I was marginally involved in a Twitter spat between Christians and atheists yesterday. During the ‘debate’, an atheist questioned how we can have free will, and yet have a God that is omniscient? The Christian involved in the ‘debate’ weakly responded ‘why can’t both be true’?
The atheist correctly challenged him over that, saying ‘foreknowledge precludes free will’, and the Christian incorrectly responded ‘just because God knew ahead of time, does not negate our will to make decisions’.
I had the opportunity to comment this morning, as the other participants were American, and had been commenting whilst I was asleep. I wrote the following:
‘Jehovah does not know ahead of time what we will do, that’s Islamic predestination. Please understand your own God, Jehovah mostly leaves the humans to get on with things, only entering the action when called, or according to His will.’
I then quoted some scripture to prove that Jehovah really has given us total free will, and hence (logically) cannot know what we will do from one moment to the next:
’12And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for NOW I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. ‘
I’ve emphasised NOW to illustrate the point that Jehovah only realised Abraham’s faith AFTER the offer to sacrifice his son for God. Neither the Christian or the atheist responded to my two tweets above, so I declare victory against the atheist, and hope that the Christian is now more enlightened about his faith.
***Edit 14th February 2023….. I have since read the apocryphal books, and it is in fact not God that didn’t know what Abraham would do, rather it was one of his angels, probably Mastema, who we know as Satan. So God allowed Abraham to be tested to prove to this angel that Abraham would kill his own son if God ordered him to do so. Once again, humans are used as pawns in the machinations of the supernatural beings, but we must all decide for ourselves whether that’s a good or bad thing. ****
It’s sad to see Christians who don’t understand their own faith, but it’s very common in these dark times, so I pray that this blog will help others to recognise the wonderful gift that free will is for us, as opposed to the predestination that Islamists believe comes from their god Allah. Like programmed robots, they know from a very early age that nothing they do in their life really matters in the end, as it’s already been decided beforehand. A very sad state of affairs. I give thanks that my God Jehovah blessed us with free will to live our lives, knowing that this was a mirror image of His own free will.
The next time a Christian responds to you by saying ‘God willing’, please challenge their misunderstanding and remind them that our God is perfect, unlike all of the others.
This point was explained to me a while ago by a good friend and mentor who was the main influence in me finding my own faith, through his own obscure blog, so I want to dedicate this post to him, and thank him for his support and patience with a new believer, and I pray my obscure blog may help others, especially some local men here in South West England and Wales, to find their own faith, or to feel strengthened that they are not alone, we stand together and we shall prevail eventually, one way or another, we know victory is assured. Amen.
***Edit 14th February 2023****
Based upon events in my own life (such as liking the number 7 from an early age), as well as numerous experiences with other people in the period from 2020 to date, it is now clear to me that our free will is not complete, our actions and desires and thoughts are sometimes directly controlled by God. This realisation depresses me, as it demeans us and our lives making us somewhat like puppets. I just hope that on the new heaven and earth, and maybe even before that, God realises that for us to be His children and to be like Him, we must be free of influence on our freewill decisions. If that freedom is not granted, eternal life holds zero attractions to me.
******