Free Will

Last Wednesday during our high school group meeting, the focus of the discussion was on the topic of Free Will. It's always an interesting topic for Christians, and one that stirs a lot of debate.

There are two basic camps. One is that we have Free Will to determine what path we will take. The other camp is that everything is predetermined, including our response to the choices put in front of us. Many take hard line positions on that issue.

I, of course, choose choice C. I don't think it is Free Will or Predestination, I think it is Free Will and Predestination. Let me explain.

God gives us Free Will. That is a principle and an idea that is hard to argue with. It is also impossible to argue that God doesn't know what will happen. Our God is omniscient, meaning he knows what is going to happen before it happens. It's not that we don't have Free Will, we do, it's just that God knows what we're going to choose before we do it.

That can be a tough concept to wrap your mind around. This is one of the ways in which I feel like I have grown as a Christ follower. I used to think it was important to fight to create laws and rules that reflected my world view. But that takes the idea of Free Will out of the equation.

I have come to the realization you can't legislate morality. It has to be a choice. We could create laws that forced people to worship God. They would probably do it out of obligation and fear, but would we really have reached them with the Gospel? I doubt it. Would it have helped them to make the right choices? No, it would force them.

God could easily have made us to love him, worship him, trust him — but he didn't. He gave us the Free Will to choose it. He knows what we'll choose, and he acts to direct our paths, but the most important step belongs to us alone.

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