It's not comparable. If God has perfect foreknowledge then the choice is not a meaningful one because whatever decision he was going to make was preordained outside of his control. There would be no meaning or point to the punishment either. God punished the Israelites several times in the Bible. Only rarely did they repent. Why would he even punish them in the first place if the decisions they made were not there own and whatever punishment he did he knew would be ineffective anyway?
The Bible makes much more sense if God does not have knowledge of the future. I have yet to encounter a verse that would require us to believe that he does.
Denial of free will is absolute heresy, it implies God was malevolent when he knew and still had man cast out of Eden. God simply knows you *so well* that he will know what you are going to do, similar to how you understand your own dog or baby so well that you can take a pretty good guess as to what is next. His refusal to FORCE you down any path and his WILLFULLY closing his eye to the absolute truth of which choices you are GUARANTEED to make, is his GIFT to you. Mind you, this figurative veil may be lifted at any moment. But don't take it for granted.
exactly, why would He? Even though He knew exactly what they were going to do, it was still 100% by their own free will that they turned against Him. How can you correct someone if you do nothing to show that they are wrong? Men cannot read the mind of God, so even though He knew that the Israelites wouldn't repent after their punishment there would be no way for the Israelites to know that they had angered God if he didn't punish them. I understand that some things can be different to grasp simply from reading the Bible, if you do in fact read the Bible, but that is exactly why we have the Church to help guide our understanding of the scriptures. Visit an Orthodox priest, he'll help you to understand these things better.
Jackson Cruz
God only lets certain things happen, so no you don't have absolute free will. It's like a multiple choice quiz but he wrote the quiz and which options. You can't just do whatever you want.
I guess the more pertinent question here is asking ourselves whether God had any choice in these matters either. Can he foresee the things even he will do? Is he a slave to time just like the rest of us?
Juan Morgan
Yes, more or less. Obviously I'm not expecting an authoritative answer.
