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.
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,
Just because God knows what they are going to do doesn’t exclude people from punishment. People, in general, are punished for their sins. That being said there are two types of people in the world; those who are born again and those who are not.
God’s punishment to non-believers is different than believers. God will punish non-believers for a variety of reasons including immorality and pride. God chastises those who have been reborn to discipline them and assist them in their growth.
”If He didn't want/allow them to do these things, why does He create them?”
Assuming you’re talking about those who have been reborn, it states in scripture the reason we are disciplined for our unrighteousness is that God wish to share His glory.
It is for our good that we receive discipline. But in order to save some He had to create us all.
”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?”
Saying we cannot control our actions is fatalism or determinism. But I would agree that God knows what we are going to do before we do it. It is also safe to say that God has our punishment equally laid out.
Sometimes God gives us a choice as He did with David whether to choose famine, the sword of David’s enemies, or pestilent; but it is silly to think that God did not know which one of the three choices David would select. David had a choice in his actions and he chose the plague. God knew David’s choice the same way as God determined the death of the people who would die and live by the plague. But it was still David’s choice. With your proposal you would be saying David was compelled to choose a plague.
stuartcr: "Why does God get angry, and punish people, when He knows exactly what they are going to do?"
Because God is perfectly just. God's character does not allow Him to just overlook sin - it must be recompensed.
stuartcr:"If He didn't want/allow them to do these things, why does He create them?"
For His own glory. You are not the first to ask this question, of course. Paul answers this succinctly in Romans 9
Romans 9 (NKJ)
17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth." 18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. 19 You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?" 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?" 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? 22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?