Free Will
For those of you out there that have children, you know that the little darlings can bring bliss or frustration. My favorite saying concerning children: "Don't you just hate it when they get little minds of their own?"
But, think of a child without free will. An infant would not cry when it was hungry. A toddler would never explore. School children would never ask questions and teens would bend to the will of those around them. Without free will, we would have no learning, no discernment, no wisdom in choosing. We would have no diversity.
God did not create free will just so we could "choose" to love him. Frankly, I believe God has much in common with earthly parents. There are probably days when he shakes his head and says to the angels, "Don't you just hate it when they get little minds of their own?"
God did not give us free will so we could choose to love him. God gave us free will because he loves us. We need free will to survive. We need free will to learn that placing you hand on the stove hurts. We need free will to steer clear of posion ivy. We need free will to eat, sleep, work and play.
God knew that free will would be a component of every decision we make. That is why he said,
"I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, ..." Deuteronomy 31:19 RSV
But, think of a child without free will. An infant would not cry when it was hungry. A toddler would never explore. School children would never ask questions and teens would bend to the will of those around them. Without free will, we would have no learning, no discernment, no wisdom in choosing. We would have no diversity.
God did not create free will just so we could "choose" to love him. Frankly, I believe God has much in common with earthly parents. There are probably days when he shakes his head and says to the angels, "Don't you just hate it when they get little minds of their own?"
God did not give us free will so we could choose to love him. God gave us free will because he loves us. We need free will to survive. We need free will to learn that placing you hand on the stove hurts. We need free will to steer clear of posion ivy. We need free will to eat, sleep, work and play.
God knew that free will would be a component of every decision we make. That is why he said,
"I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, ..." Deuteronomy 31:19 RSV
posted by Hepzibah The Watchman | 7:38 AM
2 Comments:
What are your thoughts on why God allowed evil to be included among the choices?
Why, I wonder, didn't God make a world in which we were free to choose, but only between better, better still, and best?
Of course this is only a potential problem if one views God as "all powerful" in the sense of just "being able to do whatever he wants" - no process, no limitations on how he gets from here to there, or how he goes about his business. Not everyone believes that this is the sense in which God is all powerful.
Thank you Paul for your comments. Actually, evil does not exist. Let me explain. What we call darkness is just the absence of light. Also, scientists tell us that cold does not exist - it is only the absence of heat. So too, evil is the absence of goodness. In that definition evil is a degree of goodness, just at the opposite spectrum. That opposite spectrum was a choice, not by God, but first by Satan during his rebellion and then by us. So our freedom of will is a choice for goodness. When we do not choose goodness; evil prevails.
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