Is it that God "CAN'T or WON'T" interfere with man's free will?

Question

Because we know one thing for sure, he obviously DOESN'T. Every horrifying thing which could ever occur has and still does all over the world and God still does absolutely nothing, never did and never will to save even one life.....well, except Jesus, that one we know because the bible told us how he allowed thousands of babies and children to be slaughtered except for that one.

So if he interfered in the bible,
why do so many say he 'can't' interfere with free will anymore?
He obviously interfered before....it's written down in your book.

Answer 1

Won't. It says that God gave man free live. What he gave, he can take away. When I was young, my pastor told me that God gave man free reign over the Earth for a certain period of time. I can't remember exactly what he said, (it was a LONG time ago) but maybe you could ask someone at your church about it.
As for saving Jesus...
I think even God must have maternal instincts.

Answer 2

You started off with the assumption that we have free will, i.e. the ability to look to God for salvation, and you got answers that conflicted with each other. This is because it ends up being a false dichotomy if we do not have free will in the first place. Calvinism supports this concept, and makes this question go away completely since we are guilty and do not deserve heaven anyway. Therefore make any decision that you want, same destination, and God MUST interfere in a positive way, i.e. rescue, i.e. salvation, that foreknows, predestines, calls, saves, justifies, keeps us, and brings us to eternity. This makes free will a bad thing, and "interference" in spite of ourselves, a good thing. We are the ones that have long since lost any possibility of pursuing a relationship with God on our own. God would have been fully justified in letting us all perish in our sins.

So I guess this makes my answer a "can and must" rather than a "can't and won't" per your question.

Answer 3

I understand your frustration.

People can make things very confusing.

It was in God's plan to keep Jesus from Herod's sword, but remember that God did not spare His own Son from the cross.

It's a bitter thing to witness so much tragedy on the news. We don't take much notice when one or two people die at a time. But when several die at one time, we ask "where was God?" In our minds it's easy to call God into question for what we believe is a lack of intervention on his part.

It's not the number of casualties that's the issue. Death is a tragedy whether one dies in obscurity, or many die publicly. They all matter to God. So where was God during tragedy? He was exactly where each person involved wanted Him to be.

Many want to push God aside in their day-to-day lives but suddenly find religion when there's a crisis.

God won't interfere with our free will. If He did then it would cease to be "free" will by definition. God gives us the dignity of choice. This is the only way we can love Him and each other. There is no love where there is no choice.

The bible states "It is appointed for man once to die and after that the judgment." Everyone dies at their appointed time. We don't understand it when people die unexpectantly, according to our schedule.

No one can say with certainty that God never intervienes in peoples lives, since people not dying doesn't make headlines. If God saved your life in the past, would you always know about it?

I know your heart hurts. I know your seeking an answer. Remember, we are living in a fallen world until the day of restoration. This life will cease one day. We have the free will to decide how to spend our days. I intend to spend mine increasing in knowledge, wisdom, and love. And like you, I'll never stop asking questions.

Answer 4

The philosophical rationale is that a supreme being, God, cannot act in an illogical manner with respect to that being's divine and perfect attributes. Hence, God cannot make a rock so big that He could not move it, nor could God do anything that would be a logical contradiction to His divine nature.

Omnipotence means God can do everything **that is possible** within the boundaries of a supreme being. Omnipotence doesn’t mean that God can do anything. The concept of omnipotence has to do with power, not ability per se. In fact, there are many things God can’t do, for example,

- God can’t make square circles.

- God cannot lie.

- What God has created in His image, God cannot annihilate (to erase from existence, to destroy completely).

-**God cannot create a morally free creature that couldn’t choose evil or the creature would not be morally free to choose.**

None of these, though, have to do with power. Instead, they are logically contradictory, and therefore contrary to God’s rational nature.

God cannot cancel the free will of a person. God cannot act such that the person with free will is no longer a morally free person. When we carefully read about God's actions in the bible, we find that God is acting in accordance with how a person, or group of persons had already and freely chosen to behave.

Answer 5

free will has nothing to do with god or with heavens...
Man is condemned to make a choice in every second of his life. Some choices are good for him and some arent. Whether he is fully aware of the consequences of his choices is more important than whether he has free will or not. He may sincerely think that the option he chooses is good for him and for mankind but it may come out the other way around. At such cases he cant be held responsible. The problem is that most of our choices are made in full ignorance of the consequences.

Answer 6

Because God is Truth, and truth cannot contradict truth; God cannot do anything that is contrary to Himself.

The examples you give do not stand up to scrutiny. Raising Jesus was not against Jesus will. Inspiring the authors of scripture was not against their will - it was a gift accepted by the authors. So on and so forth.

Since scripture tells us that God is Love, and love cannot be forced - otherwise it is not love - then God cannot take away our free will. It would be contrary to His Divine Essence. If God forced somebody to do something, that would be against free will, and free will is the crux that love lives or dies on. Without free will there is no love.

I know it's complicated, but I hope that answers your question.

Answer 7

Remember 9/11, Where was God? He was Right there. 10s of THOUSANDS could have been killed, but only about 3,000 did. God allowed SATAN to be ruler of this cruel and wicked world. Satan will do what he wants. Jesus will come back SOON, and we'd better be ready, becuase then, he'll be closer than ever.

Answer 8

I have always had a problem with "free will". I am reminded that the only writing that comes down to us from Jesus is The Lords Prayer. It is quite explicit regarding free will. There is that one line that seems to settle the problem: Thy Kingdom come, THY will be done on earth as it is in Heaven". It really does not say anything about Man's free will.

Answer 9

Wow, deep question, one I am sure many of us have had before, including myself. I for one have decided not to question what "God" thinks or why he does or does not do anything about our plight in the world. That is ego talking. It an area I personally choose not to go to, because I don't think "man" can know the mind of God, we want to, but we can't. Oh, now you got me thinking about it...

Answer 10

Don't you get it? That book is entirely man made fiction!

They had stories of God. Today we have stories of Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Wonder Woman, etc! We got even better fictional characters! They are no more real then this God is but they make far more enteraining stories!