An important element of any defense of God and the Bible is our
freewill. Freewill places the blame on us and not on the Creator who had made
everything “very good” (Genesis 1:31). Of course, if evil is the fault of God,
then God is not entirely righteous.
If God has perfect foreknowledge (omniscience), then we will
do exactly as He knows we will do. Doesn’t this mean that we lack freewill to
do otherwise, and wouldn’t God’s foreknowledge implicate Him in our wrongdoing?
Not at all! Even though we will do exactly what God knows we
will do, this doesn’t mean that we couldn’t have done otherwise at the
time, but just that we wouldn’t have done so.
For example, my wife knows that when I go out to buy milk, I
will wear something on my feet to protect them from the snow. While I could
have bought the milk barefooted, she knows for certain that I wouldn’t
have done so. Therefore, her foreknowledge of my behavior does not detract from
my freewill. Instead, they can co-exist.
Even if God knows with greater certainty - and He does
because He is not limited by time since He created it - God’s foreknowledge doesn’t
detract any more from my freewill than does my wife by simply knowing that I wouldn’t
go barefoot into the snow! Knowing the outcome is not the same as causing the
outcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment