Does God have a free will?

[InTheLight]

God is aware of your actions and either allowing or not allowing you to act according to your desires. He does this according to his overriding will.

OK...BUT allowing me and directing me are two distinctly different things.

You said earlier that God directed me to have a ham and cheese for lunch today and he did so from eternity past. Now you are seemingly saying something different.

Did I have free will to decide what to have for lunch and God allowed it?

OR

Did God cause me to have a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch?

Which is it?

 

[Particular]

God Yes He allows and disallows there fore there can be no total domination. Your words in a previous post.
"Not one thing happens outside of the Creator giving allowance so that his perfect will shall be accomplished."
Congratulations you just admitted that God has given men there own dominion. The end of determinism for you.
MB

You struggle with the ordained will of God and the position God has placed man in his creation so that man is greater than all the plants and animals. Yet, God is still over all his creation and directs his creation according to his perfect will.
Anything less would make God less than all-knowing, all-powerful and ever present.
What is it that you want control over that God is not capable of accomplishing on your behalf?

 

[Particular]

OK...BUT allowing me and directing me are two distinctly different things.

You said earlier that God directed me to have a ham and cheese for lunch today and he did so from eternity past. Now you are seemingly saying something different.

Did I have free will to decide what to have for lunch and God allowed it?

OR

Did God cause me to have a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch?

Which is it?

I do not see the difference. When I allow my toddler to wander in the yard, but turn him back into the yard when he gets close to the driveway, am I not directing and allowing/disallowing at the same time? Is my toddlers will ever really free from my guiding direction?

 

[InTheLight]

What is it that you want control over that God is not capable of accomplishing on your behalf?

And...strawman.

Again.

 

[Particular]

And...strawman.

Again.

Then why is free will such an important thing? If you don't want control and you want God to direct your path, why the need for free will?

 

[InTheLight]

I do not see the difference. When I allow my toddler to wander in the yard, but turn him back into the yard when he gets close to the driveway, am I not directing and allowing/disallowing at the same time? Is my toddlers will ever really free from my guiding direction?

The difference would be if you decided before your toddler was born that you were going to set him out in your yard to wander about on the selected date in question. You also would have caused the weather to be amenable to a toddler being outside and caused him to wander near the driveway.

 

[InTheLight]

Then why is free will such an important thing? If you don't want control and you want God to direct your path, why the need for free will?

You are conflating two things:
Free will, or the ability of humans to decide something
and
The desire of human's to override God's will.

 

[Particular]

The difference would be if you decided before your toddler was born that you were going to set him out in your yard to wander about on the selected date in question. You also would have caused the weather to be amenable to a toddler being outside and caused him to wander near the driveway.

I am not God though, am I? Yet, the God who controls the weather and all things can do all these things. Is not his watch care even better than my own? Does he not even know the number of hairs on my head?

 

[MB]

You struggle with the ordained will of God and the position God has placed man in his creation so that man is greater than all the plants and animals. Yet, God is still over all his creation and directs his creation according to his perfect will.
Anything less would make God less than all-knowing, all-powerful and ever present.
What is it that you want control over that God is not capable of accomplishing on your behalf?

Funny I believe you struggle with the Bible as a whole. You display your misunderstanding all the time. You embarrass your self in every post and you don't even know it. How sad it is to see someone in such confusion. You say one thing and then turn around and deny what you have said. You really need medication.
MB

 

[Particular]

You are conflating two things:
Free will, or the ability of humans to decide something
and
The desire of human's to override God's will.

The ability of humans to make a decision does not equal free will. It equals cognitive decision making.

Now, a darwinian/naturalist/atheist believes that nature determines every movement and action in nature. Nature has fated everything as it determines how each molecule moves and functions on a universal scale, right down to the most microscopic level. Their creator is an unthinking mechanism with no purpose but to function as it is determined.
For the Christian, we believe that God determines every movement and action in nature. God has fated everything as He determines how each molecule moves and functions in a universal scale, right down to the most microscopic level. God is an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving God who has purposed to accomplish His perfect will and perfect plan as He sees fit. No amount of judgment from humans will change the fact that the plan He has set and is working out is perfectly as He designed it. Human sin is not an accidental oops that he didn't know about and now must fix. It is an allowed and ordained event that is working out his perfect plan.
Will we then, praise God in all circumstances or curse God when evil is ordained to happen in our lives?

