How can God "want" anything?

Question

I keep reading answers by christians who say that god can do whatever he wants, or chooses, or desires to do but that language implies a few things about god that make him smaller than you're supposed to believe he is. first of all, if god is omniscient and omnipresent then there is no "choice" to be made. god cannot desire to do two different things since he already knows what he is going to do. second, to want is to not already have. if god can do anything then he cannot want anything. or desire it. finally, for now at least, to do things or to want or to think or to choose all put god inside a linear timetable, that is to say that if god is capable of wanting and choosing between options laid out before him and then acts on them according to their timing then he is smaller than time itself. nothing in the bible says that god is NOT inside time and the very fact that he's referred to as eternal (a time word) shows that he probably is. So, can god actually "want" anything?

I'm not limiting your god, i'm pointing out that a god who "wants" things cannot exist as you believe your god does.

BACABABY,

"There is a difference. It is seeing into the future, and knowing what is going to happen, and then letting it happen."

and how can god see into the future if he is not stuck inside linear time. once again, all the clues point to god being inside time so there really is only one obstacle to overcome: god can't be inside the paradigm of time because that would make something bigger than him that has existed as long as he.

TONY, what i'm saying is that IF god wants something then he doesn't have it at THAT TIME, making him inside time. if god chooses something he is again stuck inside time. if god is inside time then time itself (which is a dimension of our existance) is bigger than god and has existed for as long. Also, god CANNOT choose one thing over another. you say you choose to have a cookie, and that's fine, god cannot choose whether or not to have the cookie because he already knows that he will have it. there is no other option. choice implies weighing out the pros and cons of a potential. god cannot weigh pros and cons because he already knows what the perfect "choice" would be. your description of god is a man sitting on a cloud watching time unfold and making some very difficult decisions and wanting more than he has... besides, if god can make choices then he could potentially make mistakes. unless you say that because god is perfect he can only "choose" perfection.

Answer 1

Its all part of the logical knots that Christians are entangled in because bronze age men in the desert really weren't all that up on science and philosophy. They had very little idea of what infinity actually means.

Answer 2

First off - The bible wasnt written FOR God. It was written for HUMANS. We cannot conceive of a world without time. God had to create a definition for "timeless" that we could understand. He is not bound by words, time, earthy laws, etc.

Second - The fact that God knows everything does not mean he doesnt have a choice. God already knows the choices he is going to make. There is a difference. It is seeing into the future, and knowing what is going to happen, and then letting it happen. God is not bound by this, as he already has "chosen" a time when he will end time on earth. Now he is just waiting for the time he already chose.

How can Gods attributes make him not able to "want" or "desire". I think thats ludacris! Again, God is not bound by our small ways of thinking.

Answer 3

2 Peter 3:9 says that God "desires all to attain repentance". If one were to desire something - I agree that that means it lies out of ones control. The only thing this proves, however, is that humans have a freedom of choice to serve God or not to and that decision is each person's own. God cannot make that decision for someone. This is the only thing I can find that God "wants" or "desires" in the Bible.

Answer 4

We choose because we have free will.

God knows the future of what the free will creatures choose. Free will does not stop becoming free because God knows what will happen.

God's knowing what we will choose is a function of His omnipresence since He is in all places all the time. If He were not, He would not know what choices were were freely going to make. To deny that God is all knowing, even of the choices we make, is to deny His omnipresence and reduce God's nature to something more like ourselves, which would be a mistake.


Past, present, and future are concepts and realities created for us, not God.

Answer 5

I'm sorry I did not know humans had the power to decide whether God can want something or not. Lol. Anyways, God gave us free will, because he rathers we love him sincerely instead of robotically. Just like any father, no one wants their children to love the parent because he has to, compared to because he wants too. So God made us with free will and wants us to love him sincerely.

Edit: I think I missed something from your escription about God knowing what is going to happen in the future. Do strong men lift everything they see? No, but they have the power to do it. Does God foresee everything that he will do and that will happen? No, but he has the power to do it.

Edit number 2: God cannot exist because he wants something? Lol, God can do literaly whatever he wants, there are just some things he decides to do or not do. If he decides to want something, then he wants it, is there something wrong with that? Does your description make God have to not want something? God can do whatever he wants, and if he decides not to do what he wants, he has that freedom. I want a chocolate chip cookie, but I am not going to get one from my pantry, because I decided I am going to sit here and answer your question.

Answer 6

God wants obedience from His creation. Even your Salvation is justified by obedience. Unless you believe in His son as your Savior, even if you say I believe in God will not do.

After all- many false gods appear but do not have Christ as the identifier of the true God. All false religions like Islam, Buddha, Hindus' many evil looking gods, all deny and rebuke Christ which points to Satan as their origin.

If you still doubt the deity of Christ - you will die lost - eternal separation from God.

Answer 7

God is a just and righteous God. He could have made everyone perfect and sin free, and worshiped Him as preprogramed robots. But there is no glory or reward in that.

God wants people to come to Him willlingly, love Him freelly, and worship Him from the depts of their heart.

Answer 8

God is love, He wants you to answer to His love, but that's up to you , He's perfectly happy in Himself anyway because He is a communion of love, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, you're just invited.

Answer 9

yeah! so god "wants" us all to be saved and he "wants' us to do it by our own free will. so he is not omnipotent by definition or he could easily make us "want" to be saved.

he also could choose to make things easier for those of us with brains and stop leaving so many conflicting writings laying about without a scrap of hard proof to back up any of them.

i guess he didn't "want" to do that though...

Answer 10

I think what you have noticed is just a week linguistic feature of the English language. As far as my understanding of God goes, if he (wants!!!) something he just says: Be and it is.

Do not take it literally!