Christians: A question reagarding free will?

Question

Now Im not getting down on you guys by asking, at least I hope not, but what are your opinions on free will?

Im asking this beacause your religion limits it so much. You cant do drugs. Bummer. You cant be gay. Bummer. And if you dont, you go to a horrible firey place that no one likes. BUMMER!

Basically, you dont have the free will to do what you want, as your god does not condone it, cause your gonna screw up.


Just wondering, no offense.

ah, but you are condemned fr making that choice of free will, and therefore your freedom is more limited as a human.

responsiblity is not freedom

Answer 1

Hi there! I'm not gay, but I've done plenty of drugs, and I consider myself to be a "damned" haha good Christian, because I treat my fellow humans decently and I don't judge anyone. My intentions are good. I don't follow any set rules but these; treat people with respect, don't judge, and keep good intentions to heart. I feel free to do as I please, so long as I hurt no one else!

Now, if you're talkin' about catholic nuns, that's ANOTHER set of habits...

Answer 2

Well you can go ahead and break God's moral laws and sensible health laws if you want, but as in everything, there will be consequences.

And don't society's own laws limit you as well, even though, they were made by wise men for your own good as well as for the good of society as a whole?

IS it so terrible if you rape, steal, murder etc a human court sends you to a horrible place called Jail that no one likes very much?

Bummer! Human courts and judges should be ashamed at restricting your "rights" and your "freewill" like that!

Basically, you dont have the right to do what you want, if your Government or local community does not condone it.

Well actually you still do have freewill, you can still choose to rob a convenience store and you can still choose to shoot the clerk dead, but according to BOTH man's laws and God's commandments, those freely made choices will have consequences.

I don't know if you are a parent or not, but if you have a child and you don't set any firm but fair rules and boundaries which you encourage the child to follow by a simple system of punishments and rewards that the child can understand and follow, then you are a very bad, uncaring, negligent parent and you have done your child no favors.

Surely God knows even better than the wisest of men what is best for humanity and the planet?

And yet he still allows you the freedom to screw up if that is what you want. You are free to cut yourself, but you will bleed, you are free to take poison but you will die and probably painfully, you are free to fill your head with every vile, foul, negative thing, but that is what your life will attract and be surrounded with.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that he doesn't lock you in your house so you can't go out, get drunk and run over a child on your way home. He doesn't make you fall over and break you leg so you can't go and do a drug deal. He gives you the freewill to go ahead an do those bad things.

But Freewill is not a licence to do anything you want with guaranteed immunity from prosecution, it is simply the freedom and ability to make your own choices for good or bad.

And God does make sure you have been told what is good and what is bad (even though he doesn't always explain his reasons in full) and he makes sure you know what the result of doing one or the other will be - and then he leaves the choice up to you.

Answer 3

If you have the choice, you have freedom. And you have that choice. What you do with it is up to you, you know what will happen before hand if you do, you decide if you will obey or do it anyway. At some point, almost all people do it anyway because it's just too tempting. This is why those who believe and seek forgiveness are given it.

Free will is simply having the choice before you. You are not a robot that is preprogrammed to do a certain thing and only that thing. You know right and wrong, good from bad, and you choose between them constantly. That is your free will, the ability to make the choice at any time to do what you want. God doesn't make you choose one, you do that on your own. He just warns you of what could happen to you if you don't fix it.

Answer 4

How is it possible to restrict the expression of human free will? The examples in your question seem to suggest you believe that stigmatization and the threat of condemnation under a Christian belief system somehow impose limits on that expression. Perhaps behaving contrary to your belief system is inconsistent, hypocritical and demonstrates a lack of integrity. But, you cannot believe that it is IMPOSSIBLE for Christians to make a free will choice to behave contrary to their belief system?

If you accept it is possible for Christians to make a free will choice to behave contrary to their belief system, then what you may be objecting to is the stigmatization and condemnation associated with such a choice. Then, are stigmatization and condemnation the real free will BUMMERs? If so, what about a belief system that promotes drug use and embraces homosexuality? What if it is thought to be a BUMMER if you do NOT use drugs and if you do NOT condone homosexuality? BUMMER for you because your free will is as equally restrained as a Christian belief system, isn't it?

Answer 5

Our loving Father God has given you and me the sacred Gift of personality : I am of I AM This gives you Volition --full free will to think and to do anything you might think you like.

