Christians maintain God knows everything, even before it happens. Does this mean that everything is ?

Question

fixed and man really cannot choose freely?

Answer 1

Free will does not stop becoming free because God knows what will happen. For example, I know that my child will choose to eat chocolate cake over a steaming bowl full of brussels sprouts. If I were to set them both before my child, it is safe to say she will not eat the sprouts. Knowing this is not taking away the freedom of my child since she is freely choosing one over the other. Likewise, for God to know what a person will choose does not mean that the person has no freedom to make the choice. It simply means that God knows what the person will choose.

If God is timeless, then it means that every moment in our time will essentially be the same moment to him. All our moments will exist with His timeless moment simultaneously. This would mean that, assuming God has great powers of observation, God could know about our choices by directly observing them happen. 'Will' doesn't equal 'must' and that God's knowledge is contingent on our choices, not the other way round. In other words, if I would have choose differently, God would have 'know' differently.

Answer 2

When coupled with omnipotence, undoubtedly.

He knew exactly how it would play out the second He created life.  If you find justice in creating something to burn eternally, you may reevaluate your perception of justice.

Answer 3

God   Chose Man ..So  that  He/She can choose  freely!!

However!!...  He  also  chose  Birds... and  Whales..Snakes  and.. Camels..  they  also  can choose freely..

.. BUT..  choose  what...??...how  to  fly..  talk..or  build a  house?...

write  a  book  called  "the  Holy Bible"... use a stick  to  get at  ants  in a  rotten log...It  seems  to me .. We  and  They...have  the same freedom to choose..

You  dont have to be aware of   who  or  what  you are   ..or..  what god is  or is  not   to  have  FREEDOM..of  CHOICE"

in fact!!  even  if  you are  so  called  "AWARE".. it  dont change   JACK!!

Answer 4

The Bible clearly says we are predestined either for heaven or h**l.  We DO NOT have free will because God has decided before we are born.  See this site for a HUGE list of all the predestination verses:

http://www.albatrus.org/english/theology...

Also remember Revelation 14:4 which says only 144,000 VIRGIN MEN will be chosen.  

Here's a short list:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, [...]" (Eph. 1:3-5, NASB)

"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified." (Rom. 8:28-30, NASB)

"[...] but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; [...]" (1Co. 2:7, NASB)

"For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur." (Act. 4:27-28, NASB)

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." (Eph. 2:4-9, NASB)

"[...] who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, [...]" (2Ti. 1:9, NASB)

Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;

And in Your book were all written

The days that were ordained for me,

When as yet there was not one of them. (Psa. 139:16, NASB)

"So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. [verse 17 omitted] So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires." (Rom. 9:16-18, NASB)

Answer 5

Just think, Would God's ignorance necessarily add anything to your freedom. How could it !!

Answer 6

If God knows the future, it must be predestined.

Answer 7

No it doesnt.

Cuase the way God knows before hand and the way we would know before hand is not the same.

Answer 8

They will say God transcends paradox. Could he ever create a stone so big, even he can't lift it?

Yadda yadda.

Either we're puppets, or we're free. God can't have his cake and eat it to. If he can, then why fight it? And this is their belief. God is all-powerful, he can choose to define "free-will" as those choices he lets us make. The rest he writes for us.