Why did God give us freewill, but make us pay for it?
440599
Peace on you...Allah Knows everything that will happen. The first thing that He created was the "pen" and He ordered the pen to write. The pen wrote until it had written everything that would happen. And then Allah began to create the universe. All of this was already known to Him before He created it. He does have absolute and total control at all times. There is nothing that happens except that He is in control of if.\nThere is a mistake in the question: "Free Will." Allah alone, has Free Will, He Wills whatever He likes and it will always happen as He wills. We have something called, "Free choice." The difference is that what Allah "Wills" always happens and what we choose may or may not happen. We are not being judged on the outcome of things, we are being judged on our choices. This means that at the core of everything will always be our intentions. Whatever we intended, is what we will have the reward for. Each person will be judged according to what Allah gave them to work with, how they used it and what they intended to do with it.\n\nAs regards the actual "Judgment Day" - Allah tells us that everything we are doing is being recorded and not a single tiny thing escapes from this record. Even an atom's weight of good will be seen on the Day of Judgment and even a single atom's weight of evil will be seen too.\n\nThe one who will bring the evidences against us will be ourselves. Our ears, tongue, eyes and all of our bodies will begin to testify against us in front of Allah on the Day of Judgment. None will be oppressed on that Day, none will be falsely accused.\n\nHe could have put everyone in their respective places from the very beginning, but the people would complain as to why they were thrown in Hell without being given a chance. This life is exactly that; a chance to prove to ourselves who we really are and what we would really do if we indeed had a free choice.\n\nAllah Knows everything that will happen, but we don't. That is why the test is fair. May Allah bless us.
868717
I have often wondered why God "lets" things happen.  However, I've thought a lot about it and God doesn't let things happen.  He cannot intervene in our lives other than to give us strength when we need it, along with a host of other virtues to help us through our rough times.  God laid down the law many years ago and stated how things would be and how they would get.  He gave us freewill to make our choices.  God does not make people do bad things, people make choices, good or bad.  He cannot give evidence that he exists.  You have to believe on faith alone, which is why he cannot interfer.  People are people, we sin, and that is why the world is the way it is.  If you believe biblical prophecy, then he will return and take the saints and leave the sinners.
852976
God created mankind for relationship with Him. Yet in order to gain genuine relationship with us He had to allow mankind free will to decide for ourselves, otherwise we would be reduced to unconscious automotons mindlessly doing his every bidding yet with no desire to do so, and no choice.\n For God to genuinely be our Father we had to genuinely be children with minds of our own. And like any other Parent He had to risk our rejection to achieve our Love.
262160
The short answer is that God is loving enough to allow us to suffer the effects (both good and bad) of our actions and the actions of others. If God did not allow us to experience the consequences of our actions (and others'), then free-will would be only an illusion, and God would be unjust in judging some worthy of hell, and others being admitted to heaven. OUR ACTIONS CAUSE EVIL, not God! Does God allow evil? Yes! Did God create evil? NO! God merely created free moral agents with the ability to choose to follow Him, and do no evil, or to rebel against Him, and do evil things.\nThat begs the question, why did God create free-will? Because without free-will, we would be nothing more than robots, or puppets on a string. God created man for the purpose of having relationship with, and to serve and protect the lesser creations of God (animals, the earth, anyone or anything less powerfull than ourselves).\nHaving said that, God does use evil (when it happens), to further His agenda for the earth, and particularly for those that love Him, and are called according to His purpose.\nGod created the POSSIBILITY of evil, He did not create evil, and along with the possibility of evil, had a plan to turn what was evil into something beautiful. THAT is why Jesus MUST BE God, Because God Himself stepped in and bore EVIL on His own self, in order to undo the power of evil, Jesus must also be man, because evil was introduced to the earth through a man, and a man must then break the power of evil.\nJesus was both 100% God and 100% man - fulfilling justice for both God and Man.
648965
We have free will.  God lives outside of time; or more accurately, God is the eternal "I AM" or the eternal 'now'...  Right now at every point in history, God is.  He knows what we will choose, yet the choice is always ours.
1040744
We are all given a free will. What we do with our lives is our own choice. There are alot of things that may happen in our lives that could be very distracting on your journey. We have destiny, but without GOD we turn it into fate on our own. Everyone needs a guide to help them learn and grow throughout their lives. Sometimes the t.v. could be one, or music could be another one. That's where the working hard and praying come into play. GOD wants to be your guide if you want GOD to be your guide. As evil things can misguide. GOD is there if you want or need help.\n\nAnd I hope everyone remembers that people from other countries have/use Yahoo! too...and some Yahoo!ers use, speak or type ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE. Also deaf people do not always type the way people of hearing do. So stop being rude and answering questions with unnecessary comments!
738675
God lets people make choices, this allows us to be human and not robots.  Ultimately, some people will make the wrong choices.
