(I) Free Moral Agent: God's Gift To Us Of A Free Will

Common Sense Commentary:

Believe it or not, there are many Christians who believe that everything that happens in this old wicked world is God's Will by the mere fact that whatever God doesn't stop, He permits and it must, therefore, be God's Perfect Will. This view is half true. God not only knows everything
that happens, good and evil, but He also foreknew it before the worlds began. The theological word for God's foreknowledge is Omniscience (all knowing). It should also be obvious that if our Omnipotent (all powerful) and Omnipresent (all present, past and future) God foreknows what will happen, He could easily stop the bad and only permit the good. Then, why doesn't He ????

The answer to that is, that it was God's Perfect Will and Purpose for both angels and humans, not to be just Predestined pegs on a game board, but that His created beings have a Free Will to make "most" of their own decisions and choices and thereby their destiny. How could it possibly please God our Father for angels and humans to do exactly and only what God predetermined and "programed" them to do? This, without a choice or independent, individual decision of their own ? Would you want your own children to obey your every thought and command without any thought or word or action of their own, with no choices or personality of their own but yours ? Do you not get more pleasure and blessing when they learn from you and then make wise decisions and good choices for themselves ? Surly our Heavenly Father wants that for us as well. If God predetermined everything we or angels do or think, based on nothing other than His choosing to bless one and curse the other, why then does He hold us responsible and accountable for our sins, hate, lust, and murder if we were predestined by His choice to do those things ?

I. Angelic Free Will : When the Archangel Lucifer (Satan) and his rebellious angels fought against Archangel Michael and his good angels,were they all just preprogramed robotzombies or Free Moral Agents, with Free Wills, who chose sides for themselves ? Rev.12:7-9 . If they were not each responsible for their own actions, why did God cast them out of heaven ? God, through the prophet Isaiah, explains the Free Will and individual choices of angels in Isa.14:12-14 where God asked Lucifer exactly how he fell from heaven to earth and then God answered the question for him.... , "For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ...I will ....
I will .... I will .... I will be ....(God)." Now, whose will was it that caused these rebellious angels to try to take over heaven, theirs or God's ???? Yes, its a silly question and to say that God "predestined " their sin by His own perfect will is also silly. God could have stopped it but didn't because those angels had a free will, followed Lucifer willingly, and paid the price for their sins. Not only that, but those "self willed" angels who rejected God's perfect will for them and thus put themselves under the "permissive will" of God, needed to be removed from His Holy Presence. 2 Pet.2:4 "God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell into chains of darkness." God rebuked Satan in Ezek.28:12-17, where He addressed him as, oh you ... "full of wisdom and perfect in beauty," you sealed your own fate.... "You were the anointed cherub that covereth, and I put you there: you were upon the holy mountain of God, walked up and down in the midst of the precious stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, until iniquity was found in you. Thou hast sinned; therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God...." Now anyone who still thinks what Lucifer did was somehow "God's will" simply because He didn't stop Lucifer's rebelling in the first place, overlooks God's gift to us of a "Free will" and makes God responsible for sin. NONSENSE !

II. God's Perfect Will vs. His Permissive Will: God, of course has a "Perfect Will" for His angels and for us humans too. His "Perfect Will" is always best for us all. But apparently His "Perfect Will" is, among other things, that we each have a "Free Will" to obey and love Him or to do otherwise by our own choices. He wants us to love and follow Him by our own will, choice, and decision. He is glorified by that more than if we had no choice and could not do otherwise. When we disobey and go astray, we may damage our family, our marriage, our reputation, other people and create irreparable damage that we have to live with the rest of our lives. If our marriage is destroyed and our mate has remarried, repented and has children by a new mate, both of you can still grow in grace, obey and serve God. The sin of divorce is not the unpardonable sin but needs sincere repentance. You cannot restore what you ruined that was God's "Perfect Will" for the two of you, your family, your health, and testimony, but you can still live for Him within His "Permissive Will". Since the past cannot be relived and corrected or changed, you can rebuild your life and possibly be more faithful to Him than you would ever have been before going astray. The prodigal son, after he messed up his life and wasted his substance in riotous living, woke up in the pig pen starving, and said to himself, "I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee". Luke 15:18.If that is the case, and your life and testimony are shining for God more than ever before, His "Permissive Will" may become His "Perfect Will" under the present circumstances. "All things work together for good to them that love God.... "Rom.8:28.

"God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Jesus Christ, after that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, and settle you." 1 Pet.5:10.

There are thousands of things, of course, which are God's will alone and totally beyond our will or decisions, choices or control. For instance, the entire universe, seasons, night and day, hurricanes, weather, oceans, birth of Christ, Holy Spirit's working, Prophecy are just a few. God said of Adam, "I will make him a helpmate.." Eve...Gen.2:18. Adam had nothing to do with it.
Later, He said to Noah, "I will destroy them " with the flood. Gen.6:13. To Abraham, God said, "I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." (Jesus) Gen.12:3. Abraham did not make that decision. Jesus said, "Behold I stand at the door and knock: if any man (human) hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him.... " Rev.3:20

III. Human Free Will: After Jesus told Judas, "That thou doest, do quickly." Judas went immediately to the Chief Priests and asked, "What will ye give me, and I will deliver Jesus
unto you ? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver." (Prophesied by God's foreknowledge) Zec.11:12-13. Did God, by His own will,want Judas to do this evil , by creating him to betray Jesus ? Is that what predestination is ? No. Isn't it more rational and more like God, that He and Jesus Foreknew that Judas, by his own Self will and greed, would simply play into God's hand and plan that Jesus, the lamb of God, would give His life on that cross for the willful sins of hopeless sinners? John 3:16. Look also at the rich farmer in Luke 12:18-19 . He proudly said, "I will, I will, I will" three times of great boastful things he would do with his riches but no thanks or credit or offering to God. "But God said, you fool...." you will die tonight. Then whose shall those things be ?

And why were not the Jewish elders, priests and scribes in Luke 22:66-68 saved ? Jesus said, it was because, "Ye will not believe". That, my friends , is His "Foreknowledge" of their own will first and if He foreknew they would not believe, He also foreknew their destiny because "Ye will not believe" and not because God was unwilling to save them. Jesus also said to a Jewish mob, "Ye will not come to me that ye might have life". John 5:40

The Gospel (good news) is, that, many Jews and Gentiles Will come to Jesus. Rev.22:17 "The Spirit and the bride (church) say, come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely."
>

Pass It On. RB