Free Will Or Not Free Will, That Is The Question?
Although free will sounds like a simple subject there are complex and paradoxical issues around it. Like destiny, something that is bound to happen no matter what could be viewed as the abstinence of free will. My own view which by no means could be taken as gospel is. Our only choice is the attitude we have to a situation we are going through. Then God decides based on our attitude to change the situation or not but our attitude to what he puts us through and is what we are judged on. It is a form of choice but the choice is limited in scope.
Ironically, one of the pillars of some Christians's life is a paradox. How do you answer, mine would be really it is your own walk before God. It is none of my business because it is too paradoxical. Whatever you decide about free will, will probably be wrong which also means whatever somebody else tries to decide for you will also probably be wrong. Hopefully, that kind of truth will be liberating.
Argument from free will - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_free_will
The argument from free will, also called the paradox of free will or theological fatalism, contends that omniscience and free will are incompatible and that any conception of God that incorporates both properties is therefore inconceivable.[citation needed] See the various controversies over claims of God's omniscience, in particular the critical notion of foreknowledge.[1][2] These arguments are deeply concerned with the implications of predestination.
Free will - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_will
Free will is the capacity of the ability to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded.[1]
Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgements which apply only to actions that are freely chosen. It is also connected with the concepts of advice, persuasion, deliberation, and prohibition.
The problem of free will has been identified in ancient Greek philosophical literature. The notion of compatibilist free will has been attributed to both Aristotle (fourth century BCE) and Epictetus (1st century CE); "it was the fact that nothing hindered us from doing or choosing something that made us have control over them".
Free will in theology - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_will_in_theology
Free will in theology is an important part of the debate on free will in general. Religions vary greatly in their response to the standard argument against free will and thus might appeal to any number of responses to the paradox of free will, the claim that omniscience and free will are incompatible.
Contents
- 1 Overview
- 2 Common defenses
- 3 Christianity
- 4 Hinduism
- 5 Islam
- 6 Judaism
- 7 See also
- 8 References and notes
- 9 External links
1. Overview
The theological doctrine of divine foreknowledge is often alleged to be in conflict with free will, particularly in Calvinistic circles: if God knows exactly what will happen (right down to every choice a person makes), it would seem that the "freedom" of these choices is called into question.
Prophecy is also an issue here. How can you have prophesied what will happen in the future while having a choice for that not to happen?
How Many Prophecies Did Jesus Fulfill?
https://firmisrael.org/learn/how-many-prophecies-did-jesus-fulfill/
Jesus (Yeshua in Hebrew) fulfilled not just the 48 specifically Messianic prophecies. In fact, He fulfilled more than 324 individual prophecies that related to the Messiah!
Free will in antiquity - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_will_in_theology
Christianity
In concurrence with the Hebrew teaching on the subject (see above), the term "free will" is absent from scholarly translations of the New Testament, but some theologians still suggest that the notion of free will is implicit. Passionate debate has raged for centuries among scholars on both sides of the question. Christian denominations have often been divided on the question.
Dr. Alister McGrath, writes, “The term ‘free will’ is not biblical, but derives from Stoicism. It was introduced into Western Christianity by the second-century theologian Tertullian.”[36] The leading scholar on the subject of Free Will in Antiquity, Michael Frede, observed that "freedom and free will cannot be found in either the Septuagint or the New Testament and must have come to the Christians mainly from Stoicism.
Early church fathers prior to Augustine refuted non-choice predeterminism as being pagan.[41][42][43] Out of the fifty early Christian authors who wrote on the debate between free will and determinism, all fifty supported Christian free will against Stoic, Gnostic, and Manichaean determinism and even Augustine taught traditional Christian theology against this determinism for twenty-six years prior to 412 CE.