Dear Ray,
I read your thought provoking article on free will. While reading your article a question came to my mind. If we don't have free will or the ability to evaluate truth how do we know what we believe is true. In your article you indicated that God would cause you to accept these truths or He will cause you to reject these truths. If this is the case, how do you or anyone else know that what they believe is the truth. As a reminder, you state the following:
“God will either cause you to accept these truths at this "appointed time" in your life, or He will cause you to reject these truths at this "appointed time" in your life, and your "will" is not "free" to do either. It is all of God! The circumstances are already set in motion which will bring about God’s desired intentions.”
If this is true it would seem impossible to ever know if what we believe is the truth. For example, if someone rejects the idea that we have free will and someone else accepts the idea that we have free will and both have been caused to believe as they do, how can we ever sort out who is right. Both are being caused by God to believe as they do. Perhaps in his wisdom God has caused you to reject the truth of free will in order to achieve a greater good in your life. Since it is God that is controlling your beliefs you have no way to think about this using your own reasoning abilities.
Finally, let me say that I love you and mean no disrespect. I am sincerely looking for an explanation. If you have one I am anxious to hear it.
Sincerely,
Dean
Dear Dean: I just marvel at the fact that year after year after year, 95% of all email questions and/or comments involve "contradictions." All day long I am asked to explain what my readers believe are contradictions. So far, however, no one has presented a true contradiction to the truth. It appears to most of humanity that if God Sovereign and man has no "free" will or "free" choice (that is, there is a cause for everything, and therefore whatever is caused to happen can not NOT HAPPEN, hence it is not "free"), then man has no reasoning abilities, cannot make a choice of what he prefers, and is therefore nothing but a mindless robot.
The reality is that we do have reasoning abilities, and we do choose what we prefer. You have now present a new twist that suggests neither the deceived person nor the enlightened one can know for sure what is truth, because his realization of truth is only that which God permits or allows him to have through his life experiences. I am not sure how you came to this conclusion. Try this: There was a time when most people (albeit not all) believed that the earth was flat. Now they really believed that and they really were deceived. But now that we fly space shuttles AROUND the earth in all directions, we know for a fact that the earth is a sphere. The TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE.
The deceived have NO PROOF that they have a "free will," but the enlightened do HAVE PROOF that man does not have a free will.
In fact we have two proofs: The Word of God and Nature--science. Even if there is a supposed "law of uncertainty" or "randomness," it still would not allow for "freedom" of the will or "freedom" of choice. If a person's thoughts are "free" to come into existence without any cause, from where is it that they come? You may reply: "Why they come from ME and me alone." Oh really? But from WHERE is "you?" From your mind? Your will? Your WHAT? Did you think about thinking the thought before it came into existence? All you do is take the cause back to a more distance CAUSE. What CAUSED your thinking to think a thought? "THINGS" cause you to think thoughts. Thoughts do not come from "out of the blue." And if they did, then we have merely pushed the real "cause" back a little further, only this time the cause is "the BLUE"--whatever that is.
If Science proves something AND THE WORD OF GOD proves something, then it's true, and that is how you can KNOW that it is true. If you re-read my paper on "free will," you will be given both Scientific and Scriptural proof as to what the truth is on this matter. "THY WORD IS TRUTH" (John 17:17). Hope this helps your understanding.
God be with you,
Ray
