Posted on 12/04/2006 7:52:47 PM PST by Pyro7480
Yes, God knew my destiny before He created me. Yes, if God didn't want me created he wouldn't have created me. And yes, I was created for my destiny. Furthermore, I would say this falls under the definition of omniscience. But I would most definitely disagree with your previous statement that omniscience equates to double predestination. It's quite tempting but I won't speculate here...
We believe, since God is Love, that all His purposes are Just. (Justice being one form of Love.)
Uh-huh. But omniscience (something I believe about God) does not equate to double predestination (something I don't believe about God). :-)
I'm going to have to limit any further responses due to time constraints, my job, my life, speculation about some things, etc...
"Hawaiian Shirt"
And I thought we could at least get through one week without bashing Rick Warren, my wrong!
Was that before time. If so, did everything happen at once? ;-)
And my point is that God knew you'd go to that grocery store even before creation. Had he NOT started THIS CREATION, then you would not necessarily have gone to that grocery store. But, since He did create THIS CREATION, that means your going to the grocery store has been locked and loaded just waiting to happen from the very beginning.
Actually, I was bashing Rick Marlowe, who, long-time resident of California, started the trend that Rick Whasisname stole.
That there was a beginning of time (space/time) was the most theological statement ever to come out of science.
Measurement of the cosmic microwave background radiation showed that the universe is expanding, therefore space and time had a real beginning, i.e. big bang theory which is nearly universally accepted.
That inflationary model demands it - and no physical cosmology defeats it (multi-verse, multi-world, ekpyrotic, cyclic, hesitating, imaginary time, etc.) For all their efforts, all these models have merely extended the beginning to an undetermined prior event. And all of them rely on pre-existing geometry for that event. Time is geometric.
In the beginning, God created...
The bottom line is causation. In the absence of time, events cannot occur. In the absence of space, things cannot exist.
Causation requires geometry (space/time) - there must be an uncaused cause of causation, i.e. God the Creator.
If I say to you, "Where were you when I entered college?" that might mean that you did not exist at that time.
But, it indicates that I pre-dated that time.
That still doesn't negate my choice to go to the store. That still doesn't mean I couldn't do otherwise.
It just means God know what the end result would be.
You are so much smarter than me, sister.
If God caused time to come into being, then what word do we use to describe God prior to that big bang....
Existed?
One view of creation and the big bang is of broken symmetry, a geometric concept.
It is more of a way of looking at it than it is a testable hypothesis.
Precisely.
If God knows you will change your mind 20 times before going to the store at 7 PM tonight, is there any possibility that God will be wrong and that you will end up not going to the store? (or at a different time?)
Existed?
And Jewish mystics use the term Ayn Sof which roughly means that from which all being emerges and into which all being dissolves.
But I prefer God's Name, I AM.
So true. Personally, I don't think we can 'think' our way through it.
Or as Rumsfeld would say: "there's some things you know, some things you don't know and some things you know you don't know and some things you don't know you don't know."
The set of things we can know about God is small but precious.
Did they count time when you went to college? Other than that, I find no other way to harass you here.
But, it indicates that I pre-dated that time.
We're in agreement.
I agree that much of my life has not yet happened (I'm hoping anyway :>) I agree that I will make many decisions that have never before been made and that they are first time decisions.
At the same time, I know that God knew what they would be, and that none of them will be other than what He knew would end up being the case.
That is BOTH "free will" and "predestination."
Indeed.
Nope, I do believe God is omniscient.
And that I still am faced with real choices and that what I do matters.
In the absence of space, things cannot exist.
There ya go.
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