The final item we need to address is free will. The thinking behind this is very similar to all other false assumptions mentioned thus far. It is commonly said that if God gave us free will, He would have known (because He presumably has foreknowledge) that free will would inevitably lead to sin and sin would lead to evil. Therefore, God is the root cause of evil and suffering. Hence, the false assumption that God intentionally created something He foreknew would be evil—free will.
Once again, are we not only assuming God gave us free will? Did God say, Hey Adam, I would like you to tend to this garden. Go ahead and do whatever you think is best. That type of “free will” is not even remotely close to what God commanded of Adam. God quite clearly commanded Adam to obey Him.
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt
surely die. (Genesis 2:16–17)
He told Adam very specifically what He was allowed to do and what he was not allowed to do. Call me crazy, but that does not sound much like free will at all. That sounds like a very stern commandment! Do not “eat” from this one very specific “tree” or you will die!
Due to this understanding, a skeptic will make the argument that God is a self-righteous dictator. God forces us to do what He desires and punishes us when we do not do as He commands. In other words, God is a “malevolent bully” because He gave us “free will” only to punish us for exercising that free will. On the other hand, if we were to suggest God did not give us free will, the same skeptics would once
again claim God is a dictator for not allowing us to make our own decisions. Whether the ability to exercise free will was granted by God or not, God is still a despot in their minds.
If a father commands his son not to touch the flame and the young boy does as he was told not to do, does that make the father a tyrant when the child gets burned?
If a father commands his daughter to never drink anything found under the sink because it is poisonous, does that make the father a dictator when she ends up in the hospital getting her stomach pumped?
God commands us to not do what He knows will kill us. God doesn’t have to know what Satan’s plans are, He just knows Satan is a liar and wants to destroy us. If that makes God a dictator, so be it. He is a dictator for our own good. He is a dictator for love and eternal life. God created a loving bond with His creation and then commanded them to stay away from “the serpent” who is trying to deceive them into believing a lie resulting in their deaths. How does that make
Jehovah a bad father?
God created perfect love and harmony. This is known to some as “restricted free will” [39], meaning God would allow us “free will” but only to the extent that we choose between options that are pleasing to Him, which essentially is the case in the Garden of Eden. We are allowed to make decisions for ourselves with one stipulation. Do not decide to eat that “tree” or you will die. That is not “free will.” That, if anything, is a restricted free will. Do anything you want, as long as you don’t do “that.”
If Satan had never broken the rules of God’s realm by deceiving “Eve,” sin would never have entered creation. Mankind could have lived in paradise for an eternity without pain or suffering. The capacity to sin, which leads to evil, was never present in Eden, that is, not until “the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan” started working his eternal black magic known as deception.
Notice how in the end of Revelation, there is no sin in paradise, which means the ability to sin has been removed. The capacity to sin no longer exists. We will once again have a “restricted” free will. The one who created sin and evil will be banished from Eden (paradise) never to return. Satan will exist in an entirely separate eternal realm created specifically for him (Matthew 25:41). This realm is known as Geenna, outer darkness. This realm will not be in the same realm as Eden. They are two completely different dimensions. By removing Satan, God has removed the ability for His creatures
to disobey Him and make a wrong decision. That is not “free will” any more than it is an absence of death. It is eternal life in bliss, the inability to make a wrong decision. Again, how does that make Jehovah a bad father? Is that not also the environment we wish to have for our own children?
Imagine if Satan had never entered the picture. Imagine if Satan never showed up in Jehovah’s realm. That would mean Jehovah would have no need to command Adam to not eat from that specific “tree.” If that “tree” had never shown up in Eden, God could have said, Okay Adam, do whatever you want. Nothing here can harm you. That would mean “free will” (the ability to choose between right and wrong) would be irrelevant. Adam can do whatever he chooses because there
is literally no possibility of making a mistake.
And much, much more.
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Indeed, Peggy. I have been researching and considering this for many years. Which is why I decided to publish, to…