805
This is not a question. Be honest with yourself and us. \n\nBut if you want the truth, there is only one sin and one sin alone that keeps us from heaven, and that is not receiving God's free gift of salvation through His Son. You need to realize that good works do NOT get us to heaven. You cannot buy your way there, that is why Jesus had to pay the price for us. It is a debt we could not pay. But don't worry, if you want your companion more than God, He will not stand in the way of your decision, that is what free will is for. If you are willing to pay an eternal price for such a decision, it will be your choice and your choice alone. You might want to talk to God about it first.
590073
Because God gave angels (1/3 of which turned against Him and became Satan and demons) and people (who also turned against Him and sinned) free will to invent whatever we want. Our twisted nature decided we should kill and harm each other. We have free will because otherwise our love for God would mean nothing, just like it means nothing if you make a puppet say "I love you."\n\nI hope that helped. =/
44278
That's a very good question and I wish we could be, but God let us have our own choice and does not go against free will.
404028
I would rather not make a decision at all.  God gave us all free will and said to not judge others.  Therefore, I couldn't take way the free will of others or judge them and their mistakes by sending them back to start all over.
351296
The short answer is that God made you for a purpose. Really this is way too big a question to answer here.  Look at "The Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren. (If you really want to know)
1017180
God allows us to choose to do whatever we want to do.  It is society, humanity and organized religion that puts boundaries on behaviours and sets moral guidelines and laws to be followed.  God could care less what we do.  God loves us regardless and since there is no hell, we will still all return to be home with God when this physical incarnation ends.
1102151
YES YOU HAVE FREEWILL... You can ether accept or reject Jesus Christ.  The choice is yours.\n\nWhat God did...\n\nThink of it this way... Imagine you're in a courtroom again, you're guilty of many serious crimes. The judge says, "It's a fine of $500,000, or prison." You don't have anywhere near that amount of money, so the bailiff begins to walk you out of the courtroom when someone you don't even know appears. He runs up to the judge with a check and says, "I've paid the fine for you." Now that the fine has been paid, the law no longer has any hold on you. You're free -- because of the gift you were given.\n\nThis is what God did for you by sending Jesus to die on the cross in your place. So that you wouldn't have to go to Hell, God sent his only Son, Jesus, to die on the cross -- suffering the punishment that justice demands. Then He rose from the grave, forever defeating death! The Bible tells us, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16) If you will repent of your sins and put your trust in Jesus, God says he will forgive all your sins and grant you the gift of everlasting life. Just like the court case we just talked about, if you repent (that means to confess and forsake your sins) and put your trust in Jesus, then you will not have to suffer God's justice in Hell because the payment for your crimes was made by Jesus on the cross.\n\nIf you're not sure what to pray, read Psalm 51, and make it a model for your prayer. The words are not "magical," what God cares about is the attitude of your heart. When you pray, it should sound something like this, "Dear God, I repent of all my sins, such as (name them). I put my trust in Jesus Christ as Lord (to say Jesus is your Lord means you are now making Jesus the master over your life) and Savior. Forgive me and grant me your gift of everlasting life. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen."\n\nNow read your Bible daily, and obey what you read. God will never let you down.\n\nWhat should you read? We suggest that you start in the book named "John," and then read the one named "Romans." Whatever you decide to read, make sure you read every day.
577023
People choose not to be united. God gave us free will to do what we want.
1136370
Assuming for the sake of argument that the Christian mythology is true, of course it's not a fair judging. Just because God is more powerful than we are and made us doesn't automatically give him the right to tell me what to do. Granting us free will is philosophically identical to granting us control over our own being. It's irrelevant that he made us. It's just like the government, just because it's big and has all the guns doesn't give it any actual authority over us other than what it takes by force (in God's case, threats of hell).
422873
The tree did not give us free will, we already had it, otherwise Eve would not have been able to make the choice of disobeying and eating from it in the first place. We were given free will so that we could love God by choice. Love by force would not really be love. Every time I see this question, though, the tree is almost always called "The Tree of Knowledge" rather than by its actual name. This is an important oversight if you are to understand.\n\nIt's the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil - a specific kind of knowledge, not ALL knowledge (something I think we can agree we do not have). Before Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they knew nothing but good because that is how they were originally created. When Eve ate of the tree, she had already sinned by disobeying God. Then, on top of that she introduced a knowledge of evil into her mind (as did Adam). As humans we are not able to resist evil completely. This is why God told them not to eat of the tree, because He knew that if they did, they would be tempted for the rest of their lives by the evil thoughts, ideas, and so forth that would be introduced by eating the fruit. He knew that we would not be able to resist evil all the time. So, He told them not to eat, but created them with the ability to make the choice themselves.\n\nWhen Adam and Eve ate of the tree, their minds were corrupted. This was passed on to their children and all other descendents in their blood and by their influence. \n\nHad they chose not to eat, they would still have had the knowledge of all that was good. God talked and walked in the garden with them, wanting to be close to them. They chose to try to "know as much as God", which was nothing more than the deception of the devil.