Does God have free will?

Question

If god does have free will, It goes against the christian teachings that goes has a plan and knows everything that has been and everything that will be. If god does not have free will he is not an omnipotent God as held by Christians, he is not all powerful, all knowing and his actions are all predestined, and god is not able to make any choices, making prayer useless. I also have the question of our own free will. If we have free will, then god doesn't know what we will do. If this is the case than god again is not an all knowing god.

In Christian theology, God is described as not only omniscient but omnipotent; a notion which some people, Christians and non-Christians alike, believe implies that not only has God always known what choices individuals will make tomorrow, but has actually determined those choices. That is, they believe, by virtue of his foreknowledge he knows what will influence individual choices, and by virtue of his omnipotence he controls those factors.

Answer 1

The standard definition of omniscience is 'knowing everything, regardless of space or time'. This means that one who has this knowledge knows everything. Absolutely everything - what has happened, what is happening, and what will ever happen. What I'm trying to say, is that if God was omniscient, he would know the future.

If the future can be known, it is a set path. It is going in a specific direction. If all of our futures are going in a predetermined manner, free will is nothing more than an illusion. You might decide to get up out of your seat and set the neighbour's cat on fire - it might feel like free will to you, but God knew it was going to happen, so you were merely following the predetermined path.

So either god is omniscient OR we have free will.

If God is omniscient, and our free will is nothing more than a precalculated progression of time, how can we possibly be judged, rewarded or punished for our sins? After all, we have no real choice.

If we have true free will, then by the arguments above you agree that God is not omniscient. And the very state of not having an ability voids out the possibility of him being omnipotent - all powerful. If you were all powerful, after all, you'd have the power to be omniscient.

Conclusion: In a universe containing a truly all-powerful and/or all-knowing entity, true free will and randomness cannot exist.

Answer 2

1. This seems a non sequitoir to me. The logic doesn't follow. If there is a plan, God probably made it, which doesn't disallow His/Her free will. It, in fact, supports it, as it is His/Her plan.
2. We are supposed to have free will, and that was God given. Our captivity is not from God, most likely.
3. Even with free will, if God IS omnipotent, and IS the only one who knows our hearts, then, of course, He/She's have a pretty good idea of what we will do every single time.
The Bible, for instance, refers to being in captivity over and over. God seemed to foresee that man would be constantly attempting to control his environment and other people, rather than himself.
While I believe the Bible to be true, I also believe that we must look at a fuller picture of many different religions and their writings, and the terrific leaps in physics we are now making, as well as medical science, and the exploration of our universe to truly grasp fully the nature of life--not that we can even yet do this. Other religions, such as the Hindus, seem to have had a closer link and deeper understanding of man's relationship to and the forces in play in the universe and on this planet.

Answer 3

Like I said on another question God is perfect and holy. Just because man screwed up doesn't mean He has to change the rules to fit man.
God does have free will He could have ended mankind as soon as Adam and Eve sinned, but if He did that, then that would mean He was not perfect or holy. It would mean He made a mistake. Instead He set into motion what would bring it back into perfection. That He did not destroy man right off the bat was love. If you are a parent then you can understand how hard it is to stand by and watch a child make a mistake and have to let them learn their lesson. He gave the Jews laws and animal sacrifices to temporarily remove sin. He gave us Jesus to permanently remove sin. He gives us time to make a choice if we will accept the gift He gave us. Time will run out eventually.

Answer 4

The answer to your question is simple.

The Bible tell us that God say's of Himself:

"That Gods ways are not our ways, neither are Gods thoughts like our thoughts. For as high as the heavens are above the earth so are Gods ways above our ways and Gods thoughts above our thoughts"

That was the OT answer, here is the NT answer in Philippians Chap 2 vers's 5 thru 8. I'm not gonna type it, I'm gonna challenge you to read it.

In a nut shell it tell us Jesus was with God, and WAS God in Glory. But He freely did not equate himself to be equal with God. He freely chose to leave the applause of all the heavenly hosts, and come to earth and inhabit a human form.

Now this is where it gets interesting, God imputes sin on mankind from our first father Adam, He reckons us sinful because of Adams transgression, NOT EVES MIND YOU, but Adams.

Jesus, was born of a woman, but not a man. She was made pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit (and any God that could not do that would not be an all powerful God in my book, but that's another story). A HOLY GOD, no sin imputed there. A holy acceptable sacrafice, a God with the power and the free will to willingly expose himself to a death that you or I would cringe to think about, much less offer ourselves to.

God knew, God knew the night He told Nickodemas about how "God so loved the world.... THAT HE GAVE!!! His only Son." I'm sure you know the rest of that quote.

I feel for you, and you circular logic, I feel that you have been misguided by others that tell you a premise for denying the Diety of a Holy God, and yet you choose not to seek the answers in the Book of all Books.

The B, I, B, L, E, yes that's the book for me. Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth yep that's what it is.
up for the challenge?
all 4 now B

Answer 5

I said this play and that i bear in mind the "verdict" from the three "judges" discovered 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 grow to be no longer solely the God of Abraham and of Israel. to respond to your question, how might want to Hitler fare if he grow to be in God's court being judged through God's regulations? If I were element of the jury, i might want to be compelled to herald a verdict of to blame depending on the actual actuality he committed genocide (to the music on some 6.5 million human beings) and, because you factor out the ten Commandments, broke all of them as well. notwithstanding, none all of us is perfect. all of us sin. that's in simple terms that some human beings be conscious of it even as something else are in denial. lack of understanding is under no circumstances an excuse. Ever tried telling a site visitors cop that you probably did not be conscious of you've been in a 30 miles in line with hour constrained section once you've been clocked doing 40? Like, you probably did not see the line lights or the advisory speed reduce warning signs in the previous you got here into the outfitted up section? that you've been in a hurry and what you're promoting grow to be more advantageous major than the existence of someone you would possibly want to kill? the reality is we refuse to take responsibility for our movements - for my section and together. on condition that lack of understanding of the regulation is under no circumstances a defensible excuse, perchance we ought to continually be paying more advantageous interest to God's regulations in the previous we come across ourselves answering to God for our movements.

Answer 6

God is free, life is unfair. This is why God, even within the Christian tradition, is mysterious.

Answer 7

You are right, there is no way to reconcile an all-knowing God and man's free will, unless man is so damaged that he is incapable of seeking out God. Only by giving up our side can we begin to see God's side of things.

Answer 8

The only thing God cannot do is deny Himself. He never changes. Yes, we have free will and God does know that we will sin, He knows our thoughts before we think them. He just chooses to let us find out for ourselves that He loves us. He will not force Himself on anyone, but He does have consequences for rejecting Him.

Answer 9

God has as much free will as those that dream him up want to believe he has.

Answer 10

God knows our future but doesn't control it, we make our own decisions..

God has freewill because he does what he plans to do, not what somebody else planned he would do.