Human Free Will v. God’ s Foreknowledge and Sovereignty
Since God created us and He knew every choice we would make during our life, does this mean that He created us to do exactly what He wanted us to do—meaning that no one truly has free will?
Our Choice, God’s Sovereignty, Copyright RCR
The above image visually represent how God sees all possible futures while allowing individuals to freely choose their own paths
This atheist assertion is a variation of the classic argument against the compatibility of divine omniscience and human free will. The argument assumes that if God knows all things before they happen and is the Creator of all things, then human free will must be an illusion. However, this argument fails to consider the philosophical, theological, and logical nuances that allow for both divine foreknowledge and genuine human choice. Below, I will address the flaws in this assertion and demonstrate how free will is entirely compatible with God’s omniscience and sovereignty.
Foreknowledge Does Not Equal Determinism
The primary flaw in this atheist assertion is the assumption that knowing something in advance necessarily causes or determines that event. Simply knowing an event will happen does not mean the knower forced or predetermined the event to happen.
If a teacher knows in advance that a student will fail a test due to lack of studying, does the teacher’s foreknowledge cause the student to fail? No. The student still makes the choice not to study. Similarly, if a weather forecaster accurately predicts a storm based on current conditions, does their knowledge cause the storm? No. God’s foreknowledge of human choices does not mean He forces or determines those choices. He simply knows what free creatures will choose in a given set of circumstances.
The Distinction Between Knowing and Deciding
The assertion falsely equates God’s knowledge of an outcome with His determination of that outcome. There is a critical distinction between:
- Knowing what will happen.
- Deciding what must happen.
God, in His omniscience, knows the choices that each person will freely make. However, He does not force them to make those choices. He created humans with free will, and His knowledge of future events does not invalidate that freedom.
The Biblical Perspective on Foreknowledge and Free Will
The Bible affirms both God’s omniscience and human responsibility. Some key texts illustrate this: Deuteronomy 30:19 – “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.”
God offers real choices and holds people accountable for them: 1 Peter 1:2 – “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.”
God’s election is based on His foreknowledge, meaning He knows in advance who will believe and choose Him, but does not force that choice: Matthew 23:37 – “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”
Jesus laments over Jerusalem’s free rejection of Him. If they had no free will, this lament would make no sense.
God Created Free Will as Part of a Moral Universe
A key aspect of this argument misunderstands why God created humans with free will in the first place. Love, morality, and genuine relationships require the ability to choose. If God created only beings who could never choose to reject Him, then love would be meaningless. If God forced humans to do only good, then morality would be irrelevant. For love and righteousness to exist, real choice must exist.
C.S. Lewis illustrates this beautifully:
“If a thing is free to be good, it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.” (Mere Christianity)
The Logical Problem with Determinism
If the atheist claim were true (that all events are predetermined by God’s knowledge and creation), then this argument itself would also be predetermined, rendering all reasoning meaningless. If everything is predetermined, then the atheist making this claim is not actually reasoning freely but is simply stating what they were determined to say. If free will does not exist, then rational thought itself collapses, since reasoning requires the ability to freely choose between logical options.
This is known as the self-refuting nature of hard determinism—if all beliefs and arguments are predetermined, then there is no reason to trust any belief, including atheism itself.
The Compatibility of Free Will and Divine Providence
Philosophers such as Alvin Plantinga and William Lane Craig have demonstrated that God’s omniscience includes “middle knowledge” (Molinism)—the knowledge of what free creatures would do in any given circumstance. This allows for a world in which:
- God knows all possible choices humans could make.
- God knows what humans will freely choose in any given situation.
- Humans remain truly free in their decisions.
The result:, God’s knowledge does not override human freedom; rather, it perfectly incorporates it into His sovereign plan.
The Atheist Argument is a False Dilema
This atheist assertion falsely presents the issue as if God’s foreknowledge must eliminate free will, but this is a false dilemma. It assumes only two options:
- Either God knows everything, and we are robots. or,
- We have free will, and God cannot know everything.
The reality, is that a third option exists: God’s omniscience and human free will are fully compatible.
- God created humans with the ability to make free choices.
- God knows what those choices will be.
