We're Not Ready To Say Goodbye To War Just Yet.

Yes, even if you believe in free will.

Sounds odd I know, but that is what comes with knowing all. If he knew who would wind up in hell, even of their own free will, and he still caused their creation, then he is responsible.

God's responsibility and your responsibility are not mutually exclusive.

 

Nope.

That's the belief in the un-free/bound will and predestination that Luther and Calvin professed (and Erasmus rebutted), and it's the antithesis of the belief in free will, especially the belief in the free will of both Man and God.

it sounds odd because that's not how the free will of Man and God works, my friend. God is free to let us work these things out for ourselves. He doesn't have to know how each of us will work things out for ourselves.

He is God, after all. What makes you assume he has to be otherwise? God can be anything he wants. Who are you to say and decide otherwise?

This isn't a novel concept. When the great Franciscan theologian William of Ockham argued this in the 14th Century it was somewhat revolutionary and scary for a lot of people at that time. The notion of a God who could be and do anything terrified the daylights out of the people who wanted a nice and tidy predictable God that operated within the scope of their own assumptions and preconceived notions of an orderly universe.

Bottom line, God is not bound by Man. You don't have to be one of the greatest logicians in history to figure that out.

Really?

Who/what is to say they aren't?

 

God cannot control His creations, since control of others is part of man's fallen nature and stems from jealousy, something that Pure Creation and Love would be incapable of. We were created in God's image and therefore given a free will.

What God did do though, is have His Word incarnated into flesh and suffer every pain and humiliation so we could unite with Him when we die. The choice though would be ours.