Sunday, June 8
Re: MJ on Will
I think Augustine says the power of the will is good- so perhaps, in the ultimate case (sorry, couldn't resist the Newton Principia reference... haha), the will is good. Yet the will involves freedom which is also good... good until the freedom is used for evil. Yet if we did not have the will to choose God and what is good, we would be robots, and any praise or love or devotion to the Lord would be like a computer or something... it wouldn't be as much of a delight becasue we had no choice whetehr to love God or not.. but we choose Him just as He chooses us... thereby, on both sides, the love is of more value. does that make any sense? not that i'm clearing up problems, but, perhaps moving in that direction at least.
What you brought up about having an uncertain outcome has certainly been stewing in my mind longer than I've been reading Augustine. yet this is what I've come to in my own thoughts. If God only "predicted" as you said, this is a limit on His being. I also don't think God predicts things because then He would be "surprised" by things and I don't think that is possible. He knows every hair on our heads, and no one falls without His knowledge. I also think this means, He sees things beforehand, and this foreknowledge is what enablees Him to intervene in our lives as well. He knows what needs to be done to watch out for us. I think if we try to understand the freedom of choice from two perspectives- one that is ours, locked in time, and the one that is God's, outside of time, it might help. We have the freedom in time because the future for us is uncertain. the future is not uncertain for God but that doesn't necessitate Him dictating our own thoughts and actions. He knows them, but doesn't force us to do/make them in one particular way or the other. Not that He's a distant observer or "watchmaker" that doesn't do anything, but, He allows us to sin and allows us to choose Him or reject Him. And this is good and perfect because it is from God, how we are made, etc. How am I doing on my logic adn theology? ;)