- His knowledge does not force or determine those choices.
This is why both logic and Scripture affirm human moral responsibility, while still maintaining God’s perfect knowledge.
A Philosophical Expansion: Foreknowledge vs. Determinism
One of the primary errors in the atheist assertion is the confusion between foreknowledge and determinism: Determinism states that all events, including human actions, are caused by prior conditions such that no other action was possible. Foreknowledge, is simply knowing what will happen without necessarily causing it to happen.
Consider this example: If you recorded a football game and watched it later, you would know the outcome, but your knowledge would not change the players’ choices during the game.
God’s knowledge works similarly—He knows what we will freely choose, but that does not force the choice upon us.
Alvin Plantinga’s Free Will Defense
Alvin Plantinga, one of the most influential Christian philosophers, argues in God, Freedom, and Evil (1974) that God’s omniscience does not negate free will. He makes the following key points:
- God cannot force someone to freely choose something.
- Free will is logically necessary for love and morality to have any meaning.
- The existence of evil is a direct result of free will, not a flaw in God’s design.
A Further Explanation: The Modal Logic of Free Will
Plantinga introduces the concept of possible worlds to explain how free will and divine knowledge can coexist. He states:
In any given world, free creatures have different possible choices. God, in His omniscience, knows all possible choices that people could make. When He creates the world, He actualizes a world in which He knows people will freely make certain choices. Thus, God’s knowledge of our choices is like a perfect map of possibilities, but He does not coerce our decisions.
Source: Plantinga, Alvin. God, Freedom, and Evil. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1974.
Key Biblical Scriptures That Describe Genuine Free Will
These texts demonstrate:
- God knows the future.
- God does not force people’s choices.
- People are responsible for their actions.
Middle Knowledge (Molinism) and Free Will
Luis de Molina’s Middle Knowledge
Luis de Molina (1535–1600), a Jesuit theologian, developed the idea of Middle Knowledge (Scientia Media), which provides a powerful explanation of how free will and divine omniscience coexist.
Molina proposed that God has three types of knowledge:
- Natural Knowledge – God knows all possible things that could happen (logical possibilities).
- Middle Knowledge – God knows what every free creature would do in any given circumstance.
- Free Knowledge – God knows what will actually happen because He chose to create a specific world.
How Middle Knowledge Resolves the Foreknowledge Paradox
- Assumes that God knows that if Peter were placed in a certain situation, he would deny Christ.
- God does not force Peter to deny Christ; He simply knows what Peter would freely do.
- When God actualizes a world where Peter exists, His knowledge remains perfectly accurate, but Peter still makes the choice freely.
This view reconciles omniscience and free will without contradiction.
Source: Molina, Luis de. On Divine Foreknowledge: Part IV of the Concordia. Cornell University Press, 2004.
The Self-Defeating Nature of Atheistic Determinism
The atheist assertion that foreknowledge destroys free will actually undermines their own ability to reason. Here’s why:
If Determinism is True, Rational Thought is Impossible
If all thoughts and actions are predetermined, then:
- Atheists did not arrive at their belief through reasoning but through pre-programmed causation.
- If they cannot reason freely, then no argument they make has any validity.
- The claim “I am reasoning that free will does not exist” would itself be invalid.
Philosopher J.P. Moreland critiques determinism in Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview: “If determinism is true, then rational deliberation is impossible. But rational deliberation is possible, therefore, determinism is false.”
Source: Moreland, J.P., and William Lane Craig. Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2003.
Theological Perspectives: Thomas Aquinas on Foreknowledge
Aquinas argued in Summa Theologica that:
God exists outside of time, meaning He does not “foresee” events as we do. Instead, He sees all events simultaneously in an eternal present. This allows for human free will without violating divine omniscience.
Aquinas likens God’s knowledge to a person watching a parade from a high mountain: The person on the ground sees only one part of the parade at a time. The person on the mountain sees the entire parade at once. In the same way, God sees past, present, and future all at once, but does not cause them.
Source: Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologica, I, q. 14, a. 13.
The atheist assertion that foreknowledge eliminates free will is based on a misunderstanding of:
- The distinction between knowing and causing.
- The biblical teaching on human responsibility.