 

[Particular]

Funny I believe you struggle with the Bible as a whole. You display your misunderstanding all the time. You embarrass your self in every post and you don't even know it. How sad it is to see someone in such confusion. You say one thing and then turn around and deny what you have said. You really need medication.
MB

God is still over all his creation and directs his creation according to his perfect will.
Anything less would make God less than all-knowing, all-powerful and ever present.
What is it that God is not capable of accomplishing on your behalf?

I'm content with God directing my path, whether that path is in the blessed fields Beulah or the Valley of the Shadow of Death. I have experienced both and God has been there all the way.

 

[MB]

God is still over all his creation and directs his creation according to his perfect will.
Anything less would make God less than all-knowing, all-powerful and ever present.
What is it that God is not capable of accomplishing on your behalf?

I'm content with God directing my path, whether that path is in the blessed fields Beulah or the Valley of the Shadow of Death. I have experienced both and God has been there all the way.

I would have a hard time believing anything you say. I've proved you wrong every time.
MB

 

[utilyan]

God allows me to sin because I am not yet made perfect. He is working his plan through this sinner who has received his grace. If it was God's will to make me perfect, He would.
What is certain is that you misunderstand God and scripture.

"God allows me to sin because I am not yet made perfect." <----Show a bible verse for your LIE.

You are NOT allowed to sin. You do so out of personal rebellion. Right now you are admitting God is not taking total domination of existence.

"If it was God's will to make me perfect, He would."

IT is God's will and COMMAND that you be perfect. Are you saying Jesus Is a LIAR when he tells you be therefore perfect as your heavenly father?


Here is the ANTI CALVINIST WORDS AGAIN.......... HONESTY , SINCERITY.

God is not a LIAR. HE does not want you to sin EVER AGAIN.

You keep calling God a LIAR and blaming him for your continuation of sinning.

God HONESTLY NO LONGER wants you to sin.

Its not going to be a robot autopilot, You actually have to grow a conscience.

 

[InTheLight]

Now, a darwinian/naturalist/atheist believes that nature determines every movement and action in nature. Nature has fated everything as it determines how each molecule moves and functions on a universal scale, right down to the most microscopic level. Their creator is an unthinking mechanism with no purpose but to function as it is determined.

Double talk. You say something with "no purpose" functions as "it is determined". That is a contradiction.

 

[Walpole]

Free will for God?

Yes and no

God is not restrained by anything and always rules in wisdom power and love (someone should really write a song about it)

There is absolutely nothing that restrains God hence God is not ruled or regulated by free will

He is completely independent of wverything especially sin

You hit the nail on the head with this admission. The God of Calvinism, like the God of Islam, is one who acts with pure will and is therefore completely unrestrained by any principle or reason.

This is the antithesis of the God of Christianity who is revealed in the Logos, that is, in the Person of Jesus Christ.

 

[Particular]

Double talk. You say something with "no purpose" functions as "it is determined". That is a contradiction.

Nope. I am showing you how the determinism of the godless is different than God determining our steps.

 

[Particular]

You hit the nail on the head with this admission. The God of Calvinism, like the God of Islam, is one who acts with pure will and is therefore completely unrestrained by any principle or reason.

This is the antithesis of the God of Christianity who is revealed in the Logos, that is, in the Person of Jesus Christ.

What? Because God is omnipotent and omniscient and Sovereign, that makes him evil? Because God answers to no one, that makes him evil?
Come on Walpole, you can't mean that.

 

[Marooncat79]

Walpole went to a place that I never intended ie comparing YHWH to allah

 

[Aaron]

Does God have a free will? Does he will his attributes? Or do his attributes determine his will?

I believe God does not have a free will. Because He is love. And He is perfect. And any change in his will determined by love and righteousness would be to imperfection.

When people on the BB speak of free will, they mean the freedom and power to sin or not. We're told that God is unchanging, and that it is impossible for Him to lie.

So, of course not. Free will is an illusion.

 

[Walpole]

What? Because God is omnipotent and omniscient and Sovereign, that makes him evil? Because God answers to no one, that makes him evil?
Come on Walpole, you can't mean that.

What? Because God does not want you sacrificing babies to Baal that makes Him evil? Because God is greater than Baal, that makes Him evil?
Come on Particular, you can't mean that.


---> Straw men are so much fun. Now I see why you continually post them!