time but never the less we still have that freedom to worship Him or not. Despite His knowledge of the outcome regarding our personal decisions. God does not force us to our knees, nor impel you and I to prostrate ourselves at His Holy feet.
We decide to worship Him, and He will create every opportunity for every man and woman to do so.
If we follow His way then we will do it on our own free will.Just because He already knows that does not mean that God has controlled our decision. God will control our decisions only ....and only when we surrender to Him! Before that decision or without that decision we are on our own.

Answer 6

I suppose so, but that's only in HIS realtive space, not YOURS.

According to Einstein when you travel fast in realtavistic space you grow smaller, age slower, but you can't measure or see this, because they shirnk with you.

You have to stand outside of your own time and space and view yourself from another perspective.

From inside the trolly the ball falls straight down. From outside the trolly it's a parabolic direction.

That's why Jesus said you can't pluck the cinder from your neighbors eye because you have this tree branch sticking out of your own. And Jesus said that 1,900 years before Einstein said almost the same thing.

Answer 7

Hey Dude, God don't stand outside of nothing.

Answer 8

Nope.
One thing God cannot create is true love.
True love manifests in beings of freewill.
God's in His wisdom knew sons of freewill would have to be held accountable by law.
We also choose to be righteous.
We choose;
good or evil,
light or darkness,
truth or lies,
Christ or Satan,
and eternal life or eternal death.

It's your choice, choose life.
~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~

Answer 9

Just because the result is known does not mean that there is no free will. Didn't you watch The Matrix?

Answer 10

Faith requires taking a leap. Do not question, just choose and be happy that you can.