- The philosophical resolution provided by thinkers like Plantinga and Molina.
- The self-defeating nature of determinism.
The end result of this study: God’s omniscience and human free will are fully compatible.
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Sources and Citations:
Philosophical and Theological Sources on Foreknowledge and Free Will
Alvin Plantinga – “God, Freedom, and Evil” (1974)
Plantinga argues against the logical problem of evil and supports the idea of “middle knowledge” (Molinism)—that God knows not only what will happen but also what free creatures would do in any given situation.
Citation: Plantinga, Alvin. God, Freedom, and Evil. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1974.
William Lane Craig – “The Only Wise God: The Compatibility of Divine Foreknowledge and Human Freedom” (1987)
Craig defends the compatibility of divine omniscience and human free will, demonstrating how foreknowledge does not necessitate determinism.
Citation: Craig, William Lane. The Only Wise God: The Compatibility of Divine Foreknowledge and Human Freedom. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 1987.
C.S. Lewis – “Mere Christianity” (1952)
Lewis explains how free will is necessary for love, morality, and meaning.
Citation: Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity. New York: HarperOne, 1952.
Richard Swinburne – “The Coherence of Theism” (1993)
Swinburne argues that divine omniscience does not contradict free will but rather affirms moral responsibility.
Citation: Swinburne, Richard. The Coherence of Theism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Thomas Aquinas – “Summa Theologica” (13th Century)
Aquinas affirms that God’s foreknowledge does not interfere with free will because divine knowledge exists in eternity, not in time.
Citation: Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologica, I, q. 14, a. 13.
Biblical Sources on Free Will and God’s Foreknowledge
Deuteronomy 30:19 – Real Choice is Given: “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.”
This scripture demonstrates that human choice is real and carries consequences.
1 Peter 1:2 – Foreknowledge Does Not Equal Predestination
- “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.”
- God’s election is based on foreknowledge, not coercion.
Matthew 23:37 – Human Rejection of God is a Free Choice: “How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”
Jesus expresses genuine sorrow over human rejection, showing that their choice was not predetermined.
Ezekiel 18:30-32 – God Desires Repentance, But Leaves the Choice to Humans: “Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. […] For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!”
If determinism were true, God’s call to repentance would be meaningless.
Acts 2:23 – God’s Plan and Human Responsibility Coexist
“This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.”
The crucifixion was both foreknown by God and a result of human free choices.
Logical and Philosophical Arguments
Middle Knowledge (Molinism): Luis de Molina (16th Century) developed the concept that God’s omniscience includes “counterfactual knowledge”—He knows what free creatures would do in any situation.
Citation: Molina, Luis de. On Divine Foreknowledge: Part IV of the Concordia. Cornell University Press, 2004.
The Free Will Defense Against Determinism: The idea that foreknowledge does not cause events is widely accepted in analytic philosophy of religion.
Citation: Flint, Thomas. Divine Providence: The Molinist Account. Cornell University Press, 1998.
The Problem of Rational Determinism: If determinism were true, rational thought would be impossible since all beliefs would be preordained rather than reasoned.
Citation: Moreland, J.P., and William Lane Craig. Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2003.
Categories: Robert Clifton Robinson
Robert Clifton Robinson 
“God’s knowledge does not override human freedom; rather, it perfectly incorporates it into His sovereign plan.”
This actually proves that God created some people just so he could hate them and send them to hell. (let us not pretend Esau was the only one he felt like this about)
God’s idea of “free will” is a lie at best. The second Adam and Eve chose not to do exactly what they ordered to do God INSTANTLY punished them for it, and the punishment was beyond extreme to say the least.
Additionally, he broke his own commandment by punishing every human ever created afterwards to pay for the sins of Adam and Eve. Guess might really does make right.
Facts are that God really did want robots, but he apparently isn’t very good at creating other beings, because he failed to create perfect angels (Satan and his angelic followers) and failed with creating humans.
But he needed someone to stroke his overinflated ego and when he didn’t get his way he went on yet another violent temper tantrum.
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An interesting statement.You think an Eternal Being had nothing better to do than create human beings, so that He could “yank their chain,” and condemn them to Hell?
