Does God have free will?

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Since you believers claim that God - who does stuff - exists, does he?
 
Chanel said:
Since you folks claim that Mr. Perfect exists, does he?
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Since you used the qualifier “you folks” and the sarcastic title of ‘Mr. Perfect’, I assume you’re only here to troll and to raise hostilities; not search for a reasonable response.

If that is the case, why do you even care? It’s moot.

…now if you were to address the same question in a tolerant and sincere tone in order to have a rational debate, then you might get some serious answers.
 
Chanel said:
I changed it, is that better?!
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Thanks.

If God didn’t have free will, then it wouldn’t exist. So yes, He has free will, and has passed it on to us.

Now, before you say “well then, that means He can do evil if He wanted”. No, He cannot. (I would not be able to do an explanation of the concept justice, but I can try if you want. Otherwise, I’ll just leave it at that.)
 
Snerticus said:
Now, before you say “well then, that means He can do evil if He wanted”. No, He cannot. (I would not be able to do an explanation of the concept justice, but I can try if you want. Otherwise, I’ll just leave it at that.)
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Well, I wasn’t going to say that.
 
Chanel said:
If you would like, I could say something even more complicated than that.
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If you have a question, you can surely ask. However, I can’t guarantee I’ll have a satisfactory answer for you. But at least it would start a conversation that others might be able to help you with.
 
Snerticus said:
If you have a question, you can surely ask. However, I can’t guarantee I’ll have a satisfactory answer for you. But at least it would start a conversation that others might be able to help you with.
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Don’t worry, I wont get too complicated! 😉
 
Chanel said:
Since you believers claim that God - who does stuff - exists, does he?
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Yes, with a caveat and that caveat is:
Malachi 3.6:
For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O*children of Jacob, have not perished.
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Hence God will not change His will. He created man to be good and to have free will. When man began to exercise that will to do evil, God did not act to directly stop this because to do so would require abrogating man’s free will. God’s solution is indirect, and that is to induce man to choose good.
 
So is God “open-minded” or is he “narrow-minded”?

He must be the latter cuz hell exists.
 
Chanel said:
So is God “open-minded” or is he “narrow-minded”?

He must be the latter cuz hell exists.
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Well, I suppose He’s neither. It depends on a lot of things, not the least of which is your definition of either. Having no physical ‘mind’, I don’t think the terms apply.

Do you mean tolerant vs intolerant? Or do you wonder why is there Hell?

… or am I way off base? :o
 
Snerticus said:
Well, I suppose He’s neither. It depends on a lot of things, not the least of which is your definition of either. Having no physical ‘mind’, I don’t think the terms apply.

Do you mean tolerant vs intolerant? Or do you wonder why is there Hell?

… or am I way off base? :o
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I guess tolerant would be more towards it. 😛

I mean, if one rejects God for a reason, then they burn in hell. Okay, you say that God is a just God, so where’s the justice for that??
 
Chanel said:
So God has the free will to NOT want to change or he simply can’t change period?
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Neither. God has said He will pull the plug on creation eventually (an exercise of free will) but until then He has promised to let us be free. He has free will, He’s just not a liar.
Chanel said:
What does Einstein have anything to do with free will? I’m talking about free will, not evil!
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You are the one asserting evil (hell) against God’s free will…
 
Chanel said:
I guess tolerant would be more towards it. 😛

I mean, if one rejects God for a reason, then they burn in hell. Okay, you say that God is a just God, so where’s the justice for that??
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Okay, bear with me here because obviously both of us have a different frame of reference when we talk about these things.

First I’ll address your first assumption that if one rejects God for a reason, they’ll burn in hell. Well, the answer is ‘maybe’. Not a definitive yes or no. The reason? Because at the hour of death Jesus will judge us, and at that point, we will be shown why our sins were wrong. At that point of realization, one could very well accept God based on what they are shown, and finally accept all that they have misunderstood during life. In that case, they will not burn in Hell.

But that is a very ‘general’ generalization, so you can understand. If I told that to a theologian, I’d probably get laughed out of the forums.

Now, if for some reason that person sees everything they did, and did not care whether their sins hurt anyone else in the process and are not sorry for what they’ve done, even if they do believe in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, they will not go to heaven. So yes, in that case they will go to Hell. Again, a very ‘general’ generalization.

I guess if you were to ask why is there a Hell in the first place, I’m going to tell you up front that I’m not the best person to answer that, and I hope someone else more articulate will come in and help explain. But as I said before, I can certainly try.
 
Snerticus said:
Okay, bear with me here because obviously both of us have a different frame of reference when we talk about these things.

First I’ll address your first assumption that if one rejects God for a reason, they’ll burn in hell. Well, the answer is ‘maybe’. Not a definitive yes or no. The reason? Because at the hour of death Jesus will judge us, and at that point, we will be shown why our sins were wrong. At that point of realization, one could very well accept God based on what they are shown, and finally accept all that they have misunderstood during life. In that case, they will not burn in Hell.

But that is a very ‘general’ generalization, so you can understand. If I told that to a theologian, I’d probably get laughed out of the forums.

Now, if for some reason that person sees everything they did, and did not care whether their sins hurt anyone else in the process and are not sorry for what they’ve done, even if they do believe in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, they will not go to heaven. So yes, in that case they will go to Hell. Again, a very ‘general’ generalization.

I guess if you were to ask why is there a Hell in the first place, I’m going to tell you up front that I’m not the best person to answer that, and I hope someone else more articulate will come in and help explain. But as I said before, I can certainly try.
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So you mean it all has to do with sins to determine if one goes to hell or not, and not believing in or not in God??

Seriously??! One goes to heaven or hell because of just SINS?!?!?! Nothing else? Wow.
 
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