I'm a firm believer in free will and, as you know, a somewhat fundamentalist, conservative christian. I believe that God created us with free will. Determinism is basically another word for the religious idea of predestination. I believe that God has foreknowledge of how events are going to play themselves out but that foreknowledge does not equal predestination or determinism. God did not lay out how things were going to happen, He did not predetermine the outcomes.
Just because I have foreknowledge that if my child puts their hand on a hot stove that they will be burned does not mean that, when it happens, I caused it. It happened because my child chose to put their hand their of their own free will. I see God's foreknowledge as similar to that but on a, of course, much larger scale. I believe that God knows the general path that events are going to take. That due to His omniscience and omnipotence He can predict how events will unfold. These events will unfold in this way regardless of whether Bob does a thing or, alternately if Bob doesn't do it, then Joe does it instead. I could be completely off base here but fortunately for me understanding how God works is not a prerequisite for salvation.
We bear the responsibility for the choices that we make and God crafts His plans for our world such that His purposes are served regardless of what choices we might make. His foreknowledge allows Him to guide events and work them to His purpose without impinging upon our free will. Of course, once one becomes a Christian one voluntarily gives up a portion of that free will in order to become a servant of Christ.
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Just because I have foreknowledge that if my child puts their hand on a hot stove that they will be burned does not mean that, when it happens, I caused it. It happened because my child chose to put their hand their of their own free will. I see God's foreknowledge as similar to that but on a, of course, much larger scale. I believe that God knows the general path that events are going to take. That due to His omniscience and omnipotence He can predict how events will unfold. These events will unfold in this way regardless of whether Bob does a thing or, alternately if Bob doesn't do it, then Joe does it instead. I could be completely off base here but fortunately for me understanding how God works is not a prerequisite for salvation.
We bear the responsibility for the choices that we make and God crafts His plans for our world such that His purposes are served regardless of what choices we might make. His foreknowledge allows Him to guide events and work them to His purpose without impinging upon our free will. Of course, once one becomes a Christian one voluntarily gives up a portion of that free will in order to become a servant of Christ.