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To: elephantlips
God IS omniscient, period.
I've never found upper-case letters any more persuasive than lower case letters. ;)

Omniscient means "knowing everything" or "knowing all", right ? Presumably that means knowing all that can be known. I think (it's been a long time) Whitehead and the rest of them would argue that the future cannot be known because it doesn't exist, it doesn't have the same kind of "being" that the present and the past have -- heck, it doesn't "have being" at all. Anyway, Whitehead would (I think) say that in his view God is omniscient. The notion is not an observation about God's limits, it's a theory about what time and being are.

It's sorta, kinda, a little analogous to saying God is omnipotent. God can do anything that can be done. But can He make a rock so big that he can't lift it?

(I'm always tempted to answer that one with something like, "Yeah He can: He made a cross and the cross, under which He fell three times, lifted Him.)

259 posted on 01/04/2005 5:19:07 AM PST by Mad Dawg (My P226 wants to teach you what SIGnify means ...)
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To: Mad Dawg
Omniscient means "knowing everything" or "knowing all", right ? Presumably that means knowing all that can be known. I think (it's been a long time) Whitehead and the rest of them would argue that the future cannot be known because it doesn't exist, it doesn't have the same kind of "being" that the present and the past have -- heck, it doesn't "have being" at all. Anyway, Whitehead would (I think) say that in his view God is omniscient. The notion is not an observation about God's limits, it's a theory about what time and being are.

God fore-knew the future when He ordained Christ as saviour. He fore-knew the future with every prophecy.

God authors all things, past present and future, so he knows what he has ordained .

Seeing God created time for men , I would say he is the God of time..... unlike men he is not constrained by it

It's sorta, kinda, a little analogous to saying God is omnipotent. God can do anything that can be done. But can He make a rock so big that he can't lift it?

That is presented as a puzzle but is actually not, for if there was a rock that God could not lift he would cease to be God .

(I'm always tempted to answer that one with something like, "Yeah He can: He made a cross and the cross, under which He fell three times, lifted Him.)

As a man ...

279 posted on 01/04/2005 9:18:45 AM PST by RnMomof7 (because I'm good enough , and smart enough and darn it I deserve it ")
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To: Mad Dawg
There are many interpretations of God and His abilities. The singular fact exists that in all of those interpretations we have a human being explaining God. If the belief is that God is above all that man can understand or know, it follows that our attempts to dissect God to the point of comprehension are futile. I want my God to be all powerful, all knowing, omnipresent and totally sovereign. If He is less, than I am more and I am very flawed. That just won't work.
281 posted on 01/04/2005 9:25:04 AM PST by elephantlips
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