If you do not pray and commune with God to learn first from Him what is right -- true spiritual Liberty; then you may choose to do what you want to do, no matter what, and get the actual experience of what that will result.

False spiritual liberty is always destructive on some level -physical, mind, and/or soul and retards personality unification in Spirit.

"Party Animals" who take drugs, have multiple sex partners and cause hostility or jealousy in others, do, on average, live a rugged, shorter lifespan of about 40 years or less. The average USA human lives to age 77 now. The average moral Christian lives to about age 85 or more. Count the physical costs.

In soul peace and joy the differences of True and false liberty are much greater ! Count the soul and mind costs.

You are practicing your religion of hedonism, paganism, atheism or secular humanism, etc. None of those yield Sacred perfect Paradise peace and Spiritual Joy here and now and in Paradise-Eternity.

Peace and progress,
Brother Dave, a Jesusonian Christian Truthist
http://www.PureChristians.org/ Gospel enlarging website,
proclaiming worldwide the True Religion
OF JESUS and ABOUT JESUS and IN JESUS
Come and share !

Answer 6

I don't know any really happy and fulfilled drug users. I used to use drugs and was miserable. Gay people just plain turn me off. It's the sickest thing two consenting people can do. So overwhelmingly unnatural!!!! Our creator wouldn't burn anyone. The Bible doesn't teach that. Here is a great article for you about how loving our God really is.

What Has Happened to
Hellfire?

What Really Is Hell?
WHATEVER image the word "hell" brings to your mind, hell is generally thought of as a place of punishment for sin. Concerning sin and its effect, the Bible says: "Through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned." (Romans 5:12) The Scriptures also state: "The wages sin pays is death." (Romans 6:23) Since the punishment for sin is death, the fundamental question in determining the true nature of hell is: What happens to us when we die?

Does life of some kind, in some form, continue after death? What is hell, and what kind of people go there? Is there any hope for those in hell? The Bible gives truthful and satisfying answers to these questions.

Life After Death?
Does something inside us, like a soul or a spirit, survive the death of the body? Consider how the first man, Adam, came to have life. The Bible states: "Jehovah God proceeded to form the man out of dust from the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life." (Genesis 2:7) Though breathing sustained his life, putting "the breath of life" into his nostrils involved much more than simply blowing air into his lungs. It meant that God put into Adam's lifeless body the spark of life—"the force of life," which is active in all earthly creatures. (Genesis 6:17; 7:22) The Bible refers to this animating force as "spirit." (James 2:26) That spirit can be compared to the electric current that activates a machine or an appliance and enables it to perform its function. Just as the current never takes on the features of the equipment it activates, the life-force does not take on any of the characteristics of the creatures it animates. It has no personality and no thinking ability.

Please enjoy the rest of the article right here. http://www.watchtower.org/library/w/2002/7/15/article_02.htm

Answer 7

Free will is given to all of us. It's just that the teaching of Christ goes against the type of 'free will' that enslaves us. You are free to do drugs. To sleep with everything that moves on the earth. You have the will to murder, to hate, to steal, to violate every principle that upholds anything good and respectful. But this free will infringes upon ourselves and others.

We are taught the benefit of having some restraint and self control. This concept is called wisdom. The ability to do, but the good decency and wisdom not to do. It separates us from the animals. To know right from wrong and why it is actually good to do right. This is in God's Law.

If you become a scrawny sickly drug addict what fun is that? I know how addiction felt. There was no freedom. Or to get AIDS? Or to take someones life from them and cause their family pain as well as yourself torment and punishment. To steal what isn't yours that someone else worked so hard for. Where would be your humanity? What good then would this 'free will' do for any of us?

God will some time hopefully soon put an end to sin. Sin is a cancer upon His universe. And a signing of your own death sentence. He will abolish the sin, suffering and pain. No longer will we have the free will to war, steal, deprive, and cause pain.

The ones who could not follow in the path to righteousness will be purged. Abolished like the sin and iniquity itself. Those who have done good and know what it is to love will live eternally. You will not live in hell. You will be as you never were. I wouldn't wish this upon you. Neither would God. But YOU have to make that decision. He will not force you to be good. You have the 'free will' to do so yourself. Nothing evil will live in His kingdom. The only way to live is through Jesus. The only other option is eternal death. There's no middle ground.

