Does God have free will?

Question

For those of you that claim to know what he wants from us and define him in human terms such as omni-potent, Omni-science, benevolent. These are terms that cannot easily be manipulated by interpretation. If his being is indefinable by our feeble minds then why do you even bother trying to understand him? Isn't it useless to give him these characteristics?

Anyway, my point is if God has free will, isn't it possible for him to decide to torment even his loyal followers in Hell? Can't he inflict indescribable and unfathomable pain on all of us for all eternity? God does not abide by any rules does he? He can do anything he wants because he is all powerful and has free will right?

You can claim that he is all good, but then what is your excuse for him causing the death and torment on so many people in the past such as Job and others just to test them? So either he isn't all good, knowing, and powerful, or he doesn't have free will. What is your defense?

Answer 1

God can only act in accordance with his Character.

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Answer 2

This is one of the oldest, most powerful objections to God in the book. I recommend the second chapter of "The Case for Faith" by Lee Strobel. It's a dialogue between a Christian University professor and a skeptic. It's intelligent, yet basic enough that you don't have to know everything about the Bible to appreciate it and understand. But that's only if you really want to know. I get the feeling you are just trying to put an objection out there and you really don't want an answer. You want for God not to be all those things. You want for it not to be true.

I'll give it a whirl I suppose. I'm a newer Christian and I'm not an expert at these things.

I would have to claim that he is good and just. So onto the Job thing then. (You know this is Stephen King's major problem with faith too? Fun fact. Anyway...) In Christianity, the greatest joy is to know God and be close to him. Look at the attitude of Job. At the end, he wasn't complaining. He was glad because it made him a better person with a stronger faith and a greater value for what he had in life. God is the one who gave him life, health, and those belongings in the first place. If he needs to take it away in order to refine Job and to bring him closer to truth, love and wisdom, he is allowed to do that. He didn't understand at one point and asked God why. God replied, "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the Earth?" His point being, Dude, I know what I'm doing. You may not understand now, but you will later.
You assume that a good, loving God would only shower a person with good things. All that they desire, no suffering. If you did that to a child, the child would be spoiled rotten, lacking in compassion, sense and love. You don't do that. You teach with experience. Think back on the most influential occurance in your life that made you who you are today. Was it a happy time, or was it a time when you were tested as a person?
My favorite book, The Brothers Karamazov, includes an emotional chapter where a skeptical brother tells his younger sibling, who believes in God, that the existence of suffering children proves that the existence of God is an impossible thesis. He pretty much says, "Nothing in the next world, no matter how grand, how much it fulfills and how happy it makes you, can make up for all the suffering of the world. Your defense is that there is an unimaginable paradise where every tear is wiped away and everyone is comforted beyond their wildest dreams, with all the ideas for pleasure and love that God has saved for that time. I do not believe such a place is possible that can make up for the suffering in this world." To me that only raises the question- what if there is?

Without the possibility of hate, there is no possibility to choose love. The darkness is where the light shines most.

Honestly, the times I was closest to God, had all my priorities straight, and was the most compassionate, and listened to people more, were the times when I wasn't doing to well and all I really had to hang on to and talk to was God.

Answer 3

even free will is limited. God can make His own decisions, but in His form, as He is not human at this point, He is incapable of even having the potential of committing sin.

Yes God abides by rules. Here are some:
1) a Spirit cannot intervene in the lives of mankind without having a human body to work through, so the Holy Spirit is in us, so God can intervene.
2) Good and evil don't mix. No person of the Godhead has ever sinned.
3) The Spirit of God can only work with things ready to be made alive. A person is only saved if they are "born again". Sin is a "killer" to your good relationship with God.

If you notice, Job made it through his trial and prospered innumerably thereafter. And where do you get this "if God is good, why do bad things happen" stuff from? The Bible N E V E R said that bad things wouldn't happen. It claims bad things will happen, but they will work out for the benefit of His people.

and obviously not everyone is going to Hell. and who says those are unfathomable? Omniscient, omnipresent, omnibenevolent all seem pretty easy to understand....

you should really try reading a Bible once in a while. then you could answer some of your own questions.

