Actually I'd agree with every bit of that except only how some (not you or me, but some non believers) would take the the extra emphasis in the last sentence to support their commonplace assertion that God 'is evil' -- because humans suffer in their mortal bodies and die, and it seems to non...
We read in the same collection of scripture that God planned before the world to send a savior to redeem us.
It all fits together if we just read it as it is written, without any real contradictions.
But there are seeming contradictions/problems/nonsensical seeming stuff if, if, we bring...
There are many instances in scripture of us doing what God did not foresee (because He made us like Himself, with true agency). Let's look at one.
Before the Flood:
5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of...
1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
...
2 My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The...
Yes, but, still, the idea that the future already exists and can be jumped into even by God (who can do anything), is still actually a modern science fiction/fantasy style device (I think the first such story was created in about 1881). It's a fantasy idea, instead of real.
Consider -- God chose to make us like Himself
Genesis 1:26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image...
John 10:34 Jesus replied, "Is it not written in your Law: 'I have said you are gods'?
We are actually like God in key ways -- not just slightly, but in profound ways.
Ergo, we are not...
God is certainly able to design an amazing fantastic Universe that would unfold precisely how He wants, in every tiny detail, forever.... Like perfect clockwork of vast intricacy.
But He did not.
He did not make that kind of clockwork Universe, it seems according to the common bible and so...
Not if He, in His wisdom, chose to design Nature so that it does not -- does not -- have a clockwork future that is already pre-set. So that there is no already existing (already predetermined) future. So that the future does not exist. So that nothing exists until it happens.
( like...
Just reading fully enough.
There are so very many instances, but here is one I think is a lot of fun to quote:
5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord...
Isaiah 46 is such a great chapter to give us the precise way God accomplishes the prophecies He has chosen to "bring about". How He intervenes with agents to work to "fulfill" what He wants to be an outcome.
“Remember this, keep it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels. Remember the former...
Unless, as we read in the common Bible, He does not always know what we will choose.
(Ergo, which must mean He intentionally created us to be unpredictable, by His design.)
Hi Brain, closely related to all of these discussions is the commonplace idea many have that we are in a Universe where the future will play out in a predetermined way, a 'Clockwork Universe.'
Which is a crucial thing to just assume. And often implicit in any discussion....
I have a...
Unless God specifically choose to design nature and/or spirit (the latter of which may be 'super' natural and not subject to nature even) -- to be unpredictable. By His choice. By design, from the start.
Because He preferred it.
As seems pretty likely the case, in modern physics actually...
Ok.
But, the term 'omniscience' doesn't actually imply knowing the future, so you may want another word for that idea, since some like me will point out it's not the same.
Omniscience: the state of knowing everything.
No specification about knowing future events there. Instead, knowing all...
In the bible we explicitly read God did not expect some things people did.
So, according to the bible, God's omniscience isn't comprised of knowing all of the future.
I can't think of any reason God would be expected to know 100% of all future events. For example, there's nothing in the extensive texts of the common bible that suggests God knows every future event ahead of time
Instead the texts have many passages that suggest that God doesn't know every...
I love the way that your heart breaks
With every injustice and deadly fate
Praying it all will be new
And living like it all depends on you
Here you are down on your knees again
Trying to find air to breathe again
And only surrender will help you now
I love you please see I believe again
I...