If we are going to assert that we have the free will to choose between A and B, then how can we justify the fact that God is responsible for presenting us with A and B in the first place, thus making Him ultimately responsible?
The God who is sovereign over all Creation sovereignly declared that that you, me and everyone else will have free will.
It is real free will not pretend free will although as St. Augustine pointed out it is stained by sin and imperfect in it’s judgment it is none the less free.
God is no more responsible for our failures and sins than the man in the moon. To assert that God is finally and ultimately responsible for everything we do is to say that God is the first cause of evil. Since God holds man and angels responsible for the evil they commit, if He were the author of it then His judgment on that evil would be unjust. But the Bible clearly says that God is just.
The only way this can be true is if God really gave us real free will and the decisions and actions we make and partake of are really on our own heads and not God’s. If that is true, then God is not culpable for our sins and neither is He unjust for holding us responsible for them. However, it does make the reality of grace all the more amazing when you consider that we are really responsible for the things we do and we really do them of our own volition in direct contradiction to God’s Law and His will for us and yet He still reaches out to us in grace to forgive us and draw us to Himself.
Well, He must be responsible in some capacity since He is presenting us with A and B. What if I want to choose C? I cannot, since God does not allow me to. Is this not an amputation of my free will?
I think that option A or B exist organically because God has given us the Law and free will. However, He does not compel us to choose either A or B and as such cannot be said to author of our decisions.
If we are going to assert that we have the free will to choose between A and B, then how can we justify the fact that God is responsible for presenting us with A and B in the first place, thus making Him ultimately responsible?
God presents us with B in comparison to A, because there is no Justifiable reason to Choose B. The mere fact that something is present is not a deterministic cause to choose. The fact that we would choose B, merely expresses our imperfection. God is also presented with B; but God being perfect does not choose it. We ought to be perfect; therefore the error lies with us.
Love, ultimately leads to freewill, and therefore Gods perfect existence necessarily makes evil a possibility, but not a contradiction. God Being All-Knowing is aware of our folly, and will fashion a world which suits are imperfections and will bring about our Salvation. Because we are imperfect, we cannot live in a perfect world, hence there is natural suffering. We know by being parents, what it means to spoil our children; therefore it would not be good of God to create a world where there is no suffering.
We know by suffering, the knowledge of good, and can truly appreciate that things ought to be good. In our pain we are brought together in love and charity; through suffering we become saints. This only goes to show how imperfect we truly are. God’s justification for permitting evil is based on the presupposition and value of his objective perfection. In other words; Good, Love and Perfection, is worth suffering for, dying for and fighting for. If you accept that truth, you should agree that suffering is absolutely necessary and that God is worth our suffering.
The Bible makes no secret about suffering; Jesus does not cover it up and hide it from us. Instead; Jesus announced that he is the way, the truth, and the light. He was ridiculed, beating and then pinned up on the cross of eternal sacrifice. This was the price for our imperfection. In this loving act, it has been revealed to us that the only way to heaven is through suffering and sacrifice. The only way to the Father is through Jesus Christ our lord. Amen.
Whether or not we come to see this truth depends on our humility. If you accept that our imperfection is unacceptable and that you are a sinner; then the problem of evil is not really a problem. It is just an illusion; an apparent excuse which is reinforced by our pride and naivety.
Well, He must be responsible in some capacity since He is presenting us with A and B. What if I want to choose C? I cannot, since God does not allow me to. Is this not an amputation of my free will?
Absolutely not. God’s offer to us is two mutually exclusive choices, with infinite mercy and the opportunity to repent. God’s “oversight” in not creating a halfway-home position is not an amputation of our free will.
God allows us to choose A - with Him, or to choose B - against Him. There is no such thing as choice C - living somewhere else while visiting Him on alternate weekends and 2 weeks during the summer.
Regarding responsibility, if I let my grown daughter (who is not a problem drinker) borrow the car, then she gets drunk and causes an accident, am I responsible or is she?
She is.
What if I give some money to my grown daughter, she rents a car, and then she gets drunk and causes an accident? Am I responsible, is the car rental agency responsible, or is she?
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