If God is omnipotent he has the ability to know what you are going to do. Therefor you have to do what he has the ability to know you will do. Therefore you have no free will. Why do you keep saying God gives you free will. If he is Omnipotent it is impossible?
SG
2007-06-29 04:43:11 · 18 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Don't say he can do it because he is outside of time. You are getting into science fiction then. SG
2007-06-29 04:46:00 · update #1
Free will if often thought of in day to day terms of life, and yes, God can and would change the course of daily events if needed for the outcome of his overall plan.
Case in point: Pharohs heart was softening, God hardened Pharohs heart because it was not yet time for the people to be let free from bondage.
This is a case of God changing a daily event.
Most of the time, Free will, as it was designed for us by God, was designed so that we are not robots, fullfilling the needs of our creator without our knowledge and without question.
Free will, as given to us, is that God wants us to accept him or reject him.
If we do neither, we reject him.
We really only have two choices when it comes to the true meaning of Free will, as it pertains to God. Accept or reject.
The book of Romans in the new testament spells all this out much better than I can. I urge you to read it on your own.
2007-06-29 04:51:12 · answer #1 · answered by cindy 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I believe omniscient(all-knowing) is what your trying to talk about. Omnipotent(all-powerful) means God can do whatever he wants. What is so difficult to understand with regards to a superior being knowing what you would do beforehand and still letting you choose your path? Free will is the ability to decide without restricting you with full understanding that the consequences of your decision is yours alone. You can be warned, cajoled, and educated about the consequences(which God is doing all the time) but He gives you the freedom to decide. Life in this world is like a refrigerator. You've got all the goodies inside which your parents stocked for your use. The food in it can be good or bad for you depending on what it is you choose and how much of it you eat(God just knows what you'll take, he doesn't force it on you). In the U.S. we are more likely fat than slim because we decided that the pleasure of eating is more important than a healthy body.
2007-06-29 12:12:41 · answer #2 · answered by LC 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
SG, they will cling to their theology no matter what kind of logic you present. You should be bored with this by now. It's a shame to have to say that the atheists are closer to the truth you're seeking than the Christians are. At least one group will tell you that free will is malarky.
We do not have free will in the theological sense. It is damaged. God retains his omnipotence and He DOES NOT limit Himself. WE are the ones who are limited, or rather tainted, to the extent that we cannot look to God for salvation. We are saved by GRACE which precedes faith. It does not follow it.
2007-07-02 22:58:41 · answer #3 · answered by ccrider 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
God's omnipotence has nothing to do with our choices of free will. If God is omnipotent, then He has the power to delegate authority, and that's what free will is - the delegated authority to make our own moral decisions.
What you are really referring to is God's omniscience, not His omnipotence. To understand this aspect, you have to get out of linear mode. We live in linear time, where events happen "before" and "after" other events. God exists outside of time and space, and from His viewpoint, He sees the fullness of time continuously. Right at this moment (speaking in terms of linear time - God actually has no moments) God is seeing the creation of the universe. He is seeing Jesus dying on the cross. He is seeing my birth and death, and the births and deaths of my descendants in the 40'th Century. Therefore, God is seeing every choice of free will that I have ever made, and ever will make. God doesn't "know my choices before I make them", because for God the term "before" is meaningless. The point is, God sees my choices. But seeing someone make a choice is not the same as controlling that person's choices.
If I watch you make a choice from my perspective in linear time, my seeing you doesn't affect the freedom of your choice. Likewise, the fact that God, in viewing the totality of time, sees all the choices of my lifetime, doesn't have any effect on the freedom of my choices.
2007-06-29 11:52:49 · answer #4 · answered by PaulCyp 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I tend to believe free will is a myth, we don't have complete free will everything we choose to do is caused by something/someone around us or an experience that we have had. We make the choices to do but God created our personality and the situations. So in short God creates each individual with strengths and weaknesses and created the situations that correspond with our strengths and weaknesses that teach us about good, evil and the glory of God and in the end we will see his love, grace and glory. This life is for the sole purpose of teaching and preparing us for heaven.
2007-06-29 12:04:22 · answer #5 · answered by wiley16350 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Omnipotence has nothing do to with God's ability to know what's going on.
Your logic is flawed even if you had used the correct word.
My wife knew me well enough that even though I have free will, she knows I always want a certain type of pie on my birthday.
Because she knows me well enough, she doesn't have to ask.
Her knowledge of me does not mean that I don't have free will.
How much better does God know me than my wife?
That's why I have free will even though God know what I'm going to do before I do.
Pastor Art
2007-06-29 11:54:58 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
God is omnipotent which means, as you said, He has to ability to know as well as DO anything. But He chooses not to DO everything He CAN do... He also chooses not to know everything He CAN know. Part of being omnipotent is also being able to choose. If God could not choose, then of course He would not be omnipotent. He chose not to create everything He COULD create... Chooses not to display His full glory even though He can if He wants. He even chose to rest when He does not need to. Simply... He chooses not to know everything there is to know and thus we have free will.
2007-06-29 11:51:42 · answer #7 · answered by impossble_dream 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have been wondering how that works also.
To the best of my understanding, God chooses NOT to look at the results a head of time except for those things that will bring everything to completion as He has told us in the Bible.
Basically, He only looks a head at the Big Picture.
2007-06-29 11:51:57 · answer #8 · answered by tim 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
He doesn't make up thoughts in His head and then make you fufill them. (Although He has the power to...)He knows what you are going to choose to do. So there you go...It's your choice! Of course He has a plan for everyone's life but, if you aren't willing to fufill it, He can get someone else who will choose to do it with a good heart. He isn't forcefull (although He could be.)!!! Once you give Him control of your life (by choice) it isn't that He magically makes you do all this crazy stuff... it's that you want to choose to do what you know would make Him proud. He doesn't brainwash you or anything... It's totally up to you!
aka: it's at your own will! And still He has all the power!
2007-06-29 11:52:14 · answer #9 · answered by TRV 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You answered your own question, dear.
He's omnipotent. That means He can do whatever He jolly well wants to do.
Including, for the sake of love, consciously limiting His power in order for us to have truly free will.
2007-06-29 11:48:00 · answer #10 · answered by Granny Annie 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