Free Will Considered

[anonymous1515]

The "very notion of Satan" is not a notion. He is the enemy of God. He has nothing whatsoever to do with God's benevolence.

My God is omnipotent, and is Goodness, plus Satan exists, whether you like it or not. Those options are inane, and baseless.

If God is all-powerful and all-good, why would he allow Satan to exist? Is he just letting Satan exist as a scapegoat so that people can do evil things without God getting blamed for them?

It seems like a logical contradiction to me.

 

[Floatingaxe]

If God is all-powerful and all-good, why would he allow Satan to exist? Is he just letting Satan exist as a scapegoat so that people can do evil things without God getting blamed for them?

It seems like a logical contradiction to me.

I don't know why God allowed Satan to exist, but I also don't worry about imponderables like that. God is Sovereign. I will know one day, and say, "Aha!"

 

[martymonster]

I find the topic of Free Will to be an interesting one, and I wanted to hear your opinions on it. I'm not sure if this will spawn some sort of discussion or not, but anyways, here are some of my thoughts...

I think that we would all agree that a world in which we had free will would be better than a world in which we did not (after all, God created humans with a free will.)

However, in providing us with free will, He then allowed us to commit evil acts (for if we had no free will, nobody would commit evil deeds). A consequence of free will seems to be evil.

Is it possible for humanity to have free will without evil?

We are either slaves to sin or slave to righteousness, whence the freewill?

 

[Floatingaxe]

We are either slaves to sin or slave to righteousness, whence the freewill?

We are all given the choice to choose Christ, and we all have free will within the camp we freely choose.

 

[YourChild]

slaves to righteousness = freedom from evil

freedom from evil = slaves to freedom

slaves to freedom = freedom

freedom = freewill

 

[anonymous1515]

I don't know why God allowed Satan to exist, but I also don't worry about imponderables like that. God is Sovereign. I will know one day, and say, "Aha!"

Heh. Thats a good outlook I suppose. Saves time worrying about stuff we can never know. I still like fretting over it though.

 

[MarkFiles]

Do you mean free-choice or free-will?

I've heard it said (and someone mentioned this in this thread, and I pushed 'multi-quote' to quote it but I quoted so many quotes that I lost where it was...haha)
that only along with God's will can we truly make a choice (i.e. creating opportunity for ourselves or others). Choice means to take the path given, doesn't it?

 

[MarkFiles]

Free-will just means to do stuff, doesn't it?
Maybe there are things substantial, things not substantial, things that are just for enjoyment, etc...
And free-will is the ability to do God's will (which is the ultimate best thing).

Maybe 'doing' and 'being' are more advanced terms than we know.