Comments on: Can God Know Everything and Still Give us Free Will?

By: Williams

Williams — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:59:42 +0000

I can, with fair certainty, predict what a my child will eat for lunch if I offer him a choice of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or fried liver and onions. He would have full free choice. He probably thinks he got the best of me because he’s munching on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. But even though I knew the outcome, he still had a free choice.

I’ve played complex games like chess against people far above my ability. It doesn’t take long before I realize that I’m going to lose. The funny thing is, I still have full choice in regards to my moves, but no matter what I choose, I know I’m going to lose against my opponents’ choices.

By: Williams

Williams — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:34:12 +0000

Is not a fixed choice still a choice?

By: tom

tom — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:55:53 +0000

although a believer for many years i have only recently considered predestintion, because i’ve always assumed free-will. upon reading many articles and dicussions on the topic i’m still confused on the matter. although leaning more towards predestination, i have a few questions that i’d like to share. 1- although i don’t know it, God will make so and so become a christian? 2- does God knowing what will happen in the future negate free will? or does it prove that we made a choice and he knows what that choice is?

By: bruce jones

bruce jones — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 03:41:44 +0000

It’s amazing to think that this was part of God’s perfect plan:

http://www.break.com/index/jesus-ascension-fail-2278550

By: Free Will… is that the question? « The Tells of Tim

Free Will… is that the question? « The Tells of Tim — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 10:18:54 +0000

[...] http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2009/10/27/can-god-know-everything-and-still-give-u... [...]

By: Arpad Edes

Arpad Edes — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 11:08:41 +0000

Dear Kevin!

What if God chooses not to decide whether you want waffle or French toast yet He sees everything, since our choices are not endless to put it middle, so none of your decesions come to Him as surprise. Math proffessors say that Theoretically there is one winning strategy in chess game, regardless to what steps the opponennt whants to take. It is good illustration to see that how can one thing look free from our side and foreseen on the other. So may assumption is that even if God allows things happen freely in a relative sense, it does not mean He is not in Conntroll. There is a winning plan, an unbeatable strategy of salvation with a predestined and but on our side we have multiple choices to make, and multiple futures to be foreseen at the same time which is no problem for God. Why I regard myself a calvinist is because I beleive God’s divine plan, his will, his grace has priority overagainst ours, and his will relatives our free will. And finally the emphesis is on the divine part!

By: Adam

Adam — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 12:48:19 +0000

You need to think through your reasoning more, particularly on your response to “God’s timelessness”. At first glance your thought process seems to follow logically, but this is not in fact the case. Forget the Calvinism-Arminianism debate for a moment, and just use simple principles of logic.

By: David

David — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:15:25 +0000

So if I follow your logic in this article, God ordains rape, murder, theft, lying, etc. because it was necessary. It was never a choice to begin with. Am I understanding you correctly?

By: Chris heath

Chris heath — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 01:45:17 +0000

If God truely knows all,why does he put people that he knows is going to hell?

By: iMark

iMark — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:19:39 +0000

Kevin, Thanks for these thoughts. You have certainly spelled out things a bit more than the interaction I recently had on another blog.