Follow-up reactions about the FREE WILL of humans

 

The following post is a follow-up from this article. The article produced a response from someone who asked questions and commented on it. I thought these were useful to post as they contain further learning and insights that add more value to the article.

Reactional questions and statements concerning the above post:

• God knows what you will choose it goes against your discussion of free will. … he knew what Adam was going to choose then he knew he was going to set mankind for failure before we even created Adam.

God knowing all things does not influence one iota of the free will of man. As I clearly stated in the post, God knows beforehand what man's choices are, so He knows if man will receive or reject Him in the end. God has done ALL to inform man and provide the choices he can make, but the choices remain in the hands of man to determine his fate.  When God judges men in the end, it is perfectly righteous because men knew what was required to have life versus to have death. 

• It's not valid that God would set this misery up on mankind when he created Adam and he put the tree of life and the tree of knowledge and bad and he told him not to eat of it, but he knew he was going to…

Have you ever been a parent yet? I’ve told my son many times in the past when he was young not to do this or else… Well, I set before him a choice. He knew a spanking would come if he disobeyed. It’s the same here. God disciplines us for the things he has informed us about. And…the thing with choices ensures that we have the free will to choose. Without free will, what is the reason for living!! All we need is just common logic here. This is not an emotional topic.

• God knew Satan was going to fall because he was created as an angel as the millions of others are and he has free will but when he created him, he knew he was going to take mankind down.

Yes. God knew all this. But neither God, nor Satan took men down! It is man himself that made that choice. We are the masters of our own glory or destruction. When you drive too fast on the road and the cops pull you over, it is not God’s fault or Satan’s fault! It is YOU! You chose to drive faster than the speed limit, and you knew the speed limit and the consequences. So, when you get that speeding ticket, the fault lies with you and you alone for making that choice.

• God must enjoy resurrecting people so he can put them to death again why I go through the motion if you already know what they're going to do why waste of time.

No. God will certainly NOT enjoy it! It is not His will that anyone should perish, 2Pet 3:9. He did EVERYTHING He could to prevent their destruction. But God’s wrath is also righteous and perfectly just, and, at the appointed time, He will NOT hesitate in judgement to send those who rejected His Son, Jesus Christ to the eternal flames.

You ask why God would resurrect people just to put them to death again. That is easy to answer, but first let me say that human death is not the eternal death. These two are very different types of death. Barring this, let's have a look at how simple the answer is. Read Isa.45:23; Rom.14:1; Phil.2:10-11. The unsaved at the end of time, who ALL had opportunity to choose to believe in Jesus Christ and live, will be resurrected for two reasons; to face judgement for their sins, and, to bow the knee, confessing Jesus as Lord. Since they did not do it in their earthly life, they will be resurrected to do just this, bow to Christ and declare Him as Lord. Then, with this truth and reality, they would be shown their guilt and ungodliness at the judgement seat, and with that knowledge, they will be cast into the eternal flames, because of their own choice, rejecting what God had made this known to them all through their life. It is sad to hear, but there is no injustice here. God's actions are perfectly just, righteous and honourable according to His Word.

• Yes, God has the ability to look forward and see how things are going to work out and what people are going to do just like Judas was spoken of as the son of Destruction he saw what they were going to do to his son, but he just knew from the past of how humans were, ...

By your last statement, you are saying that God is not omniscient. I cannot disagree more. Omniscience means “knowing it ALL”. Isa.46:10 says God knows the END from the beginning. God didn’t simply learn from the behaviour and choices of men! Your statement places a limit on God’s knowledge, and this is not what the Bible tells us.

• [continued from pervious statement] ...but were told to strive to put God's kingdom first believe in Jesus and you will be saved not if you're already predestined to be condemned not possible that means some could put forth all the effort, they want but they're predestined to fail.

You appear to be on your emotional train again. Man’s fate is not an emotional result. Let’s review the FACTS. In the Word, God told men to believe in Jesus for salvation. This choice that man does saves him, and he receives eternal life. By the way, God’s salvation is not in the effort one puts forth. If you have to strive to be saved, you are not saved, and you have not understood the message of salvation. God put the effort in to saving you, you must just have faith in His ability. Salvation is placing faith in the words of God that declares what makes one righteous, and then trusting God’s Word to accomplish that. If you believe in God’s Word, you are already predestined to life, and (as you rightly say) if you ignore God’s Word and put in all the effort to save yourself, then you are predestined to failure and death.

In conclusion:

It would help if you stepped outside of your emotional state and understand that God is outside of the confines of time and space and that God is omniscient. What you are doing is judging this topic from the limitations of men’s understanding. God provides us the facts that life is in His Son and death is in rejection of His Son. It's as simple as that. Men have the choice, and they determine their own fate by that single choice. The fact that God knows what you will choose, does not make Him the executioner. He has provided you with the full knowledge and counsel of what will happen if you choose His Son or not. You are your own executioner in the end. God, knowing the end from your beginning, just happened to know what your choice would be, even after doing all He could to save you. No reasoning or emotion is going to change the facts stated in the Word of God, which is the standard that God will judge the righteous and the unrighteous at the end.