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To: annalex; HarleyD
I gave you scripture and explained it in 1995, and you respond with sneering? If you have an interpretation of these passages that accounts for every verse as mine does, I'd be curious to see it. I do not mind a comic relief either, if that is what you've got.

We are lucky. As to what would have happened if Eve changes her mind, or Mary, or Judas, the scripture does not tell. Perhaps God does not want us to know?

Although I tried, I don't know if I was actually funny or not, but I assure you that my "sneer switch" was turned off when I posted. :) I was trying to be half smart-aleck, but I was also trying to support Harley's statement.

I was trying to get to a key issue of to what degree is God dependent on man? We both agree that God already knows everything that's going to happen and all that we'll do. The question is: does God alter, or even make, His plan BASED on what human decisions are, or does God make His true and perfect plan from the beginning and "arrange" for it to come true? I simply vote for the latter.

We appear to differ on who deserves the credit for the unfolding of world history exactly in line with ancient prophecy. I was pointing out that it cannot be by accident or luck that God wins EVERY time! Are there not more than 250 messianic prophecies (major and minor) in the OT? How do you explain that they ALL came true if any one man in the pipeline (over hundreds of years) could have thwarted the whole thing by choosing incorrectly? I cannot explain it, other than, it wasn't luck. Why in the universe would God leave anything to luck?

2,078 posted on 01/28/2006 5:31:42 AM PST by Forest Keeper
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To: Forest Keeper; annalex; HarleyD
"We appear to differ on who deserves the credit for the unfolding of world history exactly in line with ancient prophecy. I was pointing out that it cannot be by accident or luck that God wins EVERY time! Are there not more than 250 messianic prophecies (major and minor) in the OT? How do you explain that they ALL came true if any one man in the pipeline (over hundreds of years) could have thwarted the whole thing by choosing incorrectly? I cannot explain it, other than, it wasn't luck. Why in the universe would God leave anything to luck?"

+Gregory Palamas addresses this very issue, again in The Triads:

"Thus the deifying gift of the Spirit is a mysterious light, and transforms into light those who receive its richness; He does not only fill them with eternal light, but grants them a knowledge and a life appropriate to God. Thus, as St. Maximus teaches, St. Paul lived no longer a created life, but 'the eternal life of Him Who indwelt him.' Similarly, the prophets contemplated the future as if it were the present."

2,083 posted on 01/28/2006 11:48:16 AM PST by Kolokotronis (Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!)
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To: Forest Keeper; annalex
We appear to differ on who deserves the credit for the unfolding of world history exactly in line with ancient prophecy. I was pointing out that it cannot be by accident or luck that God wins EVERY time!

Sorry, but it has been hectic for the last week. Try as I might I am unable to see annalex scriptures or understand the posts. Clearly I hope our friend annalex doesn't believe in "luck". Everything is directed and ordained by God. I'm sure he would acknowledge that as it states it over and over in scriptures. God raises up kings and overturn nations.

2,090 posted on 01/28/2006 1:36:22 PM PST by HarleyD (Man's steps are ordained by the LORD, How then can man understand his way? - Pro 20:24)
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To: Forest Keeper
The question is: does God alter, or even make, His plan BASED on what human decisions are, or does God make His true and perfect plan from the beginning and "arrange" for it to come true? I simply vote for the latter.

God in his sovereign omnipotence allows us to make decisions and he foreknows our decisions, and makes plans in that foreknowledge. Divine foreknowledge is reflected in the prophecies. This is what the scripture tells us. It is not something that we can vote one; it is a given.

2,108 posted on 01/29/2006 1:18:54 PM PST by annalex
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