God bless

Answer 8

I hear what you are trying to say and I would say this. We have choices to emphasize free will. With no consequences where is the free will? You have to choose to deny God and not to follow his perfect will. Yes, when you excesses free will and choose God you do limit yourself, but this is willing.

No one really knows what "hell" will be like. Only the imagery is not pleasant and we will suffer if we go there. You freely choose to deny God and not wish to partake of his goodness and he creates a place that is void of his goodness and the absence of this goodness is hell.

We are given the choice to live happy yet many refuse. BUMMER!

Answer 9

You do not have free will, nor do I, if you define it as free to do whatever you please. You and I are free to do what we like, but we are confined by time, space, dimension, and basically, laws.

When we come to the fork in the road, I am free to go left, you are free to go right, or vise versa, or even go off the road if we like. What we can't do freely, is to decide to sprout wings and fly above the road. In this you see that free will is at best an illusion. Sure we're free to choose between the options, but the options are limited. Sometimes the option offers a reward, sometimes a consequence.

No offense.

Answer 10

I can totally understand what you're saying, and I suppose that some people might see this as somehow making us less free. However, I'd disagree. I don't think this limits our freedom at all whatsoever. The government says that they'll send you to jail if you do drugs, but of course, this doesn't take away your free will to choose drugs (since people obviously still do them). Obviously, you might have to take responsibility for your actions behind bars, but you can still *freely* choose drugs.

Just because there's known consequences, doesn't mean that this limits your freedom to choose it. There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING holding you back from freely choosing to do drugs, but there are consequences. Likewise, we know that there might be consequences in the afterlife if we kill someone, but these consequences don't take away from our freedom in choosing to kill someone.

Also, I think that the main idea is that your behavior may lead to eternal separation from God, and that's all that really matters. So why would I even care to have a few hours of fun in this life if it could compromise my promised reward of infinitely perfect happiness that no drugs or sex could ever compare to? Does your business career, sex life, or even social life matter at all in the eyes of God? Maybe to an extent, but His purpose for you was that you would love Him and find fellowship in Him. So, nothing else really matters in the end anyhow.

EDIT: I read that you added "responsibility is not freedom."
Personally, I don't think responsibility takes away from your freedom of choice, but I think I might be able to understand what you're saying. However, don't you have a responsibility for your kids (if you have any, I don't know)? It's not like you're being forced to care for your kids, but yes, I think it's a universal silent agreement between all families that the parents are responsible for their kids. Of course, you don't have to care for your kids anyhow, but why wouldn't you since you know that it's probably the most important thing in your life? Likewise, why wouldn't I follow my God since it's the most important thing in my life?

Answer 11

Well lets see I can't do drugs, yeah you are right on that one, why would I want to fry my brain and serve the devil. You see everything you do contrary to the Bible is serving the devi. So since its obvious that you do believe in freewill which means you would rather serve the devil you are a very rare person. And your are right I do not want to be gay thats for sure you can't even have kids that way which makes no sense to me whatsoever. Now you did get one thing right, I am going to mess up. I sin everyday, but I do believe in Jesus Christ and everyday I ask him to forgive me of my sins and give me the strength to overcome them, And he does. The only perfect person ever on this planet was Jesus Christ and he was crucified. Did you see that movie the Passion of the Christ. That was a great movie and had to be pretty close to the way it was. Now one thing I would like to pass on to you is that when you do accept Jesus as your Personal Saviour and become born again your whole life changes. Jesus helps you to overcome your bad habits one at a time. If you say the sinners Prayer and accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour that doesn't automatically mean you stop sinning. Jesus will give you strength to stop. He will give you supernatural strength to withstand any temptation if you will just put your trust in him. It is a big step forward for someone living in a world dominated by the devil. You can do it if you want to. Its up to you. I would advise you to get a Bible and start reading, It could change your life. Its in your hands, Here is a sinners Prayer if you want to Pray it, Dear Jesus I just pray right now that you forgive me of all my sins and come into my heart and save me. I believe that you came to earth and died on a cross, and then rose from the grave the third day to be a perfect sacrifice for my sins. I willingly give my life to you and promise to serve you with all my heart. Please make me one of your children in the name of Jesus I pray Amen... If you Prayed this Prayer with a sincere heart truly believing in Jesus you are now a child of the King. Praise the Lord, If you have any questions please feel free to send me an email, May God Bless You