Free will

Forever the perennial debate amongst Christians, and others, is the subject of Free Will. Are we free as humans to do as we want or is our life following a pre-determined path set by God?

There are some who questioned whether Pontius Pilate and Judas did what they did through choice, or whether they did it in order to fulfil God's will.

Even Jesus when He prayed on the Mount of Olives before He was arrested asked God whether things could be different. Then He accepted God's will.

He even taught us to pray - "Thy will be done".

All this suggests that everything is pre-determined for us by God and we have no choice. Yet as Christians we are taught that we have a choice. A choice to do good and a choice to do bad - and suffer the consequences.

Someone once suggested that life is like a massive set of railway tracks. Many tracks leading in different directions, some towards good and some towards bad. We are a train driving on these tracks. We can choose where to go. God is looking from above and He already knows which tracks we will take.

So if that is the case - it may well take away the element of pre-determination of our life path. But, if He already knows which track I'll take does this not imply that I may have lost a bit of my choice to choose the track I want? If I pretend to drive left and change right at the last minute; in His infinite wisdom He knew that I was going to do just that. So no matter what track I choose, He already knows.

As you can tell, to pursue such an argument will lead to nowhere. True, as intelligent human beings we have an obligation to question and try to understand. But then there is Faith.

Faith is when you believe even though you can't understand.

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© Copyright V Moubarak 2007