Does God have free will?

Question

Many people say that God is omnibenevolent. Which is to say all-good. Whatever the best thing there is to do is, God is doing it.

The problem with this viewpoint is that it means that God has no choice. Whenever there are options, God MUST always take the most good one. If God ever failed to do this, it would be possible to exceed Him, something which most religious folks tell me is RIGHT OUT.

Without free will, God becomes an automaton. A force of nature. God cannot change His mind, because the decision about whether to do good or not is already made for Him - He ALWAYS will do it.

This leaves me between a rock and a hard place. If God is really omnibenevolent, then it makes Him seem more like an alien space robot (JHVH-1?) than an actual god. If God is not omnibenevolent, then how can we actually trust that He's going to carry through on the things He promised?

Any ideas?

Answer 1

if doing nothing but good is the alternative to free will, I'll take it.

Answer 2

Here's my opinion:

I would say that God does not have to think in the way we do. The thought process is directed with cause and effect thinking. If I do this then this will happen. God on the other hand always knows everything.

We are limited to thinking one thought at a time and to living one moment at a time. God is not limited by a thought process. He knows everything and has always known everything, no thought process required. This knowledge He has is truth. Truth never changes therefore He won't change His mind and become evil. The thought process may allow us to switch our decisions but if our knowledge becomes a constant (where we know everything at once, always) then our choices would always be the same.

So, God will always choose to do good because His 'mind' doesn't change. He always knows all sides of a situation and nothing is new to Him. If He was a changing God, the only way to change is to become worse by loosing the knowledge He has and becoming blind to the truth that He is. For God to change would be to become less than He is.

In my mind, free will is the only thing that makes sense. It is also logically sound, though many may disagree. How did God come to be? He didn't, He has always existed. How could something have always existed? This is the same question put into a different form. The 'how' question is trying to find a cause. A cause implies a beginning. God has no beginning. If something has always existed then it can't have a beginning (or it hasn't always existed).

Why can't matter have always existed? Because it would need something to cause to into motion. I don't have a problem with someone arguing that energy has always existed but they still need to explain how it started to move. Some say that it has always been moving. If it is always moving then there is always a moment before each moment. This moment before (the speed, direction, etc.) is the cause for the moment after. This means that each moment has a beginning. If we believe that everything that happens (starts) has a cause then there needs to be a constant first cause.

My only answer to this is that the first cause is free will (free choice). Free will has always existed (not created). Free choice is the ability to act without being forced by a prior cause. It is not a specific effect but a choice. Free choice is the only concept we know of that has no cause. (Everything that starts has a cause. Free choice has always existed. It has no cause but it can be the cause of a chain of effects.)

God has always had free choice. Possibilities for things have always existed. We may be limited by physical things but God is not. God made our limits. Impossibilities have never existed and can't exist. God cannot do something that is impossible. God can't create something that He can't move and still be able to move it. It contradicts itself because it is impossible.

I would say that God hasn't made our free choice but allowed us to share in it. Free choice allows for all possibilities that have always existed both good and evil. He can limit our freedom and does in some cases (gravity for example). If He wants us to be like Him, He can't force us to do good because in doing so He is taking away our free choice to choose it ourselves (He being good and free can't force us to be good and keep us free).

Answer 3

God is all good, all powerful, full of mercy and forgiveness, but He is also a jealous God, and He is slow to get angry...but He still gets angry.

God has a choice, of course, because He is God. He does whatever He pleases. (all this stuff I'm given you is scripture, by the way). He also will avenge His enemies.

We will never ever understand the true nature of God. Not fully, for it is too much for our minds to comprehend. We missed the mark on reaching Him, so He came down here as a man to reach us.

Satan has his power on this earth, but God has allowed it, because he doesn't want us to be robots, as you accused Him to be. He wants us to come to Him on our own free will.

Sure, He could just "poof" have everything the way He wants, but then, truthfully, that's not the way He wants it. He wants fellowship with us. He wants our love. He wants us to know Him.

God doesn't lie. God never changes. If you took the time to truly get to know Him, you would begin trusting Him. How often to you read His word? How often do you just sit and talk to Him? How often, if ever, do you listen to Him?

If you did these things, seek Him, abide in Him, you would begin to trust Him, and you would learn more about who He is, and you would never ever accuse him of being a robot or automation, or force of nature.

Answer 4

God is All Good but that's not to say he will not do things which would appear as evil - The destruction of Sodom, for instance, would be considered evil. The existence of pain and suffering in the world could also be considered evil.

The bottom line is, our peanut brains cannot fully comprehend the full magnitude of God. And while it's an interesting exercise to try, in the end, it's futile.

Answer 5

Yes, God has a free will and understands the concept of it. Having free will does not mean that you always exercise things against the standards you hold to however. God is not bound to do sinful things, like humans are, but has the free will to choose that which is right and good; being God, He will always do that which is right and good.

Answer 6

God has free will. He decides to do the best, he does not have to. Whatever God does or says is what is correct, because he is the king of everything. If God were bad, then bad is good, but since God decides to be good to us, and to be love, then that is what is good. God always has a choice to do whatever he wants, but his great love for everything makes him always do the good thing.

Answer 7

I observed this play and that i bear in mind the "verdict" from the three "judges" got here across God to blame of breaking his covenant with Israel. They concluded that the God of Abraham had made a clean covenant and that their God replaced into now not completely the God of Abraham and of Israel. to respond to your question, how could Hitler fare if he replaced into in God's courtroom being judged with the aid of God's rules? If I have been component to the jury, i could be compelled to usher in a verdict of to blame based on the fact he committed genocide (to the track on some 6.5 million human beings) and, on account which you point out the ten Commandments, broke all of them as properly. whether, none all and sundry is ideal. all of us sin. this is in simple terms that some human beings know it at the same time as something are in denial. lack of expertise is under no circumstances an excuse. Ever tried telling a site visitors cop which you probably did not understand you have been in a 30 miles in keeping with hour limited section once you have been clocked doing 40? Like, you probably did not see the line lights or the advisory speed shrink signs and indications formerly you got here into the geared up up section? which you have been in a hurry and your on line business replaced into extra significant than the existence of a guy or woman you will desire to kill? the reality is we refuse to take duty for our movements - individually and at the same time. on account that lack of expertise of the regulation is under no circumstances a defensible excuse, in keeping with possibility we would desire to constantly be paying extra interest to God's rules formerly we come across ourselves answering to God for our movements.

Answer 8

God is the same now, always, and forever. God never changes.

I think its a good thing. He loves everyone now, alwats and forever. How would you feel if your God decided not to like you one day, then your screwed, and it wouldnt be your choice then, it would be his, and that isnt God. God cannot error.

Answer 9

While God is omnipotent (all-powerful), He has chosen to live and define himself by His own set of attributes: perfection, holiness, faithfulness, righteousness, justice. God will never depart from these qualities that He is made of. Again, can God do anything He wants? Well, God can’t do evil. He doesn’t even have the desire to do evil. He can’t go against His character.

Answer 10

God cannot make choices that violate His nature.