Answer 4

Your question has many questions. Someone that has matured in the faith will hesitate to say that they fully understand everything about God. Some people need to know or at least think they know everything about God in order to believe in Him. Age and life's experiences has taught me that faith in God is more important than knowing everything. God never killed Job, He only allowed things to happen to Job, just like He does to us today. The writer of the book Job, interpreted it to mean that God told Satan, he could tempt Job, but not kill him. In the end, Job had more because of his faith than he did before the catastrophes happened. Today, we see that even though we too suffer temptations, disasters, and even death, there are countless people who are made stronger in these trying times. Do we fully understand God and His ways,,no maybe not. But do we reject all of that in which we do not fully understand. I would hope not. If you do ever read the bible, try to look past the words. You may be critical of the stories but the overall personality of God seems to be one of love. Also consider that it is just as ridiculous for you to argue with a christian over proof when you yourself have no proof that God doesn't exist.

Answer 5

For those who believe in the God of the Holy Bible and practise a relationship with Him learn that God is our Father. Similar to a good parent on earth, sometimes we have hard lessons to learn. We learn them not for his pleasure, but for our own good.

God showed us Himself in the Old Testament. Indeed, He was pretty strict; but not tortuous. He gives us rules and consequences; it is up to us as individuals to choose.

God also knew that we, being innate sinners, could not possibly live up to all His standards. Look at the flood; only Noah and his family were righteous and saved. God knew that by sending Jesus for those who choose to believe in Him would be the only way to everlasting life. We learn in the Bible that Jesus and God are one. We see how Jesus acted - loving, kind, patient. These are God's traits.

Obviously, I have not sited actual verses; nor gone in to deep examples. This is not the forum; nor do I have the time right now. I have no "defence"; but do suggest that learning about God and Jesus; and thinking about the world and man kind - not from your own eyes; but the Lord's might help give you a better understanding. Just as the children that we are to Him; there are simply things that happen that we will never understand or comprehend. This doesn't mean that we stop loving or believing. Very similar to our own relationships when we were small with our own parents. Except our earthly parents, being innate sinners make mistakes too; God our creator doesn't.

Answer 6

My deffence is God IS all knowing and he is good because as you said he would have killed anyone whos done something bad if he could.
God doesnt torment people, okay if someone is suffering then maybe they brought that upon them selves, other things like illnesses and natural desasters will happen and just because god is powerful it doesn't mean he stop you from dying because when it's your time it's you time.
We have free will and so does he, he knows what will come of our actions but that's OUR action he'll let us do that because thats the whole point

Answer 7

As a 700 year old Sasquatch (yeah, we do exist and believe in The Almighty), there is none other like Him, I cannot profess to know what He wants from us. We, (all of us) can only 'try' to understand!

God, as our creator, is All Powerful! There is nothing that He cannot do or make happen. He gave us, you and me, Free Will - even if that was not His original plan.

He does not decide our fate, we do! Stop blaming Him for our faults!

IMHO,

The Ol' Sasquatch Ü

Answer 8

GOD - G-good O-of D-devil when this devil of a Human being is converted to DEVINE predicted to be GOD. So how He can be wrong. Existence of GOD always felt & no Body on this Earth can say that he has seen GOD.
God is our belief which keeps us away from bad & brings us near Goodness. Birth- illness- Death is a natural Phenomenon so we have to bear it. Painful situation is a result of our own creation.

Answer 9

A classical theistic response would be that since God is simple, and not composite, all those characteristics coincide in God: freedom, knowledge, power, goodness. That is, the very concepts derive from cosmic realities which are reflections of, or participations in, God.

But I ain't buying it.

Answer 10

God does not need free will. Free will is the moral capacity to choose between good and evil. Or, to put it another way, the ability to choose or to reject God's will. God doesn't have to make a decision to accept or reject His own will; therefore He has no need of free will. Free will is an attribute God has given to humans.

Answer 11

What are you talking about, "His loyal followers"??? Tell me who is innocent and deserving of Heaven, Romans 3:11. Babies? Psalm 51:5. God would have been completely justified in letting us all die in our sins. But out of His Almighty purpose, He decided to save some, not all. But make no mistake, He owes Man nothing, and would still be called good if he tossed every one of us into Hell.

Know thy place, thou pompous inquisitor.