The Basic Argument—Plain and Undeniable

Let’s say this as simply as possible:

• God perfectly knows everything that will happen.

• He freely chooses to create the world He fully knows.

• The moment He creates, the events He knows will certainly take place.

• Therefore, no person can do otherwise in that created world without implying God's knowledge was false.

This means: you are responsible for what you chose, but you were never metaphysically free to choose otherwise in the world God created. That kind of freedom (called libertarian freedom) is an illusion. And defending it leads either to a denial of God's omniscience or His sovereignty.

1. The Impossibility of Libertarian Freedom and the Implications of Denying It

Libertarian freedom teaches that a person can choose between genuine alternatives in the same circumstance. But this cannot coexist with God's exhaustive, infallible foreknowledge.

God’s knowledge is not passive. He knows all things because He decreed all things.

"God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass." (WCF 3.1)

So, it is not that God looks forward in time and discovers what will happen. Rather, He ordains it. And because He cannot be mistaken, what He knows (and has decreed) will certainly occur. There is no possible world where He decrees one thing and another occurs.

Even If You Reject The Above, The Below Is Undeniable

My point in plain speech is this: If God is omniscient, then the ability to choose hypothetically another option than what has been chosen in this reality is uninformative and illusory. Because the creation could not have been any other way than God knew it would be. God is omniscient. Therefore, choosing a counterfactual is a logical impossibility, or God is not omniscient. The act of creating fixes the events God knew would happen EVEN if you reject the WCF."

Therefore, to say you "could have done otherwise" is to claim there exists a world where God's decree fails. That is impossible.

2. Clarifying the Confusion: It’s Not God’s Knowledge That Causes the Choice—It’s His Sovereign Decree and Creative Act That Establishes It

A common objection says:

"God knowing what I do doesn’t mean He caused it."

That’s true. God’s knowledge, in itself, is not the cause.

God’s knowledge flows from His decree. He knows what will happen because He has decreed what will happen. And once He creates the world per that decree, the events of that world cannot unfold in any other way.

And even if you do not accept that God's Knowledge of creation flows from his decree, you still have the same problem. The result is exactly the same.

So, it’s not knowledge that causes the event—it’s decree and creation. And once God creates the world He has decreed, all things must unfold according to His sovereign will.

If you deny this, you are not simply preserving "freedom"; you are undermining God's decree and providence.

This is why foreknowledge plus creation results in a fixed outcome, not by coercion, but by divine certainty. God’s act of creation brings into existence a world in which what He knew must take place does take place.

To say a person could have done otherwise is not to defend freedom—it is to say God could have created a world that unfolded differently than He knew. That’s logically incoherent.

The creature acts freely according to his nature, but never independently of God's providence. God ordains ends and means, including the real, morally accountable decisions of creatures.

3. Why People Reject This Truth: It Offends the Desire for Autonomy

Even a Child Can Grasp This—Because It’s How Life Works

If a 5-year-old takes a cookie after you told him not to, and you ask,

“Why did you do that?”

You’re not asking whether he could have done otherwise in some metaphysical sense.
You’re asking:

“What was in your heart? What were you thinking? What did you want?”

That’s how God judges. That’s compatibilism. That’s reality.

This argument is not rejected because it’s too complex. It is rejected because it confronts the sinful desire for self-rule.

People want a version of freedom that gives them final authority over their destiny. They do not want to admit that their will is subordinate to God’s.

But Scripture does not defend autonomy:

"The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will." (Proverbs 21:1)

"For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." (Philippians 2:13)

Man chooses. Man acts. Man is judged. But God rules over it all.

“Why? Proverbs 16:1. And God doesn’t look at the outward appearance but at the heart. Man is not judged by what he does but by what his intentions are in doing it. God has different intentions for the same event.”

The rejection of this truth is rarely intellectual. It is spiritual. It is the ancient temptation of the garden: "You shall be like God."

Why?

1. Because It Collapses Libertarian Freedom Entirely

If what I’ve said is true (and it is), then:

• Libertarian free will is gone.
  The ability to do otherwise in the exact same circumstance is false.

• Moral autonomy is gone.
  Human beings are not the ultimate originators of their decisions.

• God’s absolute sovereignty is restored—not just over events, but over wills.

That means:

• The Molinist middle knowledge system collapses.

• Arminian conditional election collapses.

• Open theist revisions of God’s knowledge collapse.

That’s not a small tweak to theology. That’s a total overhaul of how people understand salvation, responsibility, love, and justice.

So instead of submitting to the necessary logic of divine omniscience, they fight to preserve autonomy at any cost.

