Posted on 06/20/2005 4:38:37 AM PDT by HarleyD
A blessed Monday ping to you.
Why does God get angry, and punish people, when He knows exactly what they are going to do?
If He didn't want/allow them to do these things, why does He create them?
I don't believe we have a choice in our actions, because, if God does know what we are going to do before we do it, and if God cannot be wrong....then how can we do anything differently? I believe God knows what we are going to do, and the consequences of our actions, for years and years after.
God knowing what we are going to do, and causing it to happen, are two entirely different things.
How do you know? I believe it's the same thing.
If God is all-powerful, He knows what someone is going to do, the creator of all things, and cannot be wrong...then how can someone do anything different than what God knows he will do?
I never said we can do anything different. God has foreknowledge of everything that happens, but that doesn't mean that He causes it to happen. We have free will. God just knows the outcome of every decision we will make.
If God knows the outcome of our free-will choices, the results of these choices and all the ramifications and subsequent choices involved, and we cannot do any different...then where is the choice?...He has already pre-planned it.
God knew what Hitler was going to do, yet He still created Hitler, didn't He?
There is no way anyone can show, that they could have made a different choice.
You are trying to put God's foreknowledge into human constraints. God doesn't pre-plan what man will do, He simply knows the outcomes of out decisions. Therefore, man does have a choice. God knows which choice you and I will make, but we still are the ones making the choice.
Why do you think that God's foreknowledge is incompatible with your freedom to do what you want to do?
Should God not create men for the purpose of displaying His glory and majesty?
Cordially,
No, it's the opposite. I believe God has no restraints, that is why I believe His foreknowledge, does predicate our actions.
Beside, neither of us really knows what God does or doesn't do.
Please explain, how, (if God does know our decisions 100yrs before we are created, and how it will affect all other related decisions, and He cannot be wrong), your decision can be any different? You can only make one decision.
I don't think it's incompatible..I don't think our freedom to do as we want, exists. I just believe that we think we can do as we want.
I have no idea what God should or shouldn't do.
God having no restraints has nothing to do with whether he predicates our actions. The fact that God knows what will happen, all the while allowing His creation to make their own decisions, shows just how powerful God actually is.
Yes, powerful enough to have made a plan for all of mankind.
You haven't explained though, how, if God knows we are going to do something, we could do anything different? If one cannot do differently than that which is already known, then where is the real choice?
Because the Bible teaches that God died for the whole world and wants all men to be saved. This could not be the case if only certain ones are predestined to be saved. Therefore, we must have a choice.
Not everyone believes in the validity of the bible as you do.
Are you saying that you don't? If so, then where do you get the authority for your beliefs?
Yes.
They are beliefs, that I thank God for giving me.
I have no authority, I guess they are self-evident, besides why would you need authority?
***God knowing what we are going to do, and causing it to happen, are two entirely different things***
The Parable of the Talents
14"For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants[c] and entrusted to them his property. 15To one he gave five talents,[d] to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. 19Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, 'Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.' 21His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant.[e] You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.' 22And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, 'Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.' 23His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.' 24He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, 'Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.' 26But his master answered him, 'You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sowed and gather where I scattered no seed? 27Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
God will judge us based on what WE have done with waht He has given us.
I agree that the fact that there is an all-powerful creator of the universe is evident by His creation. However, there is no way to know how to worship God, or how to enter into a relationship with Him without having that divinely revealed to us.
I agree, but how does this differ with what I said?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.