The truth is that the God described by the Bible, is perfect in every way. It is impossible for Him to do evil, or permit evil to continue forever. He dwells in a Light that is unapproachable. He is so perfect that should we be brought into His presence, we would immediately be consumed by the brightness of His perfection.
This is the reason that no mortal human can go to heaven in the present body we now have. We must first be cleansed of our sin, and be perfect, or we will be consumed.
I know that you have never studied the Bible because this comment came straight from your own mind. You will not find this conclusion anywhere in the Bible.
If you had studied the Bible you would learn that God created human beings perfect in every way. He gave us the greatest gift we could ever receive: Free Will.
We were created by God to be like Him. This means we are self-determinate beings. We decide where our life will go and the results and consequences, are our responsibility.
The problem with Free Will is that most people will choose evil rather than good.
This was the choice, and Adam chose evil. Each one of us make our own choice. We all have chosen evil, so we all die.
The penalty for choosing evil is death, physically, and death for eternity, separated from God.
The reason that God did not create robots is that He wanted genuine fellowship with persons who were like Himself; people who choose to do good, and live in a world that is absent evil, sin, suffering, and death.
You and I make our own choice whether we will live in this perfect world with God, or the world that is occupied by unrestrained evil.
Clearly you have chosen the later.
This is your choice and you seem to grasp that you have this choice.
You are trying to blame God for creating you with choice, yet you refuse to make the right choice.
God chooses people who love good, He hates people who choose evil. This is true. All reasonable people love good and hate evil.
Again you understand this, but miss the fact that God does love all people, this is why He came to Earth and paid the penalty we owed for our decision to choose evil. Jesus died for all sins, for all time.
When God created Adam He told Him that if he wanted to live forever in the perfect world God created, he should not choose evil but do good.
The penalty for Adam is the same for us today: choose evil, die. Choose good, live forever.
It is this choice that kills us, not God. We die at our own hands, because of our choice.
You and I live in a world where the law determines our freedom or restraint.
We make choices every day based on what we know about the law.
God is the source of all laws. The universe exists and continues, by several laws that God created. The universe functions perfectly because it obeys the laws of God.
God created the Earth and placed us humans on this planet. He also gave us His moral law to govern how we live our lives. He has this exclusive right, since He is the Creator of all that exists.
Only on Earth do human beings refuse to obey the moral law of God.
The penalty for choosing sin (evil) is death. Right now you are on the path of Eternal Death.
Jesus has died for your sins and fully paid for all of these acts. You can be forgiven right now and become a perfect being again, fully ready to live in the perfect world God will create after He finishes His judgement of this present world. All you must do is agree with God that you have broken His Law and are worthy of death, but ask Him to forgive your sins based on what Jesus did for you at the cross. If you obey this command to repent and trust Christ, your record of sin will be wiped clean and you will have eternal life.
Adam knew the penalty for sin, that it was death. Even though he understood this penalty, he chose evil and died in spite of his knowledge. This is precisely what you are doing right now.
If you know what the penalty is for committing a crime, then you should not be surprised when the sentence is ordered for your violation of the law you broke.
Adam suffered death, knowing that his disobedience would cause his death. God did not arbitrarily sentence Adam to death, He carried out the sentence He promised. If God cannot be trusted to do what He says, both positive and negative, then no one would every trust Him.
Every human dies because every human has sinned. It has nothing to do with Adam. You are going to die for your own sins, not the sins of anyone else.
This is a logically incoherent statement. God created people and gave them choice, precisely because He didn’t want Robots. The evidence this is true, is you. Here you are making your own choice to reject God, knowing that it will result in your Eternal death. This is your fault not God.
No, this is not true. God existed eternally before He created the universe, Earth, and human beings. He didn’t need us from eternity; He doesn’t need us now.
He created us for Himself, to display His love, grace, mercy, and power to all creation.
For no other reason.
Your unwillingness to turn from your sins and be saved, has no effect upon God whatsoever.
You, on the other hand, will have eternity to regret your decisions, and that choice can Never Be Undone.
This is your One Chance to have your sins removed, and live in a perfect world…
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“An interesting statement.You think an Eternal Being had nothing better to do than create human beings, so that He could “yank their chain,” and condemn them to Hell?”
