How can we have free will?

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BraverBadge

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If God is all knowing, then how is it possible for us to have free will? If he knows what we are going to do before we do it doesn’t that mean we are destined to do it? Also if I were to pray that someone is kept safe, how can God answer my prayer without taking away someone’s free will?
 
Don’t overthink this, just USE your free will for good.
your 3rd sentence doesn’t quite compute
 
Here is an example. Lets say my brother went to withdraw some money from the bank. While there several terrorists take him and everyone in the bank hostage. I pray to God asking that the terrorists not kill him. Can God do this without taking away the terrorists free will?
 
BraverBadge said:
If he knows what we are going to do before we do it doesn’t that mean we are destined to do it?
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If I leave out a bowl of dog food for my dog who is hungry, and I’m 100% certain he’s going to eat it, does this violate his free will to eat the food? Not at all. I simply know my dog well enough to know that he’ll eat the food.
BraverBadge said:
Also if I were to pray that someone is kept safe, how can God answer my prayer without taking away someone’s free will?
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As an example, someone can throw themselves into a deep pit, but they may not know that there’s netting beneath to catch them. So they still willingly throw themselves in, but the consequence of their actions that they may have wanted did not occur.
 
Sure. Another example, the terrorists pull the trigger, the gun jams, and in that time the police’s sniper kills all the terrorists.
 
God is omnipotent and omniscient.

Just because God knows that you will do something doesn’t mean that you don’t have the freedom to do it or not. It’s kind of like knowing the bus schedule. Just because the bus driver pulls up at your stop when you expect him to doesn’t mean he had no choice to do so.

God could intervene in the scenario you described, say by having the terrorists’ weapons jam. Look up what happened to the Jesuit house at Hiroshima for a real world example.
 
What about when Jesus made a prophecy regarding Judas’ betrayal? Once Jesus had made this prophecy Judas was ultimately destined to betray Jesus, if he didn’t that would make Jesus Imperfect.
 
MikeInVA said:
Jesus, being omniscient, knew that Judas would betray him.
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But after the time of Jesus’ prophecy how could Judas still have the choice to be faithful to Jesus? What I’m saying is he couldn’t chose to be faithful, we know that it’s impossible for him to do that because if he did it would mean Jesus was imperfect which we know to be false.
 
BraverBadge said:
But after the time of Jesus’ prophecy how could Judas still have the choice to be faithful to Jesus? What I’m saying is he couldn’t chose to be faithful, we know that it’s impossible for him to do that because if he did it would mean Jesus was imperfect which we know to be false.
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The thing to keep in mind is Jesus is fully God and fully man. It seems to me the part you are struggling with is that word “TIME”. Jesus was fully man when he made this prophecy which would mean “TIME” does play a part and His words are prophetic. From a human view point He was speaking of a future event, something that Judas will do at a later point in time. However, keep in mind that Jesus is also fully God. In His divinity He is not speaking of something that will happen in the future. Time has no meaning to God. Past, present and future are always “NOW” (for lack of a better word) for God. So when He prophesied Judas betrayal He was speaking of a choice Judas will freely chose in the human future, but also a choice that is currently present to Him from His divine point of view… Just because Jesus sees the future event doesn’t mean the event can’t naturally occur.

God is not bound by the constraints of time. He already knows the free choices you made 20 years from now. This knowledge takes nothing away from our free will.

Hope this helps

God Bless
 
Fauken said:
If he knows what we are going to do before we do it doesn’t that mean we are destined to do it?
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Respectfully opinion only pondering 🤔
If>>>rather for certain does he >>know>> what we will choose or not choose?
If one reads the OT in what is written seems to tell us other wise?

What he >>knows>>he tells us in what is written, calling us
stiff neck people?
Rebellious?
gluttons?
selfish?
liars?
thieves?
hypocrites?
list is long, etc
if we >> did not have >>personal free will>> Does one think in all that is listed above and more>> would have existed? come to pass? would have taken place on earth among his creation?
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He lets us know>>he is not pleased with our choices, within his Spoken Word does he not?

He waits calling out over over>> Return to me and I Will return to you?>>gives us Free Will>>no one is forced to >>Love Him, or believe in his Spoken Word as Truth, or obey him or His Commandments, are they? >>Free Will?

He gives us his>> Royal Ten Commandments to give us instructions to>>>know>>right from wrong>>>like any Loving Father does to his own children >>>but the choices are ours to make, whether they be right or wrong.

Like any Loving earthly Father, he also trust in his loving children to make the right choices?
Children strongly rebel against their own Loving Parents, do they not nor do they listen to their Loving Father do they and make wrong choices right?

We all have >>>Free Will>>if this was not true>>>Our Heavenly Father>> would of forced us all to do His Will or else?

Our Heavenly Father forces no one to Love him? What is Love if one is forced to love, he tells us
Written>>You take that kind of love I do not accept it, true?
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I believe our Heavenly Father will >>never >>take away our >>Free Will>>> for that would make our Heavenly Father >>fully accountable and he would be held responsible for >>>our all of our choices good or evil, would he not?

Peace 🙂
 
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Sure. It could be that God answers your prayer by:

-making sure he goes to heaven, he was on the edge, and your prayer made the difference of him getting saved.

-God jams the Glock so the weapon will not fire when try and kill him. Fearing that everyone will attack them, they drop the gun and run away.

-God puts the idea in the SWAT team leaders mind to follow a certain lead which results in the terrorists being caught before the terrorists have a chance to kill anyone.

We are so far down the intelligence totem pole, we cannot even predict how God can answer our prayers. For that reason alone, it is just best to have faith in God, rather than to try and reason it out. We just don’t have the capacity to understand how God does things beyond a certain level.
 
To be able to love we need free will otherwise we would be programmed like robots. Created by love, for love, to love and give our lives for others. There is no way to say “yes” to God if we don’t have a free will.

I just got this image in my head of a man proposing to his dearest saying with a robotic voice “I love you!”.
 
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