Christians...?

Question

If God is omniscient (all-knowing) then why didn't he prevent Adam and Eve from eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? After all, if God knows everything, he should be able to see into the future and be able to read others minds. Does this mean God already knows who is going to heaven and hell meaning we really do not have free will?

Answer 1

God is all knowing, He knows our thoughts before we have them. He does know who is going to accept His free offer of salvation and who is going to reject it. He how ever is patient with us willing that all come to a saving knowledge and that none should perish and he loved us enough to give us free will and not create a bunch of mindless robots to follow Him unwillingly.

Answer 2

Because Adam and Eve HAD to eat the fruit. I dont believe in the original sin. I believe they knew they had to leave the garden of eden to begin to multiply and replenish the earth. I think they ate the fruit on purpose. It wasnt really a punishment for them to seperated from God in a literal sense. That was their whole purpose of coming to earth. To gain a body, learn from their mortal experiences and be tested. I dont believe mortality is a curse or a punishment. I think the law was given not to eat the fruit so that when they transgressed against it, it could truly begin the experience of a mortal life.

I think God already knows what we are capable of and what we will do with our choices, but if he just told you that, wouldnt that be unfair. You have to live out your own lives. If I gave you a choice between 2 event and I knew you so well I knew exactly what event you would pick, dont you still have the freedom to choose? Knowing a person so well you know what they are going to do doesnt mean a person is predestined to what you have planned for them.

We have will, but it isnt free from consequences of our actions. and none of us will be punished or held responsible for the sins or transgressions or choices on anyone other then ourselves. Mortality isnt a punishment. It is a gift.

Answer 3

Now, if I were to declare that man was so free to act, that there was no presidence of God over his actions, I should be driven very near to Atheism; and if, on the other hand, I declare that God so overrules all things, as that man is not free enough to be responsible, I am driven at once into Antinomianism or fatalism.

That God predestines, and that man is responsible, are two things that few can see. They are believed to be inconsistent and contradictory; but they are not. It is just the fault of our weak judgment. Two truths cannot be contradictory to each other.

These two truths, I do not believe, can ever be welded into one upon any human anvil, but one they shall be in eternity: they are two lines that are so nearly parallel, that the mind that shall pursue them farthest, will never discover that they converge; but they do converge, and they will meet somewhere in eternity, close to the throne of God, whence all truth doth spring.

Answer 4

We have free will. God doesn't interfere with that, as with Adam and Eve. He does know all and He knows who will accept Him and who will not.
Whether or not we go to hell us up to us. We can choose to believe in Him and accept salvation or not.

Answer 5

Do not equate God KNOWING what you will do, with God DECIDING what you will do. He IS omniscient. He knows who will accept His Son. He has not decided for us who will accept His Son.

Answer 6

God knew they would sin. He didn't prevent them from doing it because he gave us free will to make our own decisions.

Answer 7

it was a test. God gives us life tests every day, to see if we'll make the right or wrong choice.

Answer 8

No not at all.
When it really all matters, is the fact you are responsible, alone for your actions.

Get A Grip

Answer 9

ROMANS 9: vers. 18-23

Answer 10

it's called choice and we all still have it...
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Genesis 2:9 (Whole Chapter)
And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.


Genesis 2:16 (Whole Chapter)
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:


Genesis 2:17 (Whole Chapter)
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.


Genesis 3:1 (Whole Chapter)
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?


Genesis 3:2 (Whole Chapter)
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:


Genesis 3:3 (Whole Chapter)
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.


Genesis 3:6 (Whole Chapter)
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.


Genesis 3:8 (Whole Chapter)
And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.


Genesis 3:11 (Whole Chapter)
And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?


Genesis 3:12 (Whole Chapter)
And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.


Genesis 3:17 (Whole Chapter)
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;


Genesis 3:22 (Whole Chapter)
And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:


Genesis 3:24 (Whole Chapter)
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.