Free Will vs. God’s Plan

                This question of predestination versus free will of human kind has always sort of puzzled me. In my fifth book, I actually dedicate the whole thing to my pondering on the subject. I strongly believe that we are not bound by predestination, and that we have the free will to control our own lives. I do believe, along with many other prominent Christian religious figures, that God knows the future.

                In my book, I said “if predestination were a fact, then there is no point in punishing the wicked and rewarding the good.” If we had no choice but to sin in a certain situation and to remain strong and faithful in another situation, what would be the point of God’s testing out faith as He did with the Job? There would be no point. I also said not only that, but “if vice and sin depended on God’s providence and not the choices and intentions of men, would not that make God, not man, responsible for our sins?” I believe that Jesus took responsibility for our own sins because he loved us, not because he had to do it.

                If predestination were true, there would be no need to hope or pray for anything in this world. Nobody would pray if they needed something. If there is no need to pray, man’s communication with God is destroyed. We know that God punishes for sins, and rewards for faithfulness, and we also know that many have seen miracles result from prayer, which shows that predestination cannot possibly be the way that God works.

                Another topic that comes up in my book is the problem men have of separating foreknowledge and predestination. I say in my book that “One should imagine that nothing in the way of foreknowledge exists: therefore there is no necessity places on the occurrence of events, and there is no hindrance to free will. Once that is agreed upon, one should imagine a knowing of the future, but still without necessity or hindrance to free will.” God’s knowledge does not force us to react the way we do to certain subjects; it is simply a prediction of what we will do.

                Free will, not predestination is what determines our actions. God sees what the future is to us, and while he intervenes when we ask Him to, God does not make our choices for us. And since God sees our past, present, and future all at once, no man can catch God off guard with an unusual decision or action. I have proven what I say, and others have done the same in other texts, which is why I am so puzzled by the fact that people still do not believe what I say.