If God knows the future, why would he create a human destined for Hell?

Question

First of all, I am a devoted Christian. I understand how to live and everything. And I know that God knows every person's future and that it breaks his heart seeing his children fall to Hell. The one and only thing I do not understand about God is that if God loves every single human and knows our future, why would he create someone destined for hell?

Answer 1

Consider this for a second, Imagine a woman that is a super devout believer and would be considered a saint if she lived a long time ago and she has only one child. She raises that child to be a believer and when she dies she would surely deserve passage into heaven according to the text. Some time later her child moves on and decides to study the religion very intensely and ends up becoming an atheist. Now this person also lead a very respectful life and would be going to heaven as well except that being an atheist is a sentence to hell. How could the mother enjoy heaven while her only child is tortured for eternity? If she forgot that she had a child she wouldn't be the same person really and if she actually enjoyed seeing her own child tortured that would be sick. The truth is that heaven and hell are the old carrot and stick that religion use to scare people into ignoring reality and substituting it with their mythology. The short answer to your original question is that "god" evidently doesn't exist and didn't create anything. Hope this helps.

Answer 2

You're confused.



God is God and outside time. Thus there is no "past" or "future" if there is no time in the first place.



Humans on the other hand are mortal and within time. Thus we must live out the "time" part to go into the timeless part.



Obviously some will have done better than others - that's what development is about.



This is why we're not born "robots" and given full opportunity to make use of everything made available to us.



Nobody is "destined" for anything they have not willingly qualified themselves for. All by their own actions and intentions.



Thus God is actually the judge of what people did to themselves and others. Its entirely the individuals game to win or lose.

Answer 3

Predestination is a Calvinist belief. Free will is an Arminian belief .



Calvinists believe that God not only knows before a child is born whether he will go to Heaven or Hell but he causes it. He predestines it. They believe that atonement is limited to God's elect. Those who are his elect cannot resist salvation and those who were created to go to Hell can't do anything about it. They believe God had a reason for creating them but they were doomed to Hell before they were born.



Some non-Calvinist Christians do believe that God knows everything in the future because he's outside of time and space. I grew up Protestant and I am pretty sure I was taught that God didn't know what we would do. He might have had a good idea of what we are likely to do but hoped we'd make good decisions no matter how unlikely. The Holy Spirit tries to influence us and never gives up.



I checked Catholic Answers for you. It appears that Catholics teach God does know the future in the same way that if you saw 2 cars about to collide, you'd know a wreck would happen even though you didn't cause it. They talked about mysteries, which are things we just don't know. We just have to accept that we don't know some things. I like that. We can know that God wants all people to get to Heaven and not worry about what God knew or didn't know.



http://www.catholic.com/video/why-would-god-create-someone-knowing-they-will-go-to-hell

Answer 4

Prayer is a logical impossibility.



God is omnipotent and is therefore never wrong.



If you pray for something like little Johnny recovers from cancer, here are your possible outcomes:



1. Johny dies, your prayer wasn't answered.



2. Johnny lives. As god is never wrong, god already decided Johnny would live and therefore all you did was guessed right about gods decision. Your prayer was pointless.



3. Johnny lives. God answered your prayer and changed it's decision. If god changed it's decision it was initially wrong therefore your god made a mistake and couldn't be omnipotent. Therefore your god doesn't exist. Your prayer was pointless, you prayed to nothing and Johnny got better because of his treatment.



For a laugh, consider the Lords prayer: Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil". Gods already decided if it will lead you into temptation or if it will subject you to evil if it's omnipotent so why include it in a prayer? Your god is taking you for a fool.

Answer 5

Jesus loves you. Jesus Christ is the truth, the way, and the life! Get a king James bible and believe. Read John chapter 1 and 3. Read Romans chapter 5,8,10. Read 1 John chapter 4. Read 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and 15. Read James chapter 1. Must read Matthew chapter 13. Pray for help and guidance and understanding.

https://youtu.be/fCnQQLUJHb8 and, 2 Peter 3.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."- the Word of God.

Answer 6

Your god's have not created for quite some time but the question speaks much of man's creations.

Answer 7

Interesting question, and that question has been debated for many years. Why does God allow evil to exist? This is called the question of "theodicy." Google it.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodicy



When Lucifer rebelled, and got tossed out of heaven with a third of all angels, God had a choice to make. He could have erased all of creation, and just started over. Why didn't he? And when Adam and Eve first sinned, he could have erased creation and started over. Why didn't he? Those are hard questions to answer. We do not know the mind of God.



Some have speculated that God is allowing sin to fully run its course. And that doing so will result in sin just "burning out." So then sin will be gone forever.



It is very hard to answer any question that starts out with a "Why did God do this?"





“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.



“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

So are My ways higher than your ways

And My thoughts higher than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)





--- (A Yahoo! User)

Answer 8

God, it is speculated, wanted a creature that could return the love God had for creation and alongside God love creation, too.



It is problematic that a creature can love without loving voluntarily. Sure there is no verbal difficulty saying that a creature can be loving without having an alternative, but is it just an antinomy a bit more subtle than the rock that cannot be lifted?

Answer 9

If God knows the future, then why don't humans know it? If God knows what hell or hellfire is, then why

don't humans know that also? Does God tell us everything? How intelligent is God compared to man,

for humans to know all God told them, he sent it by humans to humans. Examine scriptures on the resurrection, who is it that is resurrected[1Cor.15:22-28; John 5:26-29; Dan.12:1; Isa.26:19; Rom.14:9-

12; Acts 24:15; Eze.37:12-14; Psm.104:29,30[Gen.3:19]; Rev.11:18; Rev.20:1-15], when is evil

cremated?

