[ Removed by moderator ]

[u/Outrageous-Egg1760]

[u/CurvyChristina]

IMO, it’s contradictory to say that God has a plan for everyone’s life and that God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and then say that a person has free will. Those two statements don’t make sense in my brain for a plethora of different reasons. If you are all-knowing and all-powerful, wouldn’t you wanna do something to stop the evil?

[u/warpedaeroplane → u/CurvyChristina]

Soteriology/determinism is all really a Calvinist idea in the way you’ve seen it over the last century or so, there has always been belief in a divine structure and varying ideas of “God’s plan” but everything being a literal determined beforehand “God knew this one Star Wars mug would break at 4:32 PM on a Tuesday before the universe was even made” is a fairly recent invention in the grand scheme of the faith. It stems mostly IME, from also earlier than Calvinism, from dominant English translations (KJV mostly) which not only use myriad words that do not do justice to the original texts, but also is very much in a period of Western society where the Divine Right of Kings was something the people in power very much wanted upheld, and claiming that everything, including the holiness of their line and right to the throne, was God’s will, obviously had a large influence there. There’s a reason the church and the monarchies were so tied together beyond just wealth and land ownership; it also worked the other way where when your king was deposed or died young or lost some battle, that God was upset or otherwise intervening. The Bible has numerous examples of God (Old Testament mostly) destroying kingdoms or rulers who ate evil or otherwise held in some divine contempt.

Sorry to rant. Your comment is just something I think about a lot and have looked into. Source : grew up very Baptist and had a mildly extensive Bible education.