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Subject: Predestination and free will
Content: My wife was in a chat room with christians and some non-christians, when the debate came up about predestination and free will.  She was having a hard time to explain to the nons that were saying that if we are predestined to be who we are and to do what we do and God already knows what we are going to do by his plan then there is no free will.  This really frustrated her.  I tried to describe it in the best way I could in a way that non-believers could relate to and understand that there is both.  I said that God's plans for our lives and what we do with them he does have all maped out. Rewards and consequences. If we are standing next to a busy highway and we step out in front of traffic and get hit, that is a consequence for making a bad choice.  As God wants us to make the right choices, he also has punishments for the wrong ones.  If someone walked up to you and handed you a gun, and said to put it to your head and pull the trigger. They say the gun might be loaded or it might not be, and tell you that it is your choice of what to do(they are not forcing you to do this).  God has already planned out the end results of which ever choice you make.  Do you not pull the trigger and live, or do you pull the trigger and take the chance that you might shoot yourself.   If someone says here are two closed doors, door 1 leads to something good, door 2 something not so good.  You have the choice of which door your enter.  I think that putting it in such a way makes one think that it is related to their lives and the choices that they make in them.  Good choices have their rewards, bad choices have their consequences (or punishments).  I am in hopes that this will help people understand better that there there is both in our lives.  we have to make choices everyday that effect us.  God loves us all, does not want us to make the wrong choices.  I know that we all have made wrong choices in our lives and I know that I have learned from my mistakes as I know most of you have hopefully done the same.  So let's continue to make the right choices and see what rewards God has for us.  Grace and Peace, and God Bless.