Misuse of Free Will

Our first parents lost sight of the fact that they were not created to prosper apart from God and his laws. They decided to become independent of God, thinking that would improve their lives. But this was an abuse of their freedom. They stepped outside the God-ordained limits of free will.​—Genesis, chapter 3.

By permitting wickedness and suffering, God has once and for all time shown the sad results of misusing free will. This is such a precious gift that rather than take free will away from humans, God has allowed them to see what its misuse means.

Regarding free will, the publication “Statement of Principles of Conservative Judaism” says: “Without the real possibility of people making the wrong choice when confronted by good and evil, the entire concept of choice is meaningless. . . . Much of the world’s suffering directly results from our misuse of the free will granted to us.”