My sister (blood sister, not sister-in-Christ...though I guess we're actually both
) and I have been texting and after the second time the same conversation came up this year, I thought I'd pose some questions that have been bothering her, here. She says it's an issue that's made her faith kinda get "stuck". Anyway, she said she was okay with me sharing on this site so here goes:
Her beef:
"If God is omniscient, then He already knew Adam and Eve would sin and eat the forbidden fruit. If God already knows the choices we're going to make, why give us a choice or free will? He knows who will follow Him and who won't so why would He allow those lost souls to be born into this world and remain lost and then doomed to eternal torment? Especially when He desires that none be lost? He can prevent that, but He doesn't. Why?"
She knows a lot of this comes back to faith or "His ways aren't ours", but feels those aren't "real" answers.
I've given many examples that I thought would help her sort it out in her mind but I think I've fallen flat.
I told her we parents do the same thing God does. We offer a choice to our kids: Obey or be punished.
To that she says, "But we don't
kill our kids over their disobedience!"
I told her, "God spanks harder than we do."
Or, like Abraham with Isaac.
God knew the choice Abraham would make but
Abraham didn't. Not until that moment that he lifted the knife did he realize God was more important than the son he had been promised. I told her, we have free will and God might know what we're going to choose but...
we don't. And that those choices are refining us like gold.
I've told her God doesn't want robots preprogrammed to love Him. That He wants us to love Him because we
desire to. Just like we don't want to force
our children to love us. We want them to
choose to love us.
But then, she always brings it back to the people God knows won't make the choice and will die in sin. Why allow them to be born?
Basically anything I try to say or any scripture I share, she goes back to the beginning and says, "But there's no point because God could have stopped sin from the very beginning by not even offering a choice to Adam and Eve and He's allowed people to be doomed for all eternity when He didn't have to. Why?"
Hopefully this doesn't sound too garbled. It's hard to really convey her worry/question/doubt.
If anyone has things I can tell her about this matter that will help get her faith "unstuck", I'd appreciate it.
I'll be back later to check in for any words of wisdom.