Yes, that’s eaxctly why he did it.
“It is impossible for Him to do evil, or permit evil to continue forever.”
So are we going to just keep our heads in the sand and ignore that God created Satan?
if God is perfect, and nothing ever surprises him, then he knew full well what he created was the most evil being ever. If you create the most evil being ever, you cannot even begin to tell me you cannot do evil.
Before you say I am wrong, GOD created hell, not Satan. That in itself is evil.
“If you had studied the Bible you would learn that God created human beings perfect in every way. He gave us the greatest gift we could ever receive: Free Will.”
So you clearly have not read my entire post. I stated in the beginning that the second they executed “free will” God instantly and beyond excessivly punished them for it.
“Free will” for humans is no better than Tony Soprano putting a gun to your head and saying “Give me your wallet, OR ELSE”.
Sure you can say no, but we all know what that results in.
“Every human dies because every human has sinned. It has nothing to do with Adam. You are going to die for your own sins, not the sins of anyone else.”
And it was God that said that going forward all humans would inherit the sin nature. That means God WANTED to punish humans. He basically said, well, looks like this experiment failed too.
If God can create Jesus, who always made the right choice and had free will, he could have done it with us, but chose not to.
Believe it or not, I do believe in God, but as someone who has had an entire life of people who abused me and lived their best lives while I lived my worst, sees a world where children are born with horrible defects and die starving to death while all I hear from Christians is “God’s plan”, which is basically saying “shut up and take it stupid”
I go to service, I do volunteer work, becuase its my way of trying to do for others what was never done for me, and while I don’t read the bible as often as I should, I still do. I pray every day for forgiveness, and for things to somehow improve in my life, but they never do.
I follow God because I fear his extremely violent, murderous rampages. I believe in him because of something that happened once in my life that I don’t want to go into detail about, but I have no love for him.
He acts literally the same as my abusing family does. That’s not turning away from God, that’s believing what I see and hear with my own eyes and ears.
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This might be your interpretation of God’s creation, but it is not what is revealed in the Bible.
As I read all of your comments, I came to the last statements you wrote, which reveal to me what your real struggle is; the reason you have these opinions of God: A broken heart, and hurt over some loss or hurt in your life that you don’t understand.
It is often that I have seen this exact response from persons who have suffered the loss of a loved one, either by death or divorce, or hurt from a person, that caused them to blame God for the hurt they feel.
I understand this because I have experienced many losses and hurts during the 51 years that I have loved and trusted in Jesus.
For me, all of these losses and hurts only drove me closer to the Lord. I understand the difference between what people do, and what the Lord does. I don’t blame Him for the bad behavior of people. In fact, the bad actions of people in trying to destroy me, only opens my eyes wider to see the stark difference between the sin of people and the righteousness of God.
My sons have done some terrible things in their lives, as I have, you have, all of us have. But at no time did I ever get a letter from someone who blamed me for creating my sons, that resulted in their bad behavior.
Most people understand that the bad behavior of people is their fault, not God who created them.
I think that your bitterness and resentment towards God is due to your unresolved understanding that what happened to you is just the result of living in a fallen world. This is not the perfect world God created, or wanted us to live in. He warned Adam that this is what would happen if he chose evil.
Free Will is what happens when you love people so much that you give them the right to choose good or evil.
God is not evil because He made us able to choose, we are each responsible for what we say and do.
Just as it is not my fault that my sons, whom I created, did wrong, it is not God’s fault that people hurt you or deprived you of the happiness you wanted in your life.
It’s a reminder of how much you need the Love of God and His promise to take you from this world of suffering and death and place you into the perfect world that is coming soon, where you will never get hurt of suffer loss again.
God created Lucifer, who was the most perfect being God ever made. It was the choice of Lucifer to rebel against God, that caused his fall, and loss of eternal life.
Lucifer is a perfect example of what happens to people when we make the wrong choice.
In the case of Lucifer and all the angels, they did not have the benefit of a Savior to rescue them from their bad choices.
Jesus is the Eternal God who created all that exists. When we all rebelled against God and chose evil over good, He did not abandon us, but came to Earth and died for our sins, giving us a second chance.
