Our Freedom of Choice and Action

You are a free agent. You are free to choose whether you will serve God--or the devil. God has so framed us as to make freedom of choice and action the very basis of all moral improvement. Two ways God has set before us: the way of good and the way of evil. You may ask, why does God confront me with such a choice? Why does He permit evil at all? Why does He permit crime and war in the world?

We may not have the complete answer, but there are some things we can say which may relieve part of your perplexity.

To begin with, goodness is a matter of choice--else it is not goodness. If you had to be good, by the mechanism of your own make-up, it would cease to be good in the sense that it would cease to have any moral value whatever. It would produce no growth in character, and it would not inspire other people to goodness.

If goodness is a result of choice, then evil must be another choice. If God had suppressed the possibility of evil it would have meant taking from you the possibility of achieving goodness.

If man (or woman) is to have freedom in moral decisions he (or she) must have the power to make his decisions wherever his capacities take him. If he invents the internet he has invented something that can be used either for good or evil; it can be used to spread religion, education, the cultural arts--but it can also be used to spread lies, propaganda, lewdness and hate. The invention is without moral significance, but the use of it can be either moral or immoral. And man must have the power and freedom to use it either way, else he would not be a moral being. This is so with all the inventions of man. But we have this consolation: if man has freedom of limitless evil, he has, also, the potential of limitless good!

"Choose this day whom you will serve." Joshua 24:15.