Originally posted by WEOPPOSEDECEPTION
Can anyone control or predict what their next thought is going to be, or is it merely witnessed?

Interesting concept. I believe that the soul is just our consciousness. The soul does not know anything of it's own but is just a node that we experience the spirit of God through. Of course God created the spirit of darkness as well so that now we have two paths in which to possibly listen to. The spirit of darkness is in agreement with what is external to our physical body. The spirit of light speaks of things in which we cannot see with our eyes currently, so the only way to know of it is if God chooses to tell us what it is, contrary to what we physically see.

The soul is what lives forever, regardless. The spirit is what is destined to destruction - that being the spirit of darkness. When it is removed, we then only see the light in our inner self and the gates of heaven are opened. This is the second coming.

Imagine one day that I decide to give you a million dollars as a gift. Now you’d be quite ecstatic I’m sure. I’d come over to your car, I have several brief cases full of cash and I give it to you, I tell you

“Here, this is yours, my gift you, but there is one rule you must follow with this money….You can’t spend it, you can’t invest it, you can just keep the money and if you do spend it, even one dime, I will kill you.”

Would you consider my gift to be great or glorious or fantastic, or would you consider it just a waist of time and space and a useless gift.

Now… god gave everyone free will, the ability to make choices, to what ever we want to in life, but there’s a catch, we can’t use it.

You see….a friend of mine defines sin in a way that I’m sure most Christians here will agree with, he said “sin is anything that is contrary to the will of god.”

So you have this all powerful, all mighty being, who sais “here is this great gift, I want you to have the free will to do what ever you want, instead of making you a robot to do exactly what I tell you to, I’m going to give you the choice to do what ever you want, but, if you don’t do exactly what I tell you to, I’m going to burn you in hell forever.

Much like the millions dollars sitting there in brief cases in your living room that you can’t touch, can’t spend, can’t invest, you just have to let it sit there, free will is just as useless.

If you use it and you make choices of your own, you’re going to be damned, if you act like a robot and do exactly what god tells you to and do exactly what god wants you to, then you’ll be rewarded and then you’re going to go to heaven where you get to continue to act like a robot, doing everything god wants you to and using its will instead of your own.

So here is my question…..

What’s the point of free will, if we’re not allowed to use it?

You still have the choice.

Jesus said his way is difficult. God knew no man, after inhereiting the knowledge of good and evil, could handle those truths. Jesus came to rectify this with his death.

If you only believe and accept, you are freed from death. Of course you die, but you are not obliterated. That which was dying is burned off, cut off from the pure seed that is the soul. Then as with everything else, you either expand toward or contract away from a point. To the place of God, or apart from the source.

Originally posted by depth om
You still have the choice.

If 'god' did exist and is as powerful as you say. Then 'choice' is an illision since we are just following a arealdy forged path which has the illsion of choice. Also if he knows all and powerful, why bother creating life? Why would he/she/it need it? The answer is god wouldn't.

what is freedom, the ability to do whatever you want, the prospect of making a decision

i believe that freedom is not a luxury we will ever have and that it can tie greatly to destiny - were you supposed to do a certain action for a reason?

i think your original post isnt about freedom as much as the question that if god knows all whats the point

The first thing to exist entirely by its own doing is the only thing that has free will. Humans do not have a free will as we did not choose to exist but the choices were made for us one way or the other.
The very first choice was made for us some how.

When I don't have proof, I try to ask myself: "What is more likely? What sounds more realistic?"

Does a faulty Uncreated Creator that is in constant command of EVERYTHING sound likely?

Or does a random, uncaring universe without the thought of predestination sound likely?