Free Will | Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E.

Introduction
Do we have the right to make our own decisions (called free will) or did God determine our destiny before we were born?

This question has been debated for thousands of years and entire books have been written on this topic.

My humble opinion on this topic appears below.

If you decide to read the following then please remember that what you are reading is nothing more than the "opinion" of one old man.

Discussion

In the twenty-first century we have access to a lot of technology that did not exist 100 years ago. For example, we now have cell phones that allow us to remain in touch with the rest of the world 24 hours per day. And a cell phone contains computer chips that allow it to function as a calculator, address book, weather monitor, internet web surfer, and a game machine. Let's briefly look at the game options that are now available on cell phones.

There are many different types of games that can be played on a cell phone and most of us can easily find something to entertain us when we have some spare time. One type of game that can be played on a cell phone is an adventure game where a person temporarily enters an imaginary world that was created by a game designer. The different scenes in the imaginary world are usually beautifully drawn. To play the game the player must explore the different areas of the imaginary world and interface with the things they find in order to gradually advance the story to its conclusion.

The individual who created the game knows exactly what players can do and what they cannot do. Since the game designer programmed the game he also knows exactly what will happen if a player decides on one course of action instead of some other course of action. However the game designer does not control the player. The player controls his or her own actions but his or her actions are limited to what the game programmer designed into the game.

This is relatively easy for me to understand because many years ago I wrote computer games, such as The Lost Crown of Queen Anne. The game contained lots of different things that a player could do, and there was usually more than one solution to each puzzle in the game, and a person could take as much time as they desired before they made their next move. However, I did not know how each player would play the game but I did know what would happen if a player selected one course of action instead of another. In order to assist players win the game, I also included a "Help" option inside the game and if a player selected this option then the game would tell the player what to do next in order to continue the game to a successful conclusion.

The concept of game design can be used to illustrate the concept of human free will and the sovereignty of God. When God created the universe and everything in it, He designed things to operate in a specific manner. For example, the earth orbits the sun and the weather changes as the seasons change. After God set everything in motion, the world and everything in it continues to function predictably and God does not have to intervene to keep things working the way He designed it.

When God put mankind on this earth He set limits on what we can and cannot do. For example, people can breathe the air that surrounds the earth but people cannot breathe if they are completely submerged under water. Our lungs were not designed to extract air from water.

Since God created the universe He knows what the outcome will be if a person decides to do one thing instead of another. But God does not force anyone to do anything. However, God does know what the outcome of a decision will be before a person makes the decision. This does not mean that God is controlling the person. The person still has the right to make his or her own decisions, just like a person has the right to play a game on their cell phone in whatever way they wish.

People have the right to decide what they will do within the constraints of what they are capable of doing. A person can choose to do an evil deed or a good deed. But there will be consequences based on what the person actually does. And those consequences will eventually result in whether or not the person spends eternity in heaven or in hell. In other words, each one of us determines our own eternal destiny based on the decisions we make while we are alive here on this earth. God does not force us to do the things we do but God knows what the outcome of our decisions will be before we do something.

Although our lives are extremely complicated and we make a multitude of decisions every day, such as what we are going to eat and when we are going to go to sleep at night, our lives are not complicated from God's perspective. God created everything and He knows exactly what is going to happen in the future before it happens. In other words, God already knows what each one of us is going to eat tomorrow even though we may not have given any thought to what we will eat tomorrow. But this does not mean that God is going to force us to eat one thing instead of another thing. We still have the free will to make our own choices about everything we do.

Conclusion
God already knows who is going to spend eternity in heaven and who is going to spend eternity in hell, including all the people who have not yet been born.

But God does not determine our eternal destiny for us. God allows each one of us to determine our own eternal destiny based on the decisions we make while we are alive here on this earth.

Blaming God for our decisions would be similar to blaming a game designer for the decisions we make when we play a game on our cell phone. Each one of us has the freedom to make our own decisions and we need to accept the consequences of those decisions and not try to pass the blame on to someone else.

In conclusion, we live in the real world and we do not live in an imaginary game world. The decisions we make while we are alive here on this earth have real consequences in this life and in the next life.

Fortunately, God loves every one of us and God does not want anybody to perish. Therefore before God created the world and mankind, God first designed a way for people to be forgiven for anything and everything they may have done that would prevent them from being admitted into heaven. Regardless of what you may have done during your life, you can still enter heaven if you will just do the one thing that God asks us all to do in order to obtain His forgiveness.

If you would like to know more about religion in general then please click on this link: Is Religion Necessary in the Twenty-First Century?

If you would like to know why I decided to become a Christian then please click on this link: The Reasons I Decided to Become a Christian.

If you would like to know how you can spend eternity in heaven then please click on this link: How to Become a Christian.

Respectfully,
Grandpappy.

Grandpappy's e-mail address is: RobertWayneAtkins@hotmail.com