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To: PFC; xzins; HarleyD
That's why I think there are places in the Bible where the Bible must be incorrect because God is said to change his mind or be surprised. Either God must not be omniscient or the Bible must be wrong.

You're right to make the choice for God's omniscience. But maybe you can look at the Bible as instructional as well as historical so that we're not slandering God's word as "incorrect.".

IMO, God does not "change His mind." Every word of Scripture is one, complete retelling of God's plan for His creation and how He has accomplished the salvation of His people. (By the grace of God, all Trinitarian Christians who possess a true faith in Jesus Christ are among the elect, chosen by God from all nations and races and times.)

But just like God became man in order to reach our human minds and become a human substitution as payment for our sins, God likewise instructs His people with human words and vocabulary, using Scripture in the if/then conditional subjunctive tense -- "if you do this; then that will happen."

But none of this supersedes God's righteous and complete sovereignty. Every leaf falls by the hand of God. Every hair numbered.

The greatest paradox for the Christian mind to grasp is the Trinity. Once we get that one, concepts like Predestination and eternity should be easy.

148 posted on 01/03/2005 1:28:38 PM PST by Dr. Eckleburg (There are very few shades of gray.)
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To: Dr. Eckleburg
You're right to make the choice for God's omniscience. But maybe you can look at the Bible as instructional as well as historical so that we're not slandering God's word as "incorrect.".

I wouldn't slander God's word. God's word can never be incorrect. It would be perfect, just as God is perfect. The Bible is incorrect and contradictory in many places. Therefore, the Bible is not God's perfect word.

Inspirational, yes. Offers many lessons to mankind, yes. Divinely inspired, some parts more than others. Inspired by man, maybe in a few places.

But if people insist on taking every word as literal and true, they are going to run into theological road blocks like the fact that the Bible states in places that God changed his mind or God was surprised yet God is supposed to be all-knowing and immutable. The open theists have taken the route that God is all-knowing of the present and past but not the future - a limitted God. Some Classic theists use mind-numbing contortions of logic. Atheists say it proves God doesn't exist. I say it proves there are problems with the book, not with God.

156 posted on 01/03/2005 2:00:28 PM PST by PFC
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