Can someone explain certain aspects of Christian doctrine to me, particularly the concept of God's grace, will, plan, and predestination, etc?
So if God has predetermined everything, and everything happens for a reason, and God wills everything, than there is no actual free will, right? So if a good person is murdered, that was god's will, therefore the one who murdered that person was also exercising God's will and therefore blameless, right?
Seems kind of fucked up. Is this just a Calvinist thing or is all of Christianity like that?
God knows everything, he hasn't predetermined everything. Everything is a consequence, and God is aware of everything, but not everything is the will of God, for he himself has given us Free will.
If a good person is murdered, that's a consequence of someone else's will, not God. God lets it happen because he doesn't meddle in the matters of humans that much, his intention is that people worship him and help each other out of their own will.
Parker Perry
You're still thinking like a human, and not a character on a stage. Even if Macbeth is ordered by the script to kill his king, he still has to be punished for it
Lincoln Rodriguez
The usual explanation is that God is not only omniscient but omnipotent, and thus capable of blinding himself as to the actions of specific individuals, and in this fashion, gives you a soul (even if this is treading on the "Can God make a rock so big he can't lift it" conundrum.)
It made a little more sense under the original Hebrew model, where angels don't have free will, as he did not do this for them (or, going further back, when he was neither omnipotent nor omniscient, just the "mightiest" of each), but I suppose it's among the better "problem of evil" arguments.
Much like us, God compartmentalizes.
Xavier Miller
How do I know what role I am to play though? So if you are scripted to play the bad guy, is it inevitable that you have to play that role? Can't you opt out somehow?
You're focusing on the wrong thing. It's not a question of knowing or not knowing, it's that you can't deviate from the script. You're predestined to be the good guy or bad guy, the same way a character is. Even if you don't know you're still predestined to play your role
Jordan Long
Seems kind of unfair. What denomination elaborates the most on this doctrine you are putting forth?
