Information Related to "Freedom of Choice or Freedom from Suffering?"
| Audio/Video |
If we are clearly to understand why God allows suffering, we must squarely face another important question. How can we have true freedom of choice and still gain freedom from suffering? We desperately want both. But are both possible at the same time?
If there is any single ideal that is practically worshiped in the West, it is freedom. Freedom is the bedrock of our social system. Many would be willing to defend freedom and self-determination with their lives.
God Himself has given people freedom of choice. In fact, such is part of God's great design. He does not force us down a particular path, but He allows us to choose the way we will go. On the subject of choice, God told ancient Israel, "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life . . ." (Deuteronomy 30:19).
Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky passionately expressed what may be the West's prevailing view of the importance of free will. In 1864, in his Notes From the Underground, he wrote of our need for self-determination: "Man needs only his free will, no matter what it costs and where it leads."
Related Information on UCG Sites:
Table of Contents that includes "Freedom of Choice or Freedom from Suffering?"
Choices: