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Originally Posted by alatar
Though you may simply be stating what others have said, I agree that it's a bit convoluted and makes God seem less omnipotent as He must rely on human agents to execute peoples so that His plan will succeed.
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Originally Posted by me
This is a very important point. By allowing humans free will, God has necessarily placed limits upon his own omnipotence. This is rather frightening concept that most Christians don't want to try to get their minds around, but when you look at it, it's pretty obvious. What is also necessary to conclude from it, is that God is an exceedingly brilliant craftsGod (can't exactly say craftsman although we could about Jesus I suppose), in that he still works all of human free will with all of its mix of good and evil and chaos into his ultimate plan for the good of those that love him and keep his word.
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Correction
I was wrong. No entity in the universe is freer than God. Allowing free will to humans didn't change that at all. God is not bound by our choices. In fact, any of the oaths and promises He swore to in Scripture, do nothing more than agree with God's character anyway, so God is not altering a thing by having spoken those oaths or made those promises. God is free. God is bound by nothing other than God's own character.
Passive tense in LotR
For a clue into the Christian sub-text in LotR, take note Tolkien's use of the passive tense. Try to decipher what agent is active in these passive tense phrases. What person, entity, power, or what-have-you is acting upon the hobbits, men, elves, whomever? 'Twould make a most interesting study.