Thanks for your very thoughtful post, thoughtful for me anyway; it made me think.
And I think we must always be aware that we cannot know everything, especially about God. We can know some things: He is merciful, and perfect love and perfect goodness and perfect justice. He is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient.
These I think we can and do know. So when we end up with a view or description of God that contradicts these, we can know we made a wrong turn somewhere.
We can know that God created man with free will. As you so clearly state, Holy Scripture makes no sense without this. If we end up with a contrary view of man, we have again made a wrong turn somewhere.
So what do we make of the passage you quoted? First, we acknowledge there are many more passages. Second, it helps me to keep in mind that foreknowledge does not mean “caused.” You state this as well although not as clearly I think. God is outside time and not limited to before/after, He does not have to wait to know the outcome of any event or choice; He knows all of it at once.
Thanks again for your post.
I agree. But we do grow into the knowledge that is Jesus Christ. In fact, we must grow - from baby to mature - and that happens only through His Word alone.
"Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory to HIM, both now and forever! Amen." 2 Peter 3:18