Free will!
80. Free will! One of the many things we find throughout the many religions of God is that God gives us free will or freedom of choice to choose the path leading to God, or some other direction we may want to travel, without forcing His children to comply to His will: This is the only way we can truly be held accountable for our very own actions, and not the actions of someone else. This is the only way we can truly say that we made effort, on our part, to comply to God’s will, and we actually did earn our rightful place in heaven. 
CHRISTIANITY: John: 5:45 “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” With this one statement Jesus is telling us, through John, that God is there for us and will help us in whatever direction we may choose to go, without forcing us to comply with His Godly will and desire. John: 12:26 “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be.” 
JUDAISM: Joshua: 24:15 “And if it seem evil unto you to serve The LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve The LORD.” Proverbs: 4:25 “Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.” Proverbs: 4:26 “Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.” (choose the path your feet will travel) Psalms: 54:6 “I will freely sacrifice unto thee: I will praise thy name, O LORD; for it is good.” CHRISTIANITY: Galatians: 5:1 “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free…..” 1 Thessalonians: 5:21 “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” James: 1:12 “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which The Lord hath promised to them that love Him.”
BAHA’I FAITH: “For God has created man and has given him free will to choose between good and evil, to follow the Truth or tread the path of error.”
(Bahá’í Faith, Adib Taherzadeh, The Revelation of Baha’u’llah v 3, p. 1)
CHRISTIANITY: James: 1:25 “But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty (freedom of choice), and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” With freedom of will comes the responsibility of making choices that will affect our soul from now until eternity, but we are not without guidance. God has sent messengers with teachings that will help us to direct our steps on a path that is beneficial to the development of our souls and He will also help guide us on our path to spiritual development: JUDAISM: Proverbs: 16:9 “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but The Lord directeth his steps.” God is there to move events in our lives that will help with our decision making, but will not interfere with our ability to freely make decisions that are beneficial to our soul or that are detrimental to the spiritual development of our soul; we are free to make such choices on our own.
BAHA’I FAITH: “Some things are subject to the free will of man, such as justice, equity, tyranny and injustice, in other words, good and evil actions; it is evident and clear that these actions are, for the most part, left to the will of man. But there are certain things to which man is forced and compelled, such as sleep, death, sickness, decline of power, injuries and misfortunes; these are not subject to the will of man, and he is not responsible for them, for he is compelled to endure them. But in the choice of good and bad actions he is free, and he commits them according to his own will.’’
(Bahá’í Faith, Abdu’l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, p. 247)
ISLAM: Letter 1. “They came to me of their own free-will, without hesitation, and with pleasure, ecstasy and joy.”
(Ali b. Abi Taalib, Letters from Nahjul Balaagh)
256. “Let there be no compulsion in religion. Truth stands out clear from error; whoever rejects evil and believes in Allah (God) hath grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks. And Allah heareth and knoweth all things.” Muhammad is clear on this; we have free will to choose God’s way or some other path. There should be no forced coercion on anybody’s part to force their religious beliefs on any one from anybody.
(The Qur’an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surah 2)
30. “Some He hath guided: others have (by their choice) deserved the loss of their way: in that they took the evil ones, in preference to Allah, for their friends and protectors, and think that they receive guidance.”
(The Qur’an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surah 7)
ZOROASTRIANISM: 11. “When Thou, O Mazda (God), in the beginning didst create the Individual and the Individuality, through Thy Spirit, and powers of understanding when Thou didst make life clothed with the body, when (Thou madest) actions and teachings, whereby one may exercise one’s convictions at one’s free-will;”
(Zoroaster, The Zend-Avesta, Avesta – Yasna 31)
“Him I would now propitiate by conscience, him who granted to our will the choice of the right and the wrong (i.e. freedom of will). Freedom of will is the first postulate of mortal life. There cannot be any mortal life without freedom of the will.” “All other animals are ruled by nature. They follow the course of action dictated by natural forces and animal instinct. Man however can rise above nature and take the course of action pointed out by conscience.” (ZOROASTER, Hymns of Atharvan pp. 485, 487 and 488)
HINDUISM: “That man alone is wise Who keeps the mastery of himself!”
(Hindu, Bhagavad Gita (Edwin Arnold tr) chapter 2)
9. “Here of free choice let each one serve thee richly, resplendent day by day at eve and morning.”
(Hindu, Vedas, Rig Veda – Book 4)
BUDDHISM: 12. “Self is the master of self; who else could be the master? With self well-controlled a person finds a master such as few can find.”
(Buddhist, Dhammapada – Sayings of the Buddha 2 (tr. J. Richards))
25. “One is one’s own lord. One has one’s own course. Control therefore your own self,”
(Buddhist, Dhammapada – Sayings of the Buddha 3 (tr. J. Richards))
SABEANISM: “To you do I call and (you) do I teach, Men who have received the Sign. Hearken not to the talk of all peoples and generations; Let not their stumblings cause you to stumble, Stumble not because of their stumblings!” “Be careful; make enquiry,” — into the word of God, of your own freewill. “My chosen, ye sought and ye found, moreover ye shall seek and ye shall find. ye sought and found, my chosen ones, as the first souls sought and found.” Not through coercion but by self investigation. (Sabeanism, Ginza Rba- chapters 74, 89 and 99)
“There were those who bought my wares (God’s Holy Words). The eyes (of such a one) were filled with light, Filled with light were his eyes On beholding the Great (One) in the House of Perfection. There were those who did not buy my wares. (Chose not to investigate into the Holy word) They went on, reached their end and lay down. they were blind and saw not, Their ears were stopped and they heard not And their hearts were not awakened.” (Sabeanism, Ginza Rba- chapter 90)
BABI RELIGION: “Theirs is the choice either to believe in God their Lord, and put their whole trust in Him, or to shut themselves out from Him and refuse to believe with certitude in His signs.”
(The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 146)
“They that truly believe in God and in His signs, and who in every Dispensation faithfully obey that which hath been revealed in the Book — such are indeed the ones whom God hath created from the fruits of the Paradise of His good-pleasure, and who are of the blissful. But they who turn away from God and His signs in each Dispensation, those are the ones who sail upon the sea of negation.”
(The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 146)
BAHA’I FAITH: “Man’s physical existence on this earth is a period during which the moral exercise of his free will is tried and tested in order to prepare his soul for the other worlds of God.”
(Bahá’í Faith, Compilations, Lights of Guidance, p. 367)
“Bahá’u’lláh has given us a choice and has, therefore, left us free to use our own discretion.”
(Baha’u’llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 204)