Arminians believe in Free Will, yet they also affirm that God has foreknowledge. If God has an infinitely perfect knowledge of all events, past, present, and future, do humans still have Free Will? Well, Open Theists say no, and they reject the idea that God knows future events. I believe the Open Theists are right when they say no, but they get rid of the wrong thing. The Bible is clear that God is infinitely wise, and is outside of time, thus he knows what will happen even in future time, because to God, it is not the future. So, are the Arminians correct? Can you retain the doctrine of free will alongside the doctrine of God's foreknowledge. Well, ask yourself this: IF God perfectly knows that I will choose A over B, am I free to choose something contrary to that which God already perfectly knows I will choose? If you answer yes, then you would have to admit that God's knowledge isn't perfect, because your choice was contrary to what his "perfect" knowledge "knew" you would choose. God would be wrong, and thus, God would not be God, and the world would be consumed, and we would all instantly be in hell. If God perfectly knows that you are going to choose A, you may choose A freely, but you cannot choose anything other than A and still hold to Free Will AND Foreknowledge. You have to choose one or the other to be consistent. If you are going to be consistent in your theology, you either need to become a Calvinist, or become an Open-Theist. I think I will go with Calvinism.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
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2 comments:
I will go with Calvinism too!
Free Will is just another attempt to tie God's hands.
It failed because it shows another god that's not the God of the Bible.
Triablogue recently had a few posts about this sort of thing, and they were arguing that for any particular choice that you make, it's impossible to prove that you had any other option. I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but their argument was pretty tight.
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