Does God Have a Free Will?

Does God Have a Free Will?

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Several questions spin off of this original question, such as:

  • Does an infinite God have infinite options to choose from? If not, then does He lack free will?
  • If God cannot sin, and it is impossible for God to lie (Hebrews 6:18), then does God lack free will?
  • If God’s only option is to choose that which is best, right, just, and loving, how can He have free will?

The answer to the question of whether God has free will begins with defining what free will is.

Free will is the act of choosing what is personally preferred.

By nature, God prefers to choose that which is best, right, just, and loving. By way of ability, nothing prevents God from choosing His preference for that which is best, right, just, and loving.

God always chooses what is best, right, just, and loving.

Free will includes choosing between good choices. He does not have to entertain the choice between good and evil to have free will.

Because He has infinite comprehension, He always knows the best choice. Because God knows the best option to choose, God always chooses the best option. To do otherwise would make Him less than perfect.

God’s free will to choose what is best, right, just, and loving makes Him predictable. Predictability is not a lack of free will. Predictability is based on consistency and unchanging preference.

God’s nature is unchanging; therefore, His free will choices are predictable. Thus, predictability of God’s choices is the prediction of what God wants to choose. Choosing that which you want is free will.

Having options to choose from does not require that God has inclinations to choose more than one. He already knows what the preferred choice is, and the others are of no consideration.

Choice for one that is finite is an experience of deciding which choice is more preferable. Thus, the least desired option may be a consideration, until it is discovered to be undesirable. Choosing an option that is not best, because of ignorance, is also possible for the finite. Neither discovery nor ignorance is a part of God’s experience.

Because of imperfect knowledge, choices made by the finite are unpredictable. God cannot be unpredictable because He knows all things, and His nature indicates that He will always choose the best, right, loving, and just option.

Is there always a best choice?

We cannot answer this question because we lack knowledge. Is it possible that there are two best choices?

If there is always a best choice, then there is a best choice for our lives. At the very least, God knows the best option or options to choose.

Seeking God’s guidance is our best choice to make best choices.

God’s will is knowable because we are accountable to Him for doing right. We would not be accountable for that which we could not know.

What we could know is not necessarily the same as what we do know. Failure to obey God results in ignorance of God’s best plan.

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