The obvious problem with your world with no free will (only the illusion of free will) is that God is glorified no matter what anybody does. In other words, if we can’t really choose any of our actions then nothing we do glorifies God any more than anything else. Further, in the world you describe where rocks and plants glorify God, Hitler also gloried God with his life as much as anything or anyone else on the planet. (None could have done anything other than their predestined fate after all.) On a practical level that is a problematic theology.

God made all of creation, and all of creation praises His name and gives Him glory (Psalm 19:1-6). Plants and animals don’t have “free will”, not even a soul, but they bring glory to God. It seems to me that God is glorified in us when, through the work of salvation, He turns us to Him so that we may praise Him.

At this point, this is what I think about man’s purpose on earth and glorifying God.

Yeah I have heard that from lots of people over the years. I remain frankly baffled at how our just being here with only the illusion of free will could accomplish the goal of glorifying God. I mean if we aren’t making any real free choices to begin with and God wants us to be more like him why didn’t he just make us that way to begin with? It sounds like some pointless exercise to me.

But a lot of people seem to think it makes sense so I don’t begrudge anyone believing it if they want.

However, I realized something later. Sure, the purpose of our trials and testings are for us to build character and perseverance (James 1:2-3 and Romans 5:3-4). However, I’m not sure that is the purpose of life on earth. I think our purpose on earth is so that God is glorified (Philippians 2:9-11 ends with “to the glory of God the Father” and 1 Corinthians 10:31 says all we do should be for God’s Glory). To me, it seems that the purpose of our life on earth is more to glorify God as a whole rather than to become better people. The reason for this is that when our character is made more like God’s, we end up glorifying God anyway. It seems to me that God is more glorified by making his people to become more like Him, and we would be more glorified by claiming we have endured these tests and trials by our own choice. In other words, God could know what we will choose, we would have the illusion of choosing it, our character would be strengthened by the choice we make, and God would be ultimately glorified. I guess it all depends on what you take to be the purpose of man’s life on earth.

What I’d like to know is how Mormonism requires non-illusion free will. That is a requirement I would not have guessed (like I said I know very little about Mormonism) and would love to have that explained.

Also, how does Mormonism rectify non-illusion free will with the Scriptures?

I’m sorry if this seems like too many questions; I really am just curious.

Thanks for your response! This is a different way of looking at free will for me and it’s good for me to learn what other people think. Yes, it definitely seems like human free will and God’s foreknowledge are mutually exclusive, I think what I meant in my first entry was that instead of free will, we have the illusion of it. It still looks like free will to us, but we don’t really have it.

I assume from your response that you believe humans have free will and that there are events that take place that God did not totally know in advance. (Let me know if my assumption is wrong!) I’m not sure I’m convinced of this.

Here’s my problem. This morning I read through Psalm 139. I take the Scriptures to be the inspired Word of God, and from this psalm says, it looks like God knows mankind’s every move and word before it is acted/spoken. How can God not know the future?

Maybe there really is no free will?

These are just my thoughts, and truth be told I’m probably confused on some point or another. As before, your comments on this are greatly appreciated.

God predicting a future event is not the same as that event being fixed and unavoidable. That is the key. If God knows you will do X tomorrow then it must happen. That is what it means for God to know it after all. In such a universe you are not a free agents.

However if God is really good at predicting and influencing what you will freely choose the free will could exist.

I stumbled across this blog and really found it interesting. I am not yet totally sure of what I believe (about foreknowledge, free will, etc.) so reading about these different views has been great for me. What I think I believe (from the Scriptures that thus far the Holy Spirit has allowed me to understand) is that God is sovereign, that is, all-powerful. An all-powerful God knows what events will happen in the future based on His power to make said events happen. Thus the future can be “fixed” because God can do that. Can humans have free will? From God’s perspective, no. From our perspective? It looks like it. It’s about 10:30 now and I can choose to stop writing and go to bed or continue writing. Does God know what I’ll do? Of course. To God, I have no choice because it’s in his power to cause me to do what I do. To me, it looks like I’m choosing. Ta-da! God knows the future and I have free will; the two are compatible because the choices I make based on free will make up (part of) the future God has planned.

In essence what I think I’m trying to say is this – the belief that humans can make choices not yet known to God is a serious question to God’s sovereignty. Mankind is created in God’s image, but is not equal with God. Thus our choices are not outside His control, and He can make the future as “fixed” as He wants.

Note:

These thoughts I have just expressed are merely the beginning of trying to determine what I believe, and my writing this is to find out if and how others agree with or disagree with what I think so far. Any responses or input would be appreciated.