This is an excellent question. I do not pretend to know the answer, either. I talked to a Calvinst once who said there was no free will, only a will. This distinction was not clear to me. I don't think God's omniscience is a factor in our free will. Just because God knows the choices we make before we make them doesn't mean the choice has been made by God. It is still us that makes the choices.
Likewise just because there are factors of environment, prior experiences, etc., that channel our possible choices, doesn't mean we don't have a free will. Consider Adam and Eve. They had a perfect environment, no worries or cares because they did not need clothing or shelter, and all the food they needed was already there for them to eat. They were only forbidden one thing, that is not to eat from the tree of knowledge. The tree of life was not forbidden and they could have eaten from that first, but they did not, presumably because they did not see a need for it. They had a choice to trust God and believe his warning or trust the serpent and believe its lies. God foreknew that they could choose to believe the serpent, which is why Christ was foreordained to die on the cross before the foundation of the Earth. However, the reality still had to play out. What would they choose? So, evidently, what God knows is still not the same as the what actually occurs.
I believe we all have free will, including the animals. But I don't think I can prove it, only speculate.
I find everyone's answer very interesting. Thank you for posing the questio
Hey Alex, thank you for replying. I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to copy something that I wrote on a different forum because it's pretty long. It's about how I've come to interpret Genesis, because I cannot believe that God's will was thwarted right from the very beginning.
"And God said, Let us
make (H6213
עָשָׂה asah: accomplish) man in our image, after our
likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."
Genesis 1:26
God tells us right in the first chapter what His purpose is for mankind. He is making us in His Image, after His Likeness. This required something that Adam and Eve did not possess when He made them: the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
I believe this next verse is where the true confusion lies:
"And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of
every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
thou [shalt]
not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (Heb. dying thou die)."
Genesis 2:16-17
Here, we see that God tells Adam he
may eat of
every tree in the Garden. Then God warns man that
when (because it was gonna happen) He eats of the Tree of Knowledge, he will die.
The problem with the translation is the word "shalt" in "thou shalt not eat of it". The word shalt is not in the original Hebrew. The original says:
וּמֵעֵ֗ץ (of the tree)
הַדַּ֙עַת֙ (of the knowledge)
ט֣וֹב (of good)
וָרָ֔ע (and evil)
לֹ֥א (not)
תֹאכַ֖ל (eat)
תֹאכַ֖ל (of)
http://biblehub.com/interlinear/genesis/2-17.htm
God did not "command" them regarding whether they
could eat of the Tree, He warned them of the consequences
when they did eat. With this in mind, let's see if we can make sense of this all.
"Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD
God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall
not eat of every tree of the garden?"
Genesis 3:1
So now we are introduced to the Serpent, whom God had made more subtile than any other beast. Right from the beginning he lies to to Eve. God never said they may "not" eat of every tree, He said they "may" eat of every tree. This confuses Eve, but she responds with what God had told her:
"And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye [shall] not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die."
Genesis 3:2-3
Then the Serpent lies again, but deceives Eve by mixing his lie with truth:
"And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be
as (like) gods, knowing good and evil."
Genesis 3:4-5
Eve did not know any better when she ate the Fruit. She had no knowledge of either Good or Evil.
How could she have made a rational decision? This was all in perfect alignment of God's original and only plan. God verifies that everything is going according to His plan next:
"And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become
as (like) one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever"
Genesis 3:22
You see my friend, this was not a huge mishap on God's part by which He had to resort to plan B. There is no plan B.
God desired to make man in His Image, and this required the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God Himself planted the Tree and made the Serpent to tempt Adam and Eve. Everything went perfectly.
And now we see Yeshua, the man that is the express Image of God.
"Who being the brightness of
his glory, and the
express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high" Hebrews 1:3
I hope this all makes sense to you. Thank you friend and God bless.
