Predestination?

Question

So does God know what our destinies will be? And if he does, that sort of interferes with free will because He knows what decision youre going to make, so youre pretty much stuck with that decision. If free will were to be maintained, you would have to have made every decision in your life before you were even born. Which doesnt seem right. What is the explanation for this?

Answer 1

knowing somthing doesnt mean u necessarily interfere with it .. neither does assuming u know ur destiny mean u are necessarily correct ..

Answer 2

"Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy... having PREDESTINED us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His His will" Ephesians. 1:4-5

"For those God foreknew he also PREDESTINED to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, …and those he PREDESTINED, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified." Romans 8:29-30

“Predestination is the doctrine that God alone chooses (elects) who is saved. He makes His choice independent of any quality or condition in sinful man. He does not look into a person and recognize something good nor does He look into the future to see who would choose Him. He elects people to salvation purely on the basis of His good pleasure. Those not elected are not saved. He does this because He is sovereign. He has the right to elect some to salvation and let all the rest go their natural way: to hell. This is predestination."

Answer 3

I think it very possible that God knows our destinies, he would have infinite knowledge and therefore could easily know what you are going to do from day to day. If you believe in the bible, predestination is mentioned in Ephesians 1:6. Just because God knows what you're going to do does not take away from you being able to choose... It's still your choice.... which he may or may not influence. Think about this.... as far as predestination. If you were going to have a child... and you already knew every choice he/she was going to make.... wouldn't you still want to have it? And furthermore wouldn't you want him/her to "experience" a perfect world that you created? I'm saying (perfect) in the sense that perhaps God made this world so perfect good/bad that you really have to "choose" to believe in him. Just because God can know what choices we make, doesn't have any effect on how important the choices are that we make. You know how you watch a movie over and over again even though you already know everything thats going to happen in the movie? It's a beautiful movie because someone else created it, and you are observing their artistic abilities. Think about that.... as in choices.... Hope I could help.

Answer 4

If all we have to do is make a choice, then we cannot be counted guilty before the Lord until death. This is Arminian belief. Calvinism holds us guilty from birth. One needs salvation before the final breath to "make it" and the other denies that we can make it at all on our own. It takes a loving God to intervene, and this means that predestination ERASES a dividing line of death. The saved were saved from eternity, to eternity. The unsaved weren't chosen to be that way. They were guilty from birth, remember? And that makes the saved quake in their boots when they realize that God could have just left them as is. If you're Calvinist, you're not thumbing your nose at the unsaved. You're saying "I'm a sinner too, saved by undeserved grace, nothing I did, no 'choice' except choices that would have led me away from God, never toward Him." And the Calvinist is thus on his knees in thanks as well as repentance.

Just thought I'd clear that up a little bit, there seems to be a lot of misconception here as to what Calvinism really entails.

Answer 5

The apparent conflict between the concepts of free will and predestination has been the object of more book-length studies and protracted debate than any other single religious issue,nor is the matter confined to Christianity. It is a vast subject with an equally vast literature. It is not really appropriate for Y/A,where the idea is quick answers to brief questions. I can't write you a book on the whole debate.

Answer 6

--WELL you have the perogative to interpret your view of free will, but it is not the Bibles!
--THE GOD of the Bible chooses not to predestine anything for mankind individually, as he warned the Israelites as to their perverted belief:
(Isaiah 65:11-12) “. . .“But YOU men are those leaving Jehovah, those forgetting my holy mountain, those setting in order a table for the god of Good Luck and those filling up mixed wine for the god of Destiny. 12 And I will destine YOU men to the sword, and YOU will all of YOU bow down to being slaughtered; for the reason that I called, but YOU did not answer; I spoke, but YOU did not listen; and YOU kept doing what was bad in my eyes, and the thing in which I took no delight YOU chose.””

--FREE WILL is one of the many gifts by God and he has set its boundaries to make it perfect // DO YOU really think you could have made it better?

(James 1:17) “. . .Every good gift and every perfect present is from above, for it comes down from the Father of the [celestial] lights, and with him there is not a variation of the turning of the shadow.”

Answer 7

We, as humans, have limited free will. God limits it. Either God has total free will, or we do, can't be both. If you decide to go left, and God decides that you will go right, guess who wins.

Predestination is Biblical.

Eph 1:4 even as He elected us in Him before the foundation of the world, for us to be holy and without blemish before Him in love,
Eph 1:5 predestinating us to adoption through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
Eph 1:6 to the praise of the glory of His grace in which He favored us in the One having been loved,

Eph 1:11 in whom we also have been chosen to an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of the One working all things according to the counsel of His own will,
Eph 1:12 for us to be to the praise of His glory, the ones who had previously trusted in Christ;

Rom 8:29 because whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, for Him to be the First-born among many brothers.
Rom 8:30 But whom He predestinated, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

Anyone who says predestination is not Biblical, is simply Biblically ignorant.

Answer 8

If I believed in predestination, I wouldn't have a fear of flying. I wouldn't lock my doors or bother to look both ways before crossing the street. Nope...doesn't seem reasonable to me!

Answer 9

God knows all. Predestination is true in the bible. He already knows who will be his people. but we don't, so we can't judge. We must spread his word. Those who are not the elect, will reject God, and he already knows it. So no, as the reformed protestants say- it isn't really free will, it'a already known by God.

Answer 10

That's what John Calvin said, and he was one of the primary theologians of the Protestant Reformation. For this reason, he said God had already decided you would go to heaven or hell before the universe even was!

If this is true, why bother being good or accepting "Jesus as your savior". None of it would matter, because you would still go to heaven or hell regardless.

And if God already knows whats going to happen, then how can we have free will in the matter?