No Such Thing As Free Will

Free Will?

One of the most talked about issue from the time immemorial, what is the truth about free will?

1. Is there free will?

2. How does the truth about it affects us?

3. What should a man do?

Does It Exist?

Let us put this question into an actual experience and help me in arriving on the correct response if free will does exist.

Let us say that someone was invited to a dinner on a friend's home along with some other friends. At the table there were only 2 foods; mixed vegetables dish and pork barbecue. Of course, he has the chance to decide if he would:

1. eat both

2. eat vegetable dish only

3. eat pork barbecue only

4. eat none of those two

That man may make this decision as fast and as discreet as possible so as not to call any attention to his decision. And hopefully finish dinner without any fuss. Or he can also make his decision as conspicuous as possible to draw all attention he can get about his choices and make the dinner all about him.

With the above, we can gather that our every choice is affected by one or all of the following factors:

1. Our knowledge

2. Our Values

3. Our Preferences

4. Our Belief/faith

5. Our Experiences

6. Other people

And some other matter that may affect our decision in a given situation, all our choices are based on those factors. Therefore our choices and will, are never free.

It means that the idea and philosophy of having free will is a deception. A deception designed to make the people pursue something that does not exist, leading man to a sure failure.

What did God gave man actually, is it free will?

19 I am now giving you the choice between life and death, between God's blessing and God's curse, and I call heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Choose life. 20 Love the Lord your God, obey him and be faithful to him, and then you and your descendants will live long in the land that he promised to give your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."- Deuteronomy 30:19-20

With the above we can see that God gave man the choice, and He never called that free. Because God knows that every decision we make is influenced by many things we allow to influence our choices.

It is therefore easy to understand that a man with:

1. Wrong knowledge will make a wrong choice

2. Wrong values will make a wrong choice

3. Wrong preferences will make a wrong choice

4. Wrong belief/faith will make a wrong choice

5. Wrong experiences will make a wrong choice

6. Wrong people considered will make a wrong choice

Please do understand that a particular thing is wrong because it is wrong according to God's point of view. Not because man said so. And even in this particular point, every man has a choice to make; which God will he choose to believe as the real God who should determine the right and wrong for him, or decide to throw away all the idea about a God that should be obeyed.

A man may believe all his life that killing someone else that does not worship the god/God he worships is good. And he may even post his video slitting a man’s throat out of that belief. A “will” that is influenced by the above cited factors.

This is the reason why God said that false religion is guilty of all the murders done on earth from Abel up to the end (Revelations 18:24), because a man will decide to kill another man based on his faith and belief.

How can a man correct the factors that influence his choices? By having the fear of the Lord. (Proverbs 9:10). If we have the fear of God we will be careful with our choices, we will make the effort to know what are His point of view on the matter that we are considering in doing. Knowing is one thing, obeying that will of God, is another. But without knowing, we don't have a chance of obeying.

So there is no free will, we only have the chance to choose.

How Does The Truth of Not Having Free Will Affect Us?

Does that mean that because our choices and deeds are always influenced by other things, we are not liable anymore to the negative effects of the wrong choices that we made? Does it mean we should not be punished for anything that we do?

No, this is one of the fallacy that many people are being taught. That without free will no one should be liable to anything they do, for anyway they were "forced" to do that by the influence that made them do such things.

This is not true. While we don't have free will and all our decisions and actions are influenced by many factors, we still have the CHOICE. If you act on a decision that goes against a law, you chose to break that law instead of following it, therefore you are liable for whatever punishment is stipulated on that law that affects you. The same way that you reap the benefit of the choice of following the law instead of breaking it.

Actually this proves that YHWH is the real God.

How? Well, YHWH proves that even when a man chose to disobey His moral laws, that person will still be forced to "obey" (be under) all other laws that will work and operate regardless of the preferences and actions of the man. Making the man reap what he sow.

In that sense we can never do anything that will be beyond God's control. We can never do anything that will defeat God's will. God has placed His laws, His rules long ago. He was the law giver on physical, natural, spiritual, and moral aspects of everything.

God's Laws never fail. Go against them and reap the results, go with them, follow them and reap the results.

So what should we do?

We should make the effort to learn about Him, His laws, His will and follow them. Otherwise, we will find ourselves going against an unbeatable foe.

Put simply, if our will is different or against God's will, which one would you think will win?

I hope that I have presented the foregoing clearly, now the question would be: What should we do?

God, in His infinite wisdom, knows that the factors affecting our daily (actually every second) choices are very hard to correct, that we can spend a lifetime and still not get it. So, He encouraged everyone who would find it attractive to obey Him to join His chosen people.

He knows that where and when we are born will affect us, and so He made sure that His own message will reach us. It may have reached us in an adulterated form, that's why it is up to us to seek more about Him, seek the truth about Him, His will, His Law.

The deeper we seek, the more we understand how wonderful YHWH is. That soon, despite the worsening human society, God will restore everything to His paradisiacal will. When He ends the existence of evil, death, old age, sickness and violence.

This wonderful plan is reserved to those who are doing HIS WILL. (Matthew 7:20-23)

20 So then, you will know the false prophets by what they do. 21 "Not everyone who calls me "Lord, Lord' will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only those who do what my Father in heaven wants them to do. 22 When the Judgment Day comes, many will say to me, "Lord, Lord! In your name we spoke God's message, by your name we drove out many demons and performed many miracles!' 23 Then I will say to them, "I never knew you. Get away from me, you wicked people!'

I hope you get Christ's message from the above verses from Matthew.

A person may:

1. call Christ as his Lord,

2. go house to house and preach 'God's message'

3. drive out demons

4. and may even perform some miracles

In human's point of view, the four listed above are all 'good deeds' and we will never call those who do them as 'bad people'. But God's point of view is what matters here, without obedience to God's expressed will through His Laws, Christ will still drive them away as 'wicked people'.

So we have a very good reason to make our will in line with God's will.