christ-on-a-stick

I want to try and keep this as simple as possible.... many threads that deal with the concept of "Free Will" tend to wander off-course and get very complex - 'tis the nature of the BB beast I suppose.

Anyway, I would like to preface with what I have heard from Christians, then give a set of examples with questions for the Christians here who believe in the concept of "Free Will" as an explanation for evil in the world, and who also believe that God answers prayers and sometimes intervenes in the affairs of humans.

Preface - I have been told by Christians that:

A) the presence of evil in the world is caused by humans using their Free Will to choose evil.

B) God cannot intervene to prevent evil from ever happening because that would strip us of our Free Will.

Now for my examples:

1. Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch is captured by Iraqi troops and tortured.

Q: Why did God not intervene to prevent the Iraqi's from "choosing evil" and capturing and torturing Jessica? Would it have interfered with their free will?

2. The Iraqis continue to hold Jessica captive. However, (according to Xians), God helps the special forces to rescue her, preventing the Iraqis from their goal of continuing to hold her a prisoner.

Q: If God intervened to rescue Jessica from further harm, was he not interfering with the Iraqi's free will to "choose evil" by continuing to hold her captive?

FINAL QUESTION: If God can EVER intervene in human affairs to save or rescue someone from harm without interfering with Free Will, why can he not ALWAYS choose to intervene to stop such things such as rape, murder, child abuse, and torture?

If you admit that he can choose to intervene even *sometimes* to thwart someone's intention to do evil, then the assertion that his intervention in human affairs interferes with Free Will is shown to be FALSE.

Therefore, there would be no reason that he cannot choose NOT to intervene EVERY TIME a woman is about to be raped, a child is about to be molested, a serial killer is about to murder his victim or a captured POW is about to be tortured, except his unwillingness. Humans would still have plenty of free will to choose "other" kinds of "evil", right?

If you have ever claimed that he has "saved" anyone from any harm that someone planned to do them, than he could have saved the 3000 people who died in the WTC attacks, but simply chose not to in THAT situation.

Agree? Disagree? Comments?

Jamie_L

Not necessarily. The other option is that the assertion that God does not want to interfere with our Free Will is false. Either way, it's damning for this whole non-intervention concept.

I would also add that if God wants to preserve Free Will, he should also be concerned about preserving the Free Will of victims of evil crimes. Victims are robbed of their Free Will to choose to live crime-free lives. It seems, by this arguement, what God wants most is to preserve the ability of people to use their Free Will for evil, but it doesn't bug him if people prevent other people from using their Free Will to do good.

Like I said in the WTC thread, 3000 people had their Free Will thwarted so that 19 people could have their Free Will preserved. If God had thwarted the Free Will of the 19, wouldn't the net result have been more Free Will in the world?

Can't intervention lead to more Free Will as easily as it leads to less?

Jamie