Grappling with Free Will

I’ve been struggling with this topic for some time now…

God created Adam exactly as Adam was supposed to be in Eden. Adam (and Eve) transgressed and were sent out from Eden. God did not create Man as evil; Man had the free will to choose dependency on God or himself. Because Man freely chooses disobedience, God sends Man out of Eden for his own sake. Otherwise Man would have dwelt in wickedness eternally. Through free will man sinned, through free will, Man redeemed Himself in Christ, the eternal Son of God became Man.

That’s the economy sized rundown of a lot of deep Patristic thought…now for the struggling part (thanks to my Sunday School kids for picking my brain about it).

If God has Divine foreknowledge (He really wouldn’t be God if He didn’t), does He

1) “Predestine” people to do exactly what they do

2) Knowingly create Man in such a way that he sins and bring suffering into His world

Well the answer to the first question I learned back in my OCF at UF days. If Allen Iverson or Kobe Bryant are wide open behind the three point line, and someone passes the ball to them, we all know they’re going to make the three pointer. But, even if the crowd knows what is inevitable, knowledge itself does not and can not make it so.

God knew exactly what Adam would do, but did not make him do so. God does not violate free will. Far be it from me to say exactly what God does and does not do, however the most reasonable explanation given to me about man’s free will to sin has been that a coerced love is no true love at all. A real loving relationship is one in which the lovers can say no and do not.

I'll pick up on point 2 tomorrow!

-Steve K.