Free Will - Do We Have It or Do We Don't?

[Luigi]

I read Facebook posts from a Dominican friar who is involved in some currently hot theological debates - free will (of God and of persons), who gets to go to heaven (the universalists say everyone does, whether they believe or not, because God can't help but love - and thus reward - all of us), and other topics, all of which are well above my theological pay grade. 

But the aforementioned friar posted this article today. It's interesting. Theologian meets magician who doesn't believe in free will. The meeting was filmed for a Netflix series, but this episode has not yet appeared on the series. 

https://www.wordonfire.org/articles/fellows/magical-thinking-free-will-is-an-illusion/?fbclid=IwAR2NwQIEx5YwjkQlLNq5wq9ACrMhL5Wkw1zxNQ1GuPDJO61TpaH3tU3p4YY

[fides' Jack]

That's a fantastic story!

[Dennis Tate]

On 11/2/2022 at 11:29 AM, Luigi said:

I read Facebook posts from a Dominican friar who is involved in some currently hot theological debates - free will (of God and of persons), who gets to go to heaven (the universalists say everyone does, whether they believe or not, because God can't help but love - and thus reward - all of us), and other topics, all of which are well above my theological pay grade. 

But the aforementioned friar posted this article today. It's interesting. Theologian meets magician who doesn't believe in free will. The meeting was filmed for a Netflix series, but this episode has not yet appeared on the series. 

https://www.wordonfire.org/articles/fellows/magical-thinking-free-will-is-an-illusion/?fbclid=IwAR2NwQIEx5YwjkQlLNq5wq9ACrMhL5Wkw1zxNQ1GuPDJO61TpaH3tU3p4YY

If it is true that many near death experience accounts......

are from the same source as 2 Corinthians 12 : 2-4.........

which is what I believe to be the case...... THEN..... we may be at a place where we come to learn that our freedom of choice is so great that we can affect the future by our actions and choices???????

 

 "I know a man in Christ above fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I know not, or out of the body, I know not; God knoweth), such a one caught up to the third heaven. [3] And I know such a man (whether in the body, or out of the body, I know not: God knoweth), [4]That he was caught up into paradise, and heard secret words, which it is not granted to man to utter."

https://near-death.com/future/

Quote

 

2. A successful apocalyptic prophecy is one that doesn’t happen

The goal of apocalyptic prophecy is to warn people to prevent it from happening. The reason prophecies are given to humanity is to change current trends and change enough people so that the prophecy will be diverted. Well-known prophecies that were foretold to occur around the millennium have not happened. Skeptics point out that this proves these prophecies to be false. But a better understanding of prophecy reveals that either (a) or (b) is true:

(a) The prophecy was successful in permanently diverting the outcome by the raising of the world’s consciousness.

(b) Because the prophecy gives an exact date, the prophecy may still be valid and the date may be wrong.

Prophecies from very credible sources rarely give an exact date. Even Jesus said he didn’t know the date and time when he would return. This should be a lesson to everyone who comes across a prophecy with an exact date.

3. The future is not fixed and can change

During Karen Schaeffer’s NDE, she was shown her children’s future as it would exist if she decided to remain in the light. Because she decided to return, the future she was shown did not happen. This suggests that the future is always changing from moment to moment based upon our current actions and decisions. This principle supports quantum mechanic principles.

One of Margot Grey’s NDE research subjects stated: “During my experience … I was also shown events that are likely to happen in the near future, but was made to understand that nothing is absolutely fixed and that everything depends on how we choose to use our own free will, that even those events that are already predestined can be changed or modified by a change in our own way of relating to them.” (Grey, 1985, p. 123)

NDE experiencer Howard Storm was given information on how the future is not fixed: “We have free will. If we change the way we are, then we can change the future which they showed me. They showed me a view of the future, at the time of my experience, based upon how we in the United States were behaving at that time. It was a future in which a massive worldwide depression would occur. If we were to change our behavior, however, then the future would be different.” (Howard Storm)

Howard Storm was also told how a single person can change the world: “All it takes to make a change was one person. One person, trying, and then because of that, another person changing for the better. They said that the only way to change the world was to begin with one person. One will become two, which will become three, and so on. That’s the only way to affect a major change” (Howard Storm)

 

 

Does Messiah Yeshua - Jesus use Applied Multiverse Theory ...... multiple branches of time to save all of the lost???????

Are those some of the possible implications of Ezekiel chapter thirty seven.... Revelations chapter twenty... and Romans chapters nine, ten and eleven?????????

Is this idea so hot that from the time between when he wrote 2 Corinthians 12 to when he wrote Romans chapter eleven...... finally Paul was willing to write some ideas that at those earlier days of his life.... he felt were UNLAWFUL to be taught???????

 

[31] So these also now have not believed, for your mercy, that they also may obtain mercy. [32] For God hath concluded all in unbelief, that he may have mercy on all.