2. Because Emotion and Identity Are at Stake

For many people—especially Arminians and theological moderates—their entire spiritual worldview depends on a man-centered concept of freedom. This freedom becomes their filter for interpreting:

• Why God judges fairly

• Why love must be “real”

• Why prayer matters

• Why salvation is sincere

So when the truth is presented:

"God knew exactly what would happen, then created that exact world, so you couldn’t have done otherwise,"

they hear:

"You’re a puppet. You don’t matter. You’re not morally responsible."

Even though I never said any of that, they project it onto my argument because it feels like an attack on their dignity. The logic is sound, but their emotional defenses override reason.

3. Because It's Spiritually Humbling

At its core, my argument doesn’t just defend God's omniscience. It also exposes man's dependence. And that is something human nature resists at all costs.

It’s not just intellectual—it’s epistemic rebellion.

As Paul says in Romans 1:

“Claiming to be wise, they became fools... they did not see fit to acknowledge God.”

4. The Truth: Biblical Compatibilism Is More Free and More Loving

Proverbs 16:1 – The Core of Compatibilism

“The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.”

This verse shows two simultaneous truths:

• Man really makes internal decisions (“plans of the heart”).

• Yet the final outcome (“the answer of the tongue”) is determined by the Lord.

That’s compatibilism.
The will is real. The outcome is ordained.

It’s not "either God or man"—it’s both, with God as sovereign and man as responsible.

Compatibilism teaches that:

• God sovereignly ordains all things.

• Man freely chooses according to his nature and desires.

• These are not contradictory because God ordains human will without coercing it.

This view protects both God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. And it frees us from the burden of pretending we are self-determining gods.

It assures us that:

• Our salvation is secure, not because of our choices, but because of God's mercy.

• Our suffering is meaningful, not random.

• Our choices matter, even though they are part of God's perfect plan.

This is the consistent testimony of Scripture. It is not a philosophical concession—it is a theological necessity.

“You are free in the way a creature is free. Under the hand of a good and sovereign Creator.”

And that is far more beautiful, hopeful, and secure than the fragile illusion of libertarian autonomy.

5. The Right Posture: Humble Submission, Not Self-Defense

Judgment Is Based on Intentionality, Not Possibility

“Each one’s work will become manifest... and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.” (1 Corinthians 3:13)

God doesn’t judge people on whether they could have done otherwise (libertarianism). He judges based on what they truly willed, desired, planned, and loved. That’s why the Bible doesn’t teach “could-have-been” morality. It teaches:

“Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” (Matthew 12:34)

Moral guilt flows from the heart’s intent, not hypothetical possibilities.

The right question is not: "Could I have done otherwise?"

The right question is: "Did I love the good? Did I do what pleased God?"

God judges not counterfactuals but actual desires and actions. As 1 Samuel 16:7 says, "The Lord looks on the heart."

A humble posture before God says:

• I am not autonomous.

• I am not wiser than God.

• I trust His decree, even when I don't understand it.

To insist on libertarian freedom is not humble. It is defiant. It is a demand for independence from God's sovereignty.

6. Repentance Is Not Optional—It’s Urgent

This is not a mere theological debate. It is a question of allegiance.

• Will you trust God's perfect will? Or insist on your own?

• Will you submit to His decree? Or cling to illusion?

The idol of libertarian freedom must fall. It has no place in the life of a regenerate heart.

"They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator." (Romans 1:25)

It is time to lay down our philosophical pride and return to the posture of Job:

"I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:5–6)

Final Word

God decreed it. God created it. God knew it.

It could not have been otherwise.

This truth should not repel us. It should humble us, break us, and lead us into deeper worship.

For our God is not just sovereign—He is good.

Plain Speech Formal Argument (No Modal Jargon)

1. God is omniscient.
   He knows with perfect, eternal certainty everything that will happen, including every choice every creature will make.

2. Before creating, God knew exactly what every person would choose in every situation.
   His knowledge includes all actual events prior to any act of creation.

3. God freely chose to create a particular creation—the one He fully knew from beginning to end.
   This includes all the choices people would make.

4. By creating that world, God actualized the events He eternally knew would happen.
   Therefore, what God knew would happen is exactly what will happen.

5. To say a person could have chosen otherwise in that actual world is to say God’s knowledge could have been wrong.

6. But God’s knowledge cannot be wrong.

Conclusion:
Therefore, the idea that a person could have made a different choice than what God knew they would make is logically impossible.
Either the counterfactual choice is impossible, or God is not omniscient. There is no third option.