Freewill from God?

Question

I have a series of questions about one part of the bible. If God knows all; past, present, and future then why did God still allow Eve to disobey? The bible shouldn't say that we have free will and we are being tested by God if God knows what we're going to do. We are going to sin, God knows before we do. Doesn't He? According to The Bible.

Well, do we have freewill since God knows what we're going to do (sin or not sin) before we do?

Thanks in advance!

Oh, and this leads me to ask. "The Bible doesn't contradict itself." Does my question bring forth a contradiction?

Answer 1

Fate or freewill. Neither can be proven so you decide what you wish to believe. If you lack free will then your life, your choices, your desire to be good or not is meaningless. If you slaughter your family and burn down a school then this was because it was fated to be. Your not evil because you have no choice good and evil do not exist only a script somewhere that spells out every action you will take in life till your eventual demise. You cannot be judged because you never made a choice. You were and are a tool without any real purpose that matters. If you don’t accept that then you must accept free will. You are responsible for your choices.
We do not know the specific powers, limitations or lack of limitations that define God. Those who say God is capable of a thing or not are defining God and we lack the knowledge to do that. If a religion or person says God knows the future I challenge them to present the proof of that statement. They do not know what God can do or can't do. They are speaking from their hindquarters. If there is a God then by definition it’s abilities and motives are beyond our knowledge.

Answer 2

The problem you are struggling with is more complex than your example demonstrates. People do have freewill as a gift to us from God. That gift does make God partially responsible for the actions that we choose to take as He was the one who enabled the choice. That does not take the responsibility away from the person who made the choice as they still functioned within freewill as a individual who has to account for the use of the gift. To further complicate the issue, God has promised to not allow us to go through anything that we can not handle without an avenue to assistance. That means that He must first approve any action that takes place and that additionally makes Him responsible for allowing the action that took place while still not absolving the person who made the choice in the first place. Bottom line: People have freewill as a gift from God but are responsible for the choices that they make. God is responsible for the choices made by people acting in freewill as He gave them that option and He first approves those actions that are taken in freewill. Hope that helps.

Answer 3

What is love? I'm Native American and traditionals raise our kids this way, allowing most of the freedom they want right from the git-go but also allowing them to take their punishment for what they did. We guide, not force. The idea is to keep a kid from being wrecked (get an injury such or be otherwise harmed by the experience) by teaching and showing, not spankings (at least until the kid is old enough to know better, which our 'Adam and Eve' did not). We know what a child is going thru because we went thru it. God has infinite patience and infinite love because God is a parent. We're only babies on a learning curve. God wants us kids to become adults and trials and tribulations make adults of children.

Answer 4

If I can predict what you are going to do, do you still have freewill?

Free will is a tough subject. My own opinion is that God somehow allows us to do things that He prevents Himself from knowing in advance but then He sort of weaves our actions into the whole tapestry so that His purposes are accomplished anyway.

God's desire is for our love and love has to be freely given or it's not love. That is why Eve could disobey.

Answer 5

It is a common misconception that this life is a test. The Bible never makes even the slightest mention of that.

If I tell you that I see something you can't see, would you believe me? Example: you're in the street and a car is coming. I know this, you don't. The car is traveling at an incredible speed. I can see you are going to be hit and killed if you don't get out of the street. I warn you well in advance of the oncoming vehicle. You now have a choice. You can move to safety, or be mowed over. If you get mowed over, am I to blame, simply because I knew ahead of time? God is like that. How can you blame Him for His foreknowledge of something? You still have free will to do whatever you choose. Or would you rather not be able to think and decide for yourself? Would you prefer to be a mindless automaton, unwittingly doing everything God desired? Even God Himself didn't want that. He wanted children. People He could love, who obey because they choose to. Because they love Him. Not because they're forced to.

Answer 6

The perfect love comes with a choice. God made us in His image, that means that we know right from wrong. He did not push us here without Moral Law, He wrote it to our hearts before He gave us our free will. His Law was given to protect us.

Yes, God gave us our free will but it is never outside of the God's will. What comes to the afterlife we need to choose hell or heaven and accept the instructions.

He knows what we are going to do with our free will. He allows us to make wrong choices. Jesus died for all of our sins, past present and future. Sin is never going to be the reason if we separated from God in eternity when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and we follow His teachings.

Answer 7

Let's say you are accepted in a very good university to study. They accepted you because your grades were good, and think that you will do well. However, you decide to blow up the Library one day and get kicked out of school. Now, humans have the capacity for doing great things and horrible things. The university had hopes in you but You failed these hopes. God doesn't want robots. God doesn't test. He gave humans EVERYTHING on the earth, to have in subjection all the animals and even nature itself. The one thing he wanted for himself, one darn tree, to keep holy, humans couldn't keep their hands off of it.

Answer 8

If you've got an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent god, then you can't... and don't... have FREE WILL. Actually, omnipotence and omnipresence are irrelevant... 'Omniscience' is logically incompatible with 'free will', and is sufficient to put the lid on 'free will' all by itself. It is not necessary for god to intervene in order to negate 'free will' as a possibility.

If we really DO have 'free will', then an omniscient god is logically excluded. The logical fallacy lies in the premise that if god is omniscient, all outcomes are already known to god... everything that you think, decide and do... and everything that you WILL think, decide, and do.

