RE: Ask the Christian
September 19, 2011 at 5:17 am
(This post was last modified: September 19, 2011 at 5:22 am by lucent.)
The reason no one could answer this question for you is because most Christians don't understand much about the foreknowledge of God. It is sad no one even tried while you were in doubt.
God does not have necessarily have absolute foreknowledge in all things. It isn't because He isn't capable of creating a world in which He does have absolute foreknowledge. It's because He sovereignly decided to create a world with human beings who have genuine free will. To do otherwise would be to create mere robots. Free will must be genuine because in any other case, love would simply be a programmed response. Love isn't love without free will.
Genesis 22:12
“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
As you can see, God did not absolutely know how Abraham would react before He tested Him.
In the bible, you can see that God frequently changes His mind or alters His plans according to how people behave. For instance, God stated the fourth generation of Israelites would enter the promised land..but it was actually the fifth generation, due to disobedience. This means that we have genuine choices which lead to novel outcomes.
This isn't to say that certain things aren't set in stone, or left to chance. For instance, that He has set a date to judge the world. Basically, He foreknows as much as He sees fit, and leaves open as much as can be left open.
So, our choices do matter. God has given us genuine free will to determine our course. He has sacrificed some of His sovereignty for our sake, to give us a real life with real choice.
I suggest "God of the possible" by Gregory A. Boyd and also "The God who Risks" by John Sanders for a much more in depth analysis of this subject.
“…the classical tradition became misguided when, under the influence of Hellenistic philosophy, it defined God’s perfection in static, timeless terms…Given this definition of divine perfection, there was no way to conceive of God as entertaining real possibilities…It followed for classical theology that reality must be eternally and exhaustively settled…This view is misguided on biblical, theological, and practical grounds…God is the God of the possible and not simply a God of eternally static certainties. Practically, a God of eternally static certainties is incapable of interacting with humans in a relevant way. The God of the possible, by contrast, is a God who can work with us to truly change what might have been to what should be.”
"God can and does predetermine and foreknow whatever he wants to about the future. Indeed, God is so confident in his sovereignty that he does not need to micromanage everything. He could if he wanted to, but this would demean his sovereignty. So he chooses to leave some of the future open to possibilities, allowing them to be resolved by free agents. It takes a greater God to steer a world populated with free agents than it does to steer a world of preprogrammed automatons…The God of the possible creates the “Choose Your Own Adventure” structure of world history and of our lives, within which the possibilities of human free choice are actualized…A God who knows all possibilities, experiences novelty, and is willing to engage in an appropriate element of risk is more exalted than a God who faces an eternally settled future"
God does not have necessarily have absolute foreknowledge in all things. It isn't because He isn't capable of creating a world in which He does have absolute foreknowledge. It's because He sovereignly decided to create a world with human beings who have genuine free will. To do otherwise would be to create mere robots. Free will must be genuine because in any other case, love would simply be a programmed response. Love isn't love without free will.
Genesis 22:12
“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
As you can see, God did not absolutely know how Abraham would react before He tested Him.
In the bible, you can see that God frequently changes His mind or alters His plans according to how people behave. For instance, God stated the fourth generation of Israelites would enter the promised land..but it was actually the fifth generation, due to disobedience. This means that we have genuine choices which lead to novel outcomes.
This isn't to say that certain things aren't set in stone, or left to chance. For instance, that He has set a date to judge the world. Basically, He foreknows as much as He sees fit, and leaves open as much as can be left open.
So, our choices do matter. God has given us genuine free will to determine our course. He has sacrificed some of His sovereignty for our sake, to give us a real life with real choice.
I suggest "God of the possible" by Gregory A. Boyd and also "The God who Risks" by John Sanders for a much more in depth analysis of this subject.
“…the classical tradition became misguided when, under the influence of Hellenistic philosophy, it defined God’s perfection in static, timeless terms…Given this definition of divine perfection, there was no way to conceive of God as entertaining real possibilities…It followed for classical theology that reality must be eternally and exhaustively settled…This view is misguided on biblical, theological, and practical grounds…God is the God of the possible and not simply a God of eternally static certainties. Practically, a God of eternally static certainties is incapable of interacting with humans in a relevant way. The God of the possible, by contrast, is a God who can work with us to truly change what might have been to what should be.”
"God can and does predetermine and foreknow whatever he wants to about the future. Indeed, God is so confident in his sovereignty that he does not need to micromanage everything. He could if he wanted to, but this would demean his sovereignty. So he chooses to leave some of the future open to possibilities, allowing them to be resolved by free agents. It takes a greater God to steer a world populated with free agents than it does to steer a world of preprogrammed automatons…The God of the possible creates the “Choose Your Own Adventure” structure of world history and of our lives, within which the possibilities of human free choice are actualized…A God who knows all possibilities, experiences novelty, and is willing to engage in an appropriate element of risk is more exalted than a God who faces an eternally settled future"
(September 17, 2011 at 3:36 pm)BloodyHeretic Wrote: Fat chance Dar, it was one of the questions nobody ever tried to answer on my way to becoming an atheist. It's always fun to watch them squirm though!