December 10, 2024

A couple of weeks ago, there was a debate on RBJ on free will. One of the things discussed was if God has a free will. And I was thinking about it a little more lately.

When we make decisions, we base it on what we currently know and our best guess as to what would be the result in the future. For example, when a person decides on who to marry, he takes into consideration what he knows about the potential mate and what life would possibly be like with them together in the future. He might even have to select between several possible women on who would be the best person to marry. Or he might even be holding out for someone even better that he has not yet met. Since he doesn’t know how life will actually turn out with any of them, he has to make his choice based on what he currently knows. But, suppose he can know the future. Suppose he can time travel in the future. And also be able to time travel into the future based on all possible things that can happen in the future. Then armed with this knowledge, he can make the “best” decision as who to marry.

We can even define the “best decision” as, “the decision that results in the utmost good for those involved if you knew all the facts, past, present, and future”. Now, of course we can’t know everything, so we can’t make the “best” decision, but we can make the best decision based on what we know.

However, God does know the past, present, and future. And since God knows everything, even the outcome of all possible decisions, He would naturally make the “best” decision. So, it’s arguable if God has free will, since His decision will automatically be the “best” decision. He cannot choose a decision that is not the best. Well, I’m not too concerned with that cause it’s the same argument as God not being able to do something outside of His nature.

But, one consequence of this that affects us is that God’s decisions are the best. We can often raise our fist at God when bad things happen and say, “God, why did you let this happen?” But, we don’t know all things, so who are we to judge what is “best”? We can simply trust that what God does is the best thing possible, even when it might not seem that way at the present.