Jesus died that the offsprings of Adam could come forth out of the ground[dust to dust], just as Adam

did, after he sinned he could only pass the imperfections of sin onto all, Jesus died to take that away.

As born in sin, humans can do every kind of deliberate sin[Prov.6:16-19]. Just as Jesus did not do evil,

there are humans who do all possible to be Christ like, showing respect to the Life Giver and all that

he gave life to, God makes his sun to rise upon the good and the evil. As for the future, Gen.1:1-2, for all existing no time is given, the angels see it all being prepared, Job 38:4-7; day one through day six ends 42,000 years, Adam sees end of day 6, God rest from creating all of day 7, when time of day 7 is known,

all days become one, Gen.2:1-4. If there was 7130 years from Adam to the end of the 1000 year reign of Christ Jesus, then at 49,000 years of preparation time, is all made new again when God once again

creates, Rev.21:1-5, says yes.

So God knowing the future, creating of humans, Adam passing sin and death onto all for the grave hell[

cave, pit, tomb, sepulchre, dust to dust], to be needed and then there is hellfire by humans[burial by fire

or death and burial by fire or cremation], God gave all the spirit of life, Eccl.11:5; at death it returns to,

God, Eccl.12:7; at resurrection God returns it to give life again as he did to Jesus who commended his

spirit to God at his death, God gave it back to him with a force that brought many saints out of their

graves. Every opportunity is given to the offsprings of Adam, all getting eternal life are clear of blame,

when those that lose eternal life are cremated[Rev.20:8,9].

Answer 10

Because it is the free will choice of every human to accept or reject God. Just because God knows what our choices will be, does not preclude an individual's free will.

Answer 11

Think of it this way. Imagine if a beer was put in front of an alcoholic. We can probably all know what he will do. He will pick up the beer and drink it. So even though we know the outcome, it doesn't mean the alcoholic doesn't have free will. Similarily God knows what people will do but people still have free will. Omniscience doesn't violate free will.

Answer 12

Based on your question, it appears you may have been misled about God’s omniscience. When it comes to man’s free will (or even angels’), God does NOT know everything, hence the time-sensitive word "now" in Gen 22:12 and the wording in 2Ch 32:31 and Jer 3:7.



“He said, ‘Don’t lay your hand on the boy, neither do anything to him. For now I know that you [Abraham] fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me’” (Gen 22:12).



“But when envoys were sent by the rulers of Babylon to ask him about the miraculous sign that had occurred in the land, God left him [King Hezekiah] to test him and to know everything that was in his heart” (2Ch 32:31).



“I [God] thought that after she had done all this she [the nation of Israel] would return to me but she did not, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it” (Jer 3:7).



Obviously he can find out whatever he wants to know with a test. And based on past performance, he probably has a good idea about how a person will most likely act in the future. (Even we can do that, but God sees the things in people we cannot see, and thus has a better idea about future behavior.)



People who have been good, all of a sudden act wickedly (e.g. King David with Bathsheba; 2Sam 11). And people who plan on sinning, change their minds (e.g. King David with Nabal; 1Sam 25); sometimes at the last second. Not until the freewill act is performed does God know with certainty about the act, whether good or bad.



God is love (1Jn 4:8). For true love to truly work, there has to be the viable option to choose NOT to love back (i.e. free will, especially free will to sin). Not only did God give that option to humans, but also to angels. In Satan’s case, he chose the sin of conceit and was thus condemned (1Tim 3:6). God loves everyone and thus wants all people to be saved (Jn 3:16; 1Tim 2:4). God loves you, will love you until the day you die, and wants to love you for eternity, but if one rejects him in this life, he won't love them in the afterlife.



This is just extra. God knows the future over those things he has control over, which is basically everything except for man’s free will. For instance, through a prophet, God could predict that the sun would stop in the sky tomorrow. How? The next day, he would simply stop the rotation of the earth. Also, he knows people better than they know themselves, and therefore has a very good idea how they will react to certain situations. Thus Jesus could tell the apostle Peter that he would deny him three times. Most likely God sent the groups of people three different times to Peter to question him about Jesus, and just as he knew Peter would do, he denied Jesus all three times.



Don’t read too much into this analogy, but if we compare ourselves to ants, sort of how God compares to us, we can sort of see how his predictions about humans work. If I see an ant pile and I predict that if I step on the ant pile, the ants will swarm, and I fulfill that “prophecy”, how much is that a miracle of foretelling the future and how much is it me knowing the nature of ants? As God knows each of our natures better than we know ants’, such “predictions” for him about humans are child’s play.

Answer 13

Hell / Hades is our grave...The disobedience of Adam and Eve caused death to start.

(Genesis 2:16, 17) Jehovah God also gave this command to the man: “From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. 17 But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Answer 14

Confused? That's why we ask questions. :)



If I had a time machine and knew what you would say ten minutes from now, would that take away your right to say it?



There will always be more questions.



You will stop asking when everything is finally revealed. In the meantime, trust him.

Answer 15

God family genuine children of god. Knows his father and honors him follow his ways. You read in the bible the grass is not what god had planted. Or weeds.

Answer 16

That person chooses to go to hell



There is no one in hell, who did not choose to be there, by rejecting God

Answer 17

I wonder that too...and I'm a Christian too..but hopefully won't end up in hell so it won't matter to me

Answer 18

God never does such thing, only false gods do.

Answer 19

He didn't. There is no hell, as such.

Answer 20

Free will is all there is to it.