Can Predestination and Free Will Coexist?

[JonC]

You have set the bar VERY LOW for "free will" at "the ability to make choices".
When Pebbles, our Rottweiler, made the choice to "heel" or to "chase the squirrel", was she demonstrating her God given Free Will just like a person?
Could you explain how that is different from my claim "Free will" means we are not an "automaton" (Robot)?

I can help.

When Pebbles chose to heel without command, then it would be of the dog's will. Same with chasing the squirrel when faced with an alternate choice (say, a hamburger or chase the squirrel).

Free will is defined by the ability to choose ("a voluntary choice or decision").


@Silverhair did not set the bar low. He gave the actual definition of the word.


"Automation" is the use of machines or equipment to produce an item with little human imput.

The opposite of free-will is determinism which holds that we do not have the ability to make legitimate choices.

Libertarian freewill is the theory that our will is independent of causes and influences to include God, desire, human nature, etc.

Free will is the ability to choose or make a decision even if influenced by past experience, indoctrination, human nature, etc.

 

[JonC]

BTW.....the actual definition of free will is one readon why free will and predestination can coexist.

We freely exercise our will.....as Scripture states - our plans belong to us ....but at the same time God controls the outcome.


God has free will, but He also chooses based on His own nature (which is why it is impossible for God to lie).

A dog also has a free will to act or desire within its own nature. You do not have to force a dog to do what is in the dogs nature to do. And you can train a dog in such a way that it will obey out of its own free will (initially desiring a treat, later praise).

But there is a difference between God and man, and between man and a dog.


But free will is a term generally applied to human beings as a part of our psyche.

The problem is not free will but sin. Natural man freely chooses to sin because that is his nature. This is still free will.

We struggle between two natures, the Spirit and the flesh.