You are confused because you are mixing things together that don’t belong together. When you mix the ingredients together improperly, you get a big stink! Here are your ingredients:
God gave man free will.
God promises heaven or Hell.
God already knows who is going where.
These three points don’t logically flow from one thought to the next. For instance, how does God giving us free will correlate with making us a promise for going to heaven? Let’s add some more ideas to these ingredients to make a satisfying meal. We begin by asking, “Why would God give men free will to choose for Heaven or Hell?”
God gives us the opportunity to join something that is bigger than ourselves. The “promise” of heaven (actually the kingdom of God on earth) is conditional: it is limited to those who want it badly enough to live daily by faith in Jesus. This kind of a life requires changes to our lifestyle over a period of years and decades. That’s why Jesus said to his contemporaries, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
In the act of our choosing, our free will, we agree to the conditions on entering the kingdom of heaven, and we change our thinking, behavior, and priorities. We learn that our free wills are severely limited because of sin; but we also learn that we can will to serve God and live for him. This is something we in our sinful lives could never do because sin prevented us from making that choice. When we turn to Jesus for deliverance from sin, we are released to serve God willingly. Our free will capacity increases!
As we serve him, we discover his love and power operating in our lives – because he is real. Only then does the issue of God’s foreknowledge come into play with real meaning. When we see God’s hand at work in our lives to overcome sin, we have confidence about his promises regarding the kingdom of God. From our place of confidence, God’s foreknowledge becomes a comfort to us, not a quandary. Just as my child feels safe because I have everything all planned for a vacation trip, so the child of God feels safe knowing that God has his future all planned out for him.
What Do You Think?
a. Does the question change significance based on whether one trusts God? That is, if one trusts God, would the question have less relevance? Why or why not?
b. If a person hates God, does he have a free will to worship and serve him in a way that dignifies him? Why or why not?