Lucifer, when he fell and was lost, had no plan of salvation offered to him. Lucifer became satan and made himself the enemy of God.
So in answer to your question: “Why did God create Lucifer knowing that he would sin and fall away, becoming evil?” God did not create satan, Lucifer created satan by his choice to rebel against God and choose evil over good.
This is a stunning example of the Love of God.
Knowing what will happen is not a contradiction of goodness or love. For God to know what a free creature would do is not the same as determining it.
It only seems contradictory if we assume that “free” means “unknowable,” which is not the case biblically or philosophically.
God’s knowledge of all things does not make free will impossible; it means God’s knowledge encompasses all true propositions—including those about hypothetical free choices.
The Bible repeatedly shows God knowing what will happen:
–1 Samuel 23:10–13 — God tells David what would happen if he stayed in Keilah (“the men would surrender you”), even though David left, so it never happened.
–Matthew 11:21–23 — Jesus says that if the miracles done in Chorazin had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, knowledge of hypothetical human responses.
–1 Corinthians 2:8 — “If they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”
The men who crucified Jesus didn’t really understand what they were doing, but God allowed them to make their own decision, which was also a part of His plan to allow Jesus to die for all sins. Both God’s sovereignty and the decision of men, played a part in these event.
Again, He knew, but he allowed these persons to make their own choice. These texts affirm that God’s ability to know all things includes knowledge of every possible free act, even hypotheticals.
Only a God of Love would create beings and give them the choice of good or evil, and allow those persons to choose for themselves. If God was evil as you say, He would have made us robots who have no ability to choose, but must do what God wants, by force.
The Love of God allows us to choose, and all of us chose sin. All of us are lost because of our choice to sin. Jesus came to earth to die for us and, again, show us the Love of God. He was not willing that any of us would perish, but that all of us might have eternal life.
If you can understand this, then peace will fill your heart and the pain that you are suffering from now, will disappear.
Only when you arrive at this place where you can let go of the hurt and accept the Love of God, will you be able to live in peace, and contentment.
Hell was created as a prison for satan and the angels who rebelled against God. He did not create Hell for human beings.
Jesus has paid the penalty you owed for your sins, and offered you a full pardon for your sins. He offered this to every person born on Earth.
If we accept His pardon, we are set free and will live in the perfect world that is to come.
If we reject His pardon, then there remains no other way for God to save us. We will die in our sins, and be lost forever.
Hell is the place where people refuse to let God save them, go to serve their sentence for their sins.
We all have two choices: let Jesus pay for our sins, or pay for our sins ourselves.
I read every word you wrote.
Choices have consequences. If we choose to accept what Jesus did for us at the Cross, God acquits us of all our sins, the violations of His Law.
If we refuse to let Jesus save us, then we have condemned ourselves to suffer the punishment for our sins, forever.
Just as the result of our obedience to accept Jesus’ offer to save us has eternal consequences, eternal life, so also are the results of our refusal to let Jesus save us, has eternal consequences: eternal death in the prison of Hell.
Knowing that God does what He promises: Make the right choice. Fall in love with Jesus, let Him save you.
God is not holding a gun to your head. God is not threatening you with Hell, He is offering you Heaven.
Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead, took away the power of the Law to condemn us.
It also took away the power of our sin-nature, by giving us the choice to live a righteous life.
Before Jesus saves us, we do not have the Holy Spirit living inside us. We are controlled by the sin that lives in us. We are slaves to sin with no choice.
After Jesus saves us and comes to live inside us, this former power that sin had, is broken.
We have the choice after we accept Jesus offer to remove our sins, to live new lives. Sin no longer is our master.
You become a New Creation, the old life is gone, a new life controlled by the Holy Spirit has arrived.
From your comments it seems that you go to church, but have never been Born Again by the Spirit of God.
In John 3:3, Jesus said that “unless we are Born Again, we cannot see the kingdom of God.”
If we confess to Jesus that we are a sinner, and ask Him to take away our sins, and come to live inside us, He will do this immediately.
At that moment, we are Born Again, we are a new creation.
