If you lost the life of your child, is there anything you would not do or change if it meant your child would be alive?
When I am told God gave us Free Will to sin, I think of it as God gave us the freedom to eat rat poison if we wanted.
What loving parent would give their child the freedom to do such a thing? Isn't that why we lock it away?
It makes no sense to say a loving God gave us the freedom to commit unspeakable evil upon one another. No truly loving God or parent could ignore the potential consequences of giving that much freedom to an immature species/child.
2007-07-06 13:13:08 · 21 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
The doctrine of free will is a extremely hard doctrine to tackle. Nowhere in the Bible does it 100% say that man makes choices completely independent of God. The doctrine of free will is based purely on circumstantial evidence. I myself maintain more of a neutral view: I contest that while man obviously makes choices, humans are not smart enough to contemplate God's role in those choices.
Sometimes God interjects. Judas, for example, was possessed by Satan and enticed into betraying Jesus. He did not make the choice on his own. God enticed the Pharaoh to follow Moses. In other words, sometimes God is forced to intervene to keep things going the way he wants him to go, but other times, he just lets nature run its course. He created the world to work a certain way, and unless it will compromise his whole plan--that is, if you believe God has a plan--he lets things go according to the natural order.
Why did God create man with free will, you're asking? That's not a very good question. The better question is, why did God create man in the first place? I think it's because he was lonely and wanted friends. But what good is a friend if he or she is not your friend by his own choosing? Do you see what I mean?
2007-07-06 13:21:29 · answer #1 · answered by enarchay 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It makes more sense to have "free will" than to have a God that "forces" His beliefs down our throat. God did not give us "free will" to sin anyways. Sin goes against Gods will. Some are truly immature in their faith their whole life, but that is what makes God a loving God. If we choose the right path we are saved. The wrong path and we are doomed. Through life there are consequences for ones actions all around us. God did not give us the freedom to commit unspeakable evil upon one another. Satan gave us that. It all centers around greed. God gave us Compassion, God gave us Love, God gave us Everlasting Life. Take care in your quest. God Bless.
2007-07-06 13:24:28 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You've got it back to front. God gave us free will to choose not to sin. Sin is something we bring on ourselves. God could have wiped us out totally and didn't. Similarly He could have made us as automatons incapable of sin but He didn't. He made us individual human beings with the capacity to do good. To me it is a mystery why so many would rather sin especially when they do know the consequences. They either claim to be atheist and use it as an opt out clause or argue it to distraction hoping it will change. It is so much easier to surrender and come into the realisation that it's actually much more rewarding and fun not to sin. I take it that you are a parent. Would you not do anything to save your child, because in not teaching the love and salvation of Christ, you are guilty of putting a death sentence on your child.
2007-07-06 13:27:54 · answer #3 · answered by lix 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Throughout the Bible it talks about terrible things happening and that terrible things will continue to happen. In the old testament times (before Christ) God would try to be the parent and intervene, however people continued to revolt against him. At that point God sent Christ to earth to begin a new covenant and quit intervening in our lives. He did this because enough of man kind decided to push him away. This earth is not our home, we're just passing through. Some people get a ticket out of here earlier than others, some go more peaceful than others. Why? We'll have to ask God one day when we get to heaven.
2007-07-06 13:23:22 · answer #4 · answered by Matt 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
We are so much more than flesh and blood. Our precious gift is not free will but the eternal salvation that God himself provided us by offering his perfect flesh for our sins. We do continue past this world to the next and though a loved one may not be here they do continue on to the next world and are with our wonderful God. His flesh may have perished but his spirit is alive with God. May the God that loves you comfort and keep you.
2 Cor.5:8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
2007-07-06 14:37:59 · answer #5 · answered by djmantx 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
If we all wrapped our children in bubble wrap and refused to let them out of our sight, they would never make a mistake. . .but they'd never grow, either. They'd remain babies at heart, unable to make a decision or think for themselves.
Children (no matter how old they are) are going to make bad choices and dumb decisions. Things that hurt themselves and at times, other people, too. Should we keep them at the level of a baby for all their lives, just because they're going to make mistakes?
My parents gave me enough freedom to make my own mistakes, but they gave me something else -- the chance to listen to them and obey their rules until I learned enough to be on my own. God does the same thing with us. We can listen and obey, or we can refuse to obey His rules and make some hideous mistakes along the way.
My parents were very loving people. So is God. Free will doesn't mean that God said, "Hey, look, no rules." It means obedience to Him and trusting in the love of our Father in Heaven, even when things don't make a whole lot of sense.
2007-07-06 13:29:35 · answer #6 · answered by Wolfeblayde 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
free will was never meant to be permission to go out of control.
God gave free will but he also gave man intellect as well....he also gave his Word and divine guidance so that man could make an intelligent choice
an evil person with free will cannot be compared to an innocent child being given too much freedom....it is not children that commit evil, but adults.
2007-07-06 13:22:22 · answer #7 · answered by Marianne T 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Would you rather have a child listen to you because they loved you or because they feared you?
Wouldn't you like it to be under the condition of love?
That is what our free will consists of. If we obey, we do so because we love the person we choose to obey.
If we do it out of fear--how can you call that love?
But, in being fair, God had to give those who are evil free will too.
2007-07-06 13:23:34 · answer #8 · answered by Me 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
But He also gave us something else. A cure to the sin. Himself. We can't know why He did things the way He did, but we know this: that He loves us. That is why He died so that we could have the chance to have our sins forgiven. You make a very good point though. I guess we have to revert to the old phrase that so many atheists love, "have faith". It's all we can do. The human walk is not easy. It's full of pain and hardship as well as beauty and blessings.
2007-07-06 13:19:29 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
Alright then, God made a perfect earth, free will gives you the deciding factor if you will freely choose to love God and completely turn your back and love his created things more. Romans 1. He made a way to return back to him but realize that because of mans heart things are as they are. If I put the ingredients in the earth for certain things, its because of your heart, that you abuse them. Man made poison, God made the original ingredients before the mixture. Like fluoride and chlorine is a poison but in small amounts it kills bacteria.
2007-07-06 13:28:17 · answer #10 · answered by Grateful Will 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