For the religious life to be meaningful we must have free will,
we must be able to choose between good and evil. If we do not have
free will we cannot be held responsible for what we do.
According to Christians, God is all-knowing - he knows all the
past, all the present and all the future. If this is so, then God
must know everything we do long before we do it. This means that
our whole life must be predetermined and that we act not according
to the free exercise of our wills but according to our
predetermined natures. If we are predetermined to be good we will
be good and if we are predetermined to be evil we will be evil. We
will act not according to our will or choice but according to the
way God has already foreseen we will act. Although Christians will
insist that we do have free will, God's omniscience simply makes
this logically impossible. And that people will act only as God
determines is verified in the Bible
If people are evil it is because God has chosen to make them evil
(Rom 1:24-2
and caused them to disobey him (Rom 11:32).
If they do not understand God's message it is because he has made
their minds dull (Rom 11: and caused them to be stubborn (Rom 9:1. God prevents the Gospel from being preached in certain
areas (Act 16:6-7) and he fixes long before it will happen when a
person will be born and when he or she will die (Act 17:26). Those
who were going to be saved were chosen by God before the beginning
of time (ii Tim 1:9 Eph 1:11). If a person has faith and is thereby
saved, their faith comes from God, not from any effort on their
part (Eph 2:9-10). One may ask "If a person can only do what God
predetermines them to do, how can God hold them responsible for
their actions?" The Bible has an answer for this question.
But one of you will say to me: "If this is so, how can God find
fault with anyone? For who can resist God's will?" But who are you,
my friend, to answer God back? A clay pot does not ask the man who
made it: "Why did you make me like this?" After all, the man who
makes the pot has the right to use the clay as he wishes, and to
make two pots from one lump of clay, one for special occasions and
one for ordinary use. And the same is true of what God has done
(Rom 9:19-22).
So apparently in Christianity a person's life and destiny are due
purely to the whim of God and as mere humans we have no right to
complain about what God has decided for us. The idea that we are
all predetermined is quite consistent with the idea of an
all-knowing God but it makes nonsense of the concept of making a'
effort to do good or avoid evil.
