Prophecy vs Free will

If people can predict how someone is going to behave given certain situations, surely a god can also.When I see your name in the PNT, I can predict that the post will probably contain little substance. I'm not usually disappointed. Does that interfere with your free will? No. You can still choose to write a better OP or you can do what you normally do.Since the majority of the Bible Prophecies are written after the fact, freewill was not obstructed.We may have free will but we are still creatures of habit.It is clear in the OT that mankind is not free from being influenced by God.

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Is the prediction always accurate? If yes, then where is anyone free to choose?

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Even if it is always correct, a prediction has no impact on one's choices unless of course one knows about the prediction and makes choices to try and change the outcome.

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Firstly, let's make the point that prophecy is supposed to be absolutely reliable. That sets it apart from ordinary predictions of human behaviour.

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Doesn't matter. God can watch human behavior.

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Prophecy, then, requires a degree of fatalism - the prediction must come true no matter what anyone does.

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Where is that rule?There are OT prophecies that didn't come about because the people changed their behavior. See the story of Jonah.IMO, only when God has made it clear that he has interfered with humans can one say that free will was denied.

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The most extreme example I know of the Bible is the prediction attributed to Jesus, that Peter would deny him three times before the cockerel crew. This certainly seems at odds with any idea of libertarian free will, relying on Peter to not work against the prediction and that exactly three people would ask and meet denials in a quite limited timeframe. Even a fully deterministic view of the universe would make it hard to be able to make such a prediction, even for a being capable of modelling all the relevant factors to test what would happen if such a prediction were made. Thus, such a prediction would call even compatibilist views of free will into question, at least with regard to this event.

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The story doesn't tell us that Peter tried not to deny and was unable to. It just an accurate prediction assuming that Jesus could see what Peter would do. The story doesn't present any outside influence on Peter.Odds are it wasn't a real prediction anyway.

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Prediction is not necessarily prophecy and a prediction does not always come true.

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A prophecy that tells of something that is to happen in the future is a prediction.

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If you do walk in front of a bus and die then that is strong evidence of no free will because you would always make the same choice free will would only be an illusion a belief that you actually can choose what to do, but the choice is always the same as the one predicted.

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But if you would not walk in front of the bus then that would be evidence to support that there is no such thing as prophecy and that you have the free will to chose what to do all the time.

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The games we play with imagination.If someone makes such a specific prediction, they are probably making it after the fact.Whether i get hit by a bus or not is not evidence for or against prophecy. It would be evidence concerning the reliability of the prophet though. That's why Jonah got mad when God didn't follow through.Also whether I can change the course of things depends on whether I know the prediction or not and whether I believed it or not. I can refuse to believe it and not change my actions or I can choose to believe it and mind where I walk or drive.

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To put it more in context with the bible at the end of times after the good guys have been raptured the rest follows Satan to wage the last battle at Armageddon, do these humans that where left behind the atheists who finally got some evidence that god exists dont have a choice to say no belzebos you go and fight your own battle im staying behind, the just blindly follow the guy in to battle knowing they will loose.

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Given that what you just wrote has no basis in the Bible, I doubt if free will is thwarted.

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Yes, it does matter. If libertarian free will is correct, it should be impossible to perfectly predict human behaviour.

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I still disagree. A prediction doesn't take away one's ability to make choices.This isn't about whether one can perfectly predict it is about whether a prediction negates free will.

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Yes, but that's because contrary to the popular modern view of prophecy as prediction, Biblical prophecies are generally statements of intent from God, and in some traditions at least, God does not know what He will actually do when the time comes. However, this topic is about the popular modern view.

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I don't know that frako made any distinction between ancient and modern. He's bringing in the Bible.

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And you miss the point. How could Jesus be sure that Peter would not make the effort or that it would take him three failures to realise what he had done or even that the third question would not come a little too late, after cockcrow? Where did I even suggest any outside influence is mentioned in the story ?

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It doesn't matter how Jesus knew. The implication in the story is that Jesus could see ahead or God gave Jesus the knowledge of what would happen. I didn't say you mentioned outside influence. I'm making my argument that free will was not impeded.

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So you are saying the "end of days" may not come if people change their ways.

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I said that what you wrote had no basis in the Bible, so you can write the ending any way you want.