I know this is a very disputed topic, and I am sure it has been brought up countless times.
What I'm confused about is how Free Will fits into the area of God's omniscience. If God knows everything, he therefore knows everything that everyone is ever going to do, and he has always known it, even before anything except him was in existence. Is it that we have the freedom to choose, but God already knows what is going to happen? It would seem that if he already knows what will be, and he is the only force in existence at that time, is that or isn't that equal to him planning it?
If there is predestination, I certainly feel more sympathetic for many people throughout history. Take Judas for instance. He is toted as one of the most infamous villains in the Bible, but from the standpoint of predestination, he was only doing the job that God appointed for him to do (I mean, for Jesus to die and fulfill his plan of saving us, someone had to betray him so he could be killed). Then there's Pilate. He had a choice, set free a man and have a war on his hands that would get him executed; or kill the man to save the peace temporarily (you know, I never thought of it in that way, but Jesus's sacrifice also payed the price for stopping/delaying a possible war). Just like Judas, under predestination, Pilate was only playing the role he was scripted.
I could list countless more, but I think my thoughts have been communicated. I definitely understand the Free Will side in that a world in which we are forced to do something by something outside of our power isn't love and has no meaning. I also believe that God is in control and it would go against his very nature if he didn't know what was going to happen all along. Could it be that there is a hybridization of sorts between the two that is simply beyond our capabilities of fathoming? How do y'all reconcile this issue?
The only way that I can reconcile this issue is by observing that no matter how easily I may be able to see what is about to happen with someone else, in no way does it restrict there free will. I don't think that the fact that I'm only relying on probability really matters because I don't see any good place to draw a line whereby they would lose their free will. If there is a 90% probability that my uncle will stop at the next vending machine and buy a candy bar has he lost 90% of his free will? He may not have much will power, but he still has his free will.
When Jesus told Peter that he would deny Him three times before the rooster crowed there doesn't seem to be anything in the text to indicate that Peter had all of a sudden lost his free will. Peter seems genuinely ashamed of himself and his free will decision.
The most eloquent exposition on the subject for me is from Milton's Paradise Lost.
So will fall
He and his faithless progeny: Whose fault?
Whose but his own? ingrate, he had of me
All he could have; I made him just and right,
Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.
Such I created all the ethereal Powers
And Spirits, both them who stood, and them who faild;
Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.
Not free, what proof could they have given sincere
Of true allegiance, constant faith or love,
Where only what they needs must do appeard,
Not what they would? what praise could they receive?
What pleasure I from such obedience paid,
When will and reason (reason also is choice)
Useless and vain, of freedom both despoild,
Made passive both, had servd necessity,
Not me? they therefore, as to right belongd,
So were created, nor can justly accuse
Their Maker, or their making, or their fate,
As if predestination over-ruld
Their will disposd by absolute decree
Or high foreknowledge they themselves decreed
Their own revolt, not I; if I foreknew,
Foreknowledge had no influence on their fault,
Which had no less proved certain unforeknown.
So without least impulse or shadow of fate,
Or aught by me immutably foreseen,
They trespass, authors to themselves in all
Both what they judge, and what they choose; for so
I formd them free: and free they must remain,
Till they enthrall themselves; I else must change
Their nature, and revoke the high decree
Unchangeable, eternal, which ordaind
Their freedom: they themselves ordaind their fall.
