PreDestination vs Free will?

Question

I am very confused i believe that God is all knowing and i will some day meet him, But if he is all knowing does that mean he knows if we are going to hell or heavan? Or he gives us the choice to choose. I believe that we have a choise. and it is not preDestination i was wondering what you all think on this subject?

Answer 1

Free Choice is Given-If you Believe that God is Omniscient, He knows what you will Do with it....But it IS Your Choice to Do so. He will Not Change what you Do to make things Great, nor make Every Soul perfect.

I don't Pretend to Know God's Plan. I'll ask Her when and if I get there.

Answer 2

If you deny predestination, then you have to twist some words around to mean different things, and BrotherMichael's references don't show a begging, pleading God who humbles Himself before us. It's not just a God who knows. It's a God who does the choosing. Or you are left with a mystery and a fuzzy plan and a God who doesn't quite know what he's doing, letting his own creation lead Him around by the nose.

Answer 3

Just a bit of logical reasoning about the issue of "predestination" vs "free will." I've seen many who question as an either-or proposition a person's fate by God's "predestination" with a person's "free will" to determine his/her own fate. I don't think these things are contradictory and I can't help but consider how this may be applied to Jesus, himself. I mean the Bible points to the fact his fate on the cross was predetermined (See Isaiah 53:5)--God knew what would happen and gave that information to the prophets, such as Isaiah, centuries in advance--and yet, Jesus still had the free will to sacrifice himself on the cross. (See John 10:18)

So, I think the same applies to us. God KNOWS who will and will not follow Him in advance--thus, in that sense our fates are predestined--but, the choice is still ours to freely make, just as it was with Jesus.

Answer 4

If we didn't have free will and were predestined to go the way God planed for us to go then the world would be very different today than what it is, but man has the free will to do what he is doing. God has geven us free will to obey him or not,and many on earth practice wickedness willfully. For instance: They declare wars, drop bombs on children, kill unborn children, cause famines, use alcohol to excess and get cirrhosis of the liver, practice fornication and adultery and get sexually transmitted diseases and so on,when they suffer the consequences they cry out, Why me? And blame God for all the things they and others bring about, or theyexpect God to remove the consequences they have caused on themselves and others. Yes God is all knowing, that is why he warns people in the Bible not to do the things that will cause them the problems that make them suffer but do they listen? No, they use their free will to disobey but still put the blame on God.

Answer 5

There is confusion because some people simply don't like or want to believe what the Bible says. There is no free will concerning salvation. You will not find any writer in the New Testament that says this. In our natural state, we are dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1), in essence, spiritually dead. Just like a physically dead person cannot do anything nor exercise free will, neither can a spiritually dead person exercise any sort of free will in the spiritual realm. In our dead state, we do nothing good, do nothing that pleases God and do not seek God. So how does one get saved? God does it all. God has predetermined those whom He will save, their names written in the lambs book of life from the beginning.

Rev 20:15 And if anyone was not found having been written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the Lake of Fire.

Rev 3:5 The one overcoming, this one shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not at all blot his name out of the Book of Life; and I will acknowledge his name before My Father, and before His angels.

God initiates the relationship.

Joh 6:44 No one is able to come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up in the last day.

God draws us to Christ. He awakens us from our dead state, He indwells us with the Spirit, He gives us the faith to believe, He considers us righteous, forgiven and justified through Christ. It is all Him, us nothing.
Read Ephesians 1 and 2, do you see us doing anything? Do you see anyone exercising free will?

What about Paul's conversion, did he exercise free will there? Or did God simply say, you are mine, this is what you will do and where you will go.

God chooses out some for salvation, not based on anything we do or will do, but out of love, grace and mercy.

Rom 8:28 But we know that to the ones loving God all things work together for good, to those being called according to purpose;
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.

Do you see any free will in the above passage?

Answer 6

I beleive that God created us to act on our own, and accept him if thats what we choose. Of course he is all-knowing, and knows what we will choose ahead of time, but he does not choose which people will enter into his kingdom. I also believe everyone has equal chances to accept him in life. "For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse." Romans 1:19-20. So to sum it all up, we have the choice to either accept God or not to accept Him, and we are not predestined to go anywhere even though God knows what we will choose.

Answer 7

I'd say we definitely have a choice. But you really brought up a good point that I never thought about much before this. I think he gives us the choice to choose and then once we choose, he knows the outcome of the rest of our lives, if that makes any sense at all. For example, you choose to believe, then you go to Heaven. In order for you to go to Heaven, you make a decision to accept God into your life. He realizes this and takes you up to Heaven with him. I'm talking in circles, it's been a long night...but this was a very good question.

Answer 8

To be honest, this is an answer only God can answer. I believe it's one of those things that is beyond what our minds can fully comprehend.

But my understanding of it is this. God decided, God knows. We are given a choice to meet him and we are commanded to bring others to Him. But ultimately, He already knows because he chose us before we ever existed. Our choice is more like a realization or fullfillment of what He has already planned.

If you are a parent, you can kinda understand this in dealing with your children. I often allow my children to make their own choices b/c they have a desire to be independant. But even as I allow them to make the choice, I already know what that choice is going to be. With God, it's something more that that, but it might give you a better picture.

Answer 9

Do you know what hell is? IT's important to know this because both good and bad go to hell. Hell is the common grave for mankind. If you're referring to the choices you make in life, it's pretty clear in God's word, the Bible how one should conduct himself. If you choose not to, this judgment falls onto God to make a decision about you. If it is life, then you more than likely be blessed with everlasting life on a paradise earth after Armageddon. Those ones with the seal on their head "heaven bound" know who they are and do not have to question whether or not they will be of that heavenly class.

If you have to ask "Am I of that heavenly class", guess what? You are not. There is the chosen 144,000 with that seal on their forehead to reign in heaven as a spiritual creatures with the rest of the myriads of angels, Jesus, and his Father. The rest of us have an earthly hope of everlasting life on a paradise earth.

At Armageddon 90% of the world's population will sadly be destroyed, as you can see there is so much wickedness and rebelliousness in the world and things will be getting much worse before they get better after Armageddon, so it's important to keep that "suit of armour" on to ward off satan and his demons, and bad temptations. Stay close to your congregation as one day those doors will shut and Armageddon will be upon us.

It's no time to be scared, but a time to rejoice that those of us who truly love God and his standards will never have to live this horrible life that we now experience in this present system of things, and to know that all the wicked imbeciles in the world will be permanently destroyed. That's such a wonderful thought and it will come to pass.

Where will you be "after Armageddon"? The choice is yours.

Answer 10

Yes, HE Knows these Things.

And, we Still have the Freedom to Choose.
Just because GOD can Look Ahead and see what we will Choose in a Situation, dosen't Mean HE Made us Choose that Decision.