More on God's plans and free will?

Question

I'll make it really simple.

Q : Thomas flips a coin. Does God know what he will get? Tail or Head?

1) If you answered Yes, doesn't that mean Thomas' life is predestined and he does not have a free will?

Again, this does not have to do with our preferences. If you know your child likes ice cream the best, you know your child will choose the ice cream over other desserts when you bring him to a buffet. However, if your child flips a coin, do you know what he is going to get? It does not have anything to do with how much you know about him.

2) If you answered No, how can God prepare plans for somebody's life? Jeremiah 29:11 tells us he provides plans for us. And there are lots of random factors like this in our lives. So if he doesn't know our future, how can he plan ahead of it?

Please notice the keyword is "Random Factor." Any opinion?

Answer 1

It is a paradox.  I don't pretend to understand it. In fact I don't think I even believe it.  But it's an interesting concept to think about.

The idea is that God is in eternity so every time is the same time to him.  We are stuck in time, we have to live each minute one at a time, and we can't get to the next minute until we get through this one.  We are all traveling through time at the same rate.  But God is outside of time, so he can see all times at once.  He can see your whole life in one view, or for that matter, the entire development of the human race.

So obviously God can tell the future.  To him it's not the future.  So he knows what choices you are going to make as if you made them.  It might even be a mystery to YOU what choice you will make, but not to God.

How this affects 'free will' is really beyond me.  But it's an interesting concept.

Calvinists believe in the Doctrine of Predestination.  They believe God picked certain people to be saved before he even created the universe.  These people are 'the elect' and are chosen by God for reasons that might seem invisible to us.  If you are one of these people you are born blessed.  If not, well you're just screwed, there's nothing you can do.  So it doesn't matter how -good- you are.  

Answer 2

Yes God knows the answer.

No, it was not predestined. If i offered you a straw, and you had to take one, and i knew you'd take that one (being the only one there) is that predestination? Or is it just knowing the outcome of a circumstance

Answer 3

The idea of predestination is that man has no control of his life. The idea of freewill is that even though God knows what decisions man will make it is still in man's control to make. It is a matter of choice. Predestination offers none and freewill does.     +?+

Answer 4

THIS LIFE IS NOT REAL because our lives and our future was written long time ago you can not make your own destinies nor can change them. god knows our future and its decided. we are just diffrent actors he want us appear on his stage. there is nothing like free will cos god knows what options we gonna choose and the planetary system rotating up there indicate our destinies and future. directly indicates future events thats a great tool granted to humans just know how to interpret it

Answer 5

OMG that is a good point ima start using this arguement lol

Answer 6

Yes

God knew us before the foundation of the earth and knew what we are going to do.  Yes we do have free will but we are also full filling a destiny that is already laid out by your spirit.  If you have a calling by God then he will keep you on that destiny and more.  Everyone has a destiny to live out.  When my Pastor came to the church that he is in now, he wanted to leave but there was a voice that told him to sit down and learn the word under this Pastor, he heard this voice twice.

I had similar encounters with God myself.  Yes you may choose 1 out of 5 things you were going to do but if it were to take off your path of destiny, He will push you back on to that path.  I experiencedd that myself a few times in my life.  Lets say someone decides to become a doctor but in the back of their mindwantedd to take up a differentt profession and decided to change years later, then that person came back to the path they were originally called for.  Their are a few people out there that have done that.

Answer 7

Yes. No freewill and no Random factor.

Everything is one gigantic chain of awesome, which we are stuck in the middle and we'll never see the beginning or end.

Determinism FTW.