For a (supposedly) omniscient being, all of existence over all of time is laid out as a tapestry before him... past, present and future, down to the smallest detail of material, of thought and of deed, and all is constantly in his awareness. There is no past, present and future from that perspective... there is only an eternal 'now'.

If that is the case, since god already knows everything that will happen, then everything is already decided... and as we go along through life, we are merely doing what has already been seen by god. Since god knows and sees everything that will happen, NOTHING that we think or do can be contrary to what god already sees and knows. We might THINK we have free will... but since we are merely acting out what god already sees and knows, then this can be no more than an ILLUSION of free will.

Put another way, if you come to a point of decision, you have no choice but to take the path that god already knows you will take... there is no other option. That works all the way down the path of cause-and-effect... and, along the way, it even casts doubt on the validity of the concept of cause and effect. I don't want to get into that, though... thinking about it makes my hair hurt.

So, imagine that since before time began, since before the universe came into existence, god has 'known' that you would come to a point of decision at some spatial and temporal coordinates, and that faced with the possible paths A and B, you would take path A.

Now, during the course of your life, you arrive at those spatial and temporal coordinates where this choice exists. You evaluate the potential outcomes, and you have it in your head that you have 'free will', and thus, you are free to choose between path A and path B. However, since god is 'omniscient', and god 'knows' that you will take path 'A', then path B IS NOT an option... it IS NOT a matter of choice. OF NECESSITY, you WILL take path A. Not 'must'... not 'can'... you WILL take path A. You DO NOT HAVE a choice. Path B is NOT an option... it is not even a POSSIBILITY. You can only have the ILLUSION that you are free to choose.

So, either god is omniscient OR we have free will. It is QUITE IMPOSSIBLE for BOTH of these conditions to coexist.

The only way out of this logical dilemma is to limit god's power; i.e., start taking away things that god can see and know, until we get to a point where free will BECOMES a possibility. But when we start doing that, then he ceases to be omniscient... and thus ceases to be a 'supreme being'.

So... free will is an impossibility concomitant with an omniscient diety. The following sums up the possibilities:

1. There is no omniscient diety... therefore, the whole argument is stupid and irrelevant (most likely).

2. IF we possess 'free will' AND god exists, THEN, of necessity, it is IMPOSSIBLE that god is omniscient. (This does not preclude the notion of 'god'... it just means that he can't be as 'supreme' as one might think he is... or wish him to be.) You are (logically) obliged to acknowledge that god CAN NOT BE all knowing... and since omniscience is one of the things that makes god 'all powerful', then this means that god CAN NOT BE omnipotent, either.

3. IF god exists AND god is omniscient THEN, OF NECESSITY, it is IMPOSSIBLE that that we have free will, and you are (metaphorically speaking) nothing more than a piece on god's eternal game board; and, thus, "... man is not responsible for his actions."

Personally, I vote for number 1. You can pick any one you want... but YOU MUST PICK ONE, because there are NO OTHER possible outcomes... NO OTHER logically valid choices.

It is unfortunate (for the Abrahamic death cults of desert monotheism) that the concepts of god were solidified as dogma a few thousand years before the philosophical discipline of 'logic' was dreamed up by the Greeks. Those that concocted the religion did not have access to the intellectual tools that would have enabled them to realize that they had 'screwed the pooch' with respect to assigning god their imaginary god his impossible attributes. It wasn't until the 4th century that this logical impossibility garnered serious attention, and churchmen got their theological 'dancin' shoes' on, trying to weasel their way out of the logical dilemma.

They did not succeed, and this issue continues to be debated even 'til this day. This logical dilemma (and the resulting 'cognitive dissonance') was a key element in some of the various 'heresies' that were spawned in the early days of Christianity.

However, the simple observation that these impossible beliefs still exist shows that this does not seem to have been a very big hindrance, under the simple expediency that "There is no problem so big that we cannot ignore it, until it will go away." Too bad for them, though... it DOESN'T go away.

Corporate religion is helped along by the fact that most 'believers' do not employ logic or critical thinking skills; heck... that's why they're believers in the first place. If they employed logic and critical thinking, they WOULD NOT BE believers. So, even though these concepts create a logical impossibility, it does not seem to present a significant problem for them.

Answer 9

From His love, God creates. From that love, God redeems sinners. From that love, He deliberately limits His own omnipotence. To give US free will, He holds Himself in abeyance. What we do with that freedom is our choice.

God does NOT interfere with the exercise of free will. Not for ANY reason. Your freedom is true and total within the bounds of your finiteness of being.

Since He does NOT limit His omniscience, however, He knows what you will choose, but since He HAS limited His power, He does not give Himself permission to interfere with either making the choice or with the consequences of that choice. Unless you ask for help, of course. But that too is your choice.

God does not direct you, manipulate or control you. He courts you for love's sake. He woos you. And all in green His love goes riding and falls *kerplop* at our feet. Now who can resist when they're loved like that!? Not me!

Answer 10

Free Will isn't free will, unless it is taken from God. Children don't exercise it, because they don't even know they have options. It's when you realize you have a choice, that Free Will becomes a big issue in your life.

The devil was given Free will, and that is why we are different from him. He didn't have a choice. He was created, to fail. And he's p....