Free Will exist in Predestination (1)

It started off from a simple question to me some years back... "If God is righteous and just as you said, why then He made Judas to be the one to betray Jesus and ultimately had Him killed so that He can be the Savior for man? Is it fair to Judas, who by fulfilling God's will, he was sent to hell? How is this justified?"

I was stumped. How can I explain to a non-believer that God is justify to choose Judas to complete this task for the salvation of man? This is a strong challenge to the All Righteous attribute of God. How would God had answered on judgment day, if Judas were to protested that he had no choice because he was destined to betray Jesus, so that the prophecy may be fulfilled? (Zech 11)

A simple question has now, dragged in a more complex question of predestination… and with predestination, many attributes of God are then being challenged:

1) God is Righteous and Just
Is it true that the whole of man’s life was predestined even before he was born? Then, how is it justified that certain men are born to salvation and some to death? (2 Thes 2:13-14, Rom 8:29-30)

2) God is Almighty and Omniscient
If man’s life is predestined even before he was born then why did God regret that He made Saul the king and why was God sorry that He had made man? (1 Sam 15:10-11; Gen 6:6) Didn’t God know before hand that Saul will fail Him and that man will sin?

3) God is Omnipresent
Similar to the above argument, if God is omnipresent then He should have known the end of an event. So why didn’t He?

How would you have answered these challenges?

Indeed predestination is written over many places in the Holy Bible and no one can refute that. Our faith tells us that God is indeed Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent and Righteous.

Can you affirm these beliefs when you’re challenged?
What is the basis of your belief?

The one and only mitigation to this paradox is – MAN HAS FREE WILL.

Hmmm…. Tricky…. Does free will exist in predestination?

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You can continue reading this article by following this link to Part-2, Part-3, Part-4, Part-5 and Part-6
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