ok i was raised baptist. i was told my entire life that god knows what you are gonna do and what every second of your life is gonna be. so if he knows the sins that will be commited, how can he punish anyone for them? you can say free will or whatever but he knows what your gonna chose!! can anyone explain this to me?
2007-07-30 12:57:31 · 28 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
im not christian anymore
2007-07-30 13:01:00 · update #1
He does not punish you if you have accepted Jesus in your heart, truly.
Thta's what I think.
What you said (I am too pooped to type it all over) astounds me too.
I don't know if I really believe it or not.
2007-07-31 09:30:38 · answer #1 · answered by batgirl2good 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ha! Good question...
If god knows what you're going to do, then there's no other option you can take which means you were pre-destined and lack free will. So how can you be justly punished for something you have no control over? It really comes down to either god is omniscient and there's no free will, or there's free will and god is not omniscient. Either way, part of the belief system is wrong.
Personally, I find it easier to just shortcut the whole thing with the assumption that there is no god anyway. It's things like this (and there are hundreds more) along with the frequent misconceptions about science that made me eventually lose faith. Makes everything far more sensible in my opinion.
2007-07-30 20:03:38 · answer #2 · answered by Mike K 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
You are bounding God by time which is why this appears to be a fallacy in belief. God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, which means he can do anything, knows everything and is every where all at once. This is possible because God does not follow rules of physics like we have to. He is simultaneously with you when you are born, as you grow up, and when you die all at once.
Now God did not plan for you to sin but knows you are going to because he has already seen it because he has already been there. Just because God knows what you are going to do does not mean that he forced you to do them, it is still your choice and that is what free will is about.
2007-07-30 20:06:33 · answer #3 · answered by mrglass08 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Pretty wild, eh? And if God really has a plan for everyone and everything, and everything is going according to the plan, why bother asking God for anything in prayer. For that matter, why be angry about anything that happens, because surely that's what God intended to happen.
Personally, I don't believe in a God that punishes people. It makes no sense at all. But I have no Christian answer for you. It's one of the many questions I could never solve when I was Christian.
2007-07-30 20:05:13 · answer #4 · answered by rabid_scientist 5 · 3⤊ 1⤋
This is a question I see asked frequently. I wish I had a "slam dunk" answer but I don't.
I do have a couple of observations though.
I think people frequently confuse predestination with omniscience. Just because God can know everything doesn't mean that He necessarily forces people to make specific decisions.
He gives us free will. He can know the outcome whether we make a "yes" or "no" response to a given course of action.
If we choose "yes" our path will go one way and if we choose "no" then our path goes another way. He knows the outcomes of both. The decision is up to us.
Of course it is probably more complex than this.
~Neeva
2007-07-30 20:12:36 · answer #5 · answered by Neeva C 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yeah that one has always bugged me too. And when you think about it, if this is the case, then why did the God of Abraham put the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden, knowing that Adam and Eve would eat from it? It seems a bit silly to me but hey that is their faith not mine.
Blessed Be )O(
2007-07-31 12:44:52 · answer #6 · answered by Stephen 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"Oh dear, I hadn't thought of that," says God, who promptly vanishes in a puff of logic. [Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"]
What you've hit upon is a logical impossibility -- free will CANNOT coexist with an omniscient deity. This is one of several oopses held by most Christians. It's funny to see in these answers how Christians try to rationalize this particular flaw in their doctrine.
You not only noticed this at 8, you recognized it as significant? You must have been quite a kid, Angela. :^)
2007-07-30 20:36:19 · answer #7 · answered by wise czar's soul 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
for starters not all lives are pre-destined,only the elect(chosen of Christ).as far as the whole knowing what you are and will do;of course he knows,that's why JESUS came so that when you do error you can be forgiven,no one is perfect but what the lord expects is for you to try to live a life free of sin.if someone was to die without asking for forgiveness they would go to hell regardless of how good a person they are.now if that same person asked to be forgiven he would go to heaven.the part of punishing you for the sins that you will commit -is just a preacher trying to keep control of his congregation,by fear some preachers try to control their people.if you have any questions about what you have been taught in church then you should study gods word yourself and see if your preacher is telling the truth, or if he twisting gods word
2007-07-30 20:15:00 · answer #8 · answered by Thomas 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Just because He has the power, doesn't mean He is nosey. Much of what happens to us is up to us, with neither God nor Devil having personal involvement.
He has, as in Eden, sat down the Law (in their case only one) and clearly explained the consequences of obeying or disobeying. This is as much as anyone can do or should do with adults.
2007-07-30 20:16:52 · answer #9 · answered by grnlow 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
there you go . . . sticking God into a box called three dimension . . .
Look . . . his is already at the end of your life . . . time is not the problem for HIM as it is for you and I . . . he knows how you did and what you did, and when you did, and yes, why you did everything . . . yet . . . he does not interfere with you and your choices . . . so when He whispers in your heart and you choose to choose him . . . you are using your free will, and HE is allowing you that freedom.
A bad analogy: you are an actor . . . you are playing the part you were given and you insisted you were not interfered with as you played the part . . . God is in the editing room with your footage . . . he knows everything you did, when, how, etc . . . yet he has the ability to transcend time and go back into the "filming" to when you are doing whatever . . .
GOD is not held to things like "time" and "space" . . . he invented that junk . . . it is hard to get your head around it . . . they call that faith . . .
2007-07-30 20:09:47 · answer #10 · answered by Clark H 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
It isn't really free will if you think about it. Take us atheists for example. Supposedly, "God" knows every single thought and action we're going to have and do throughout our entire lives, before we're even born. So therefore, He already knows that he's going to condemn you to Hell. And yet, knowing that you're doomed to be tortured for all of eternity, he creates you anyway. You can't change anything, or he would have been wrong when he "knew" you wouldn't. Where's the "free will" in that? The whole idea is just completely ridiculous. No matter how you try to spin it, God "knew" what you were going to do your entire life before he even created you, and therefore he knew that he was going to condemn you to Hell--BEFORE he even created you. There is no choice there for you. According to the Christian belief, you're doomed.
2007-07-30 20:08:07 · answer #11 · answered by Jess H 7 · 2⤊ 2⤋