I would encourage you to ask Jesus to take away your sins, and come to live inside you, so that you can have this gift. It will change everything in your life.
I was an atheist in 1975, I asked Jesus to take away my sins and come to live in me. He did this 51 years ago. My life has been filled with difficulties, losses, hurts, betrayal, and people trying to destroy me. None of these things moved me away from my sincere trust in Jesus.
You can have this gift of a new life also, if you ask Jesus…
God did not create Jesus. Jesus has always been the Eternal Living God. He had no beginning, He will have no end. Jesus took the body of a human being and was born at Bethlehem. He grew up just like all of us. He lived a perfect life as a choice that He made, because He wanted to present His perfect life in exchange for all of our lives, to save us all.
He was successful in His desire to take away our sins, and today, He offers us all the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
Belief in God will not save you. Even the demons believe in God, but they are not saved.
Feeling sorrow over your sins and asking Jesus to forgive these sins, will take your sins away. Jesus will come to live inside you and you will become a new person, Born Again.
This is what will save you. Not going to church or trying to be a good person, or believing in God.
Repentance from sin, trust in Jesus for the rest of your life, this is what saves you.
Good works are wonderful, but again, no one is saved by Good works. The salvation God offers us all is a free gift that cannot be earned.
We receive this free gift by repenting from our sins, and trusting in Jesus to save us, not by our own efforts.
Fear of God (respect), is a good attribute. Now take that to the next step.
–Repent of your sins
–Ask Jesus to forgive you of all your sins.
–Let go of bitterness and anger for the wrongs done to you and the hurt you feel.
–Live a new life as Jesus is living in, and through you.
I think your fundamental understanding of who God is and what He does, is wrong, because you don’t really know who He is.
Buy a New Living Translation of the Bible. Read the New Testament narratives about Jesus, and notice who He is and how He treats people.
As an atheist, when I read this story of Jesus for the first time in 1975, in the Gospel of John, I understood who Jesus is by reading this account that John recorded, and I wanted to commit myself to Jesus.
I have never regretted this decision in the last 51 years.
God is not who you think He is. Learn the truth, buy the NLT version of the Bible, that is written in simple English that is easier to understand, and your understanding of who God is, will drastically change.
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Scientists have created a clock … a Doomsday Clock. And right now it is 89 seconds from midnight (or doomsday). Unbeknownst to these scientists another doomsday clock is actively ticking … a spiritual clock holding back the wrath of God. A day is fast approaching where the world’s sin will reach its fullness (See Genesis 15:16 for a comparative thought) and when that happens the spiritual doomsday clock will strike midnight which will end one era and usher in another – The Thousand Year of The Messiah Jesus Christ.
Why would anyone not wish to be apart of this when what is promised is beyond anything we could ever believe as possible. Take a peek at Revelation 21:4 which states “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.“
This is God using His freewill to end sin and evil forever. Amen. Bring Your Kingdom Lord.
And here is a very small point … no government of man can bring these changes about … ~6000 years of recorded history is proof of man’s failure to do so. It’s remarkable that many still put their faith and hope in false gods and idolatry. We all know why (John 3:18-19). An atheist will claim every illogical non-rational thing imaginable to convince themselves that there sin is not seen, or, even real. But God sees you. He saw all the hidden things His people, the Israelites, were doing before He sent the Assyrians and the Babylonians as punishment for their worship of false gods. He saw it all then and He sees it all now.
So each of us, as Pastor Rob pointed in this essay, have been given a choice to make. You were given freewill to make that choice. You have every right to decide for yourself because no man can save you no matter how smart or wealthy you think they may be. Only Jesus can save you.
So you were given some freewill. Spend some of it by choosing to live by coming to the Messiah Jesus Christ. Revelation 21:4 is real and that spiritual doomsday is just right around the corner. Decide with your God given freewill. Do not be the one that looks back on your past decisions and gnash your teeth and cry (Matthew 25:30) because of what follows next. I pray that you are not that person. Lord knows I do not want to be that person. So come … He is waiting for you to knock on His door … AND HE WILL OPEN IT FOR YOU.
May God bless all who read this. The Beginning is NEAR!
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Excellent overview and conclusion, my friend.
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