While God is not subjected to the laws of time, His creation and creatures are. The universe, the angels and man are all subject to time and will forever be subject to it. God works within the bounds of time but He is not bound to it and, make no mistake, neither is His creation if He so deems. There are two places in scripture that shows God physically altering time (one in Joshua and another in Isaiah). God can alter time just as He can change anything else but apart from these two incidences there is no indication that He is so inclined. When God sent an angel to Daniel, Satan withstood him for 21 days until Michael came to help (Dan 10). God works within the framework of time unless He doesn't want to. That's His business.
God is always one step ahead of everything in His created universe. Satan hindering angels, God incremental creation and the Book of Life all shows stop and start points. God is not bound by these but He works within this framework. Scriptures state the Book of Life was created and sealed BEFORE the foundation of worlds. I personally believe just that.
Heaven forbid!!! No!
I am saying that the Scripture often writes in human manner when it talks about God's eternal plan.
Let's try again. What God did in Genesis 1 occurs SIMULTANEOUSLY with what I am typing right this very moment, TO GOD. This is so because He is outside of time. He is not constrained, by neither space OR time. However, the Scriptures, in an effort to teach God's "predetermined" will and plan, describes God's actions on a scale of time - in other words, from OUR point of view. Thus, from OUR point of view, God did everything you mentioned. To us, it appears that God has planned everything "before" the creation of the world (which should be your first clue on the ability to delve into this mystery - there is no "before" time).
While God is not subjected to the laws of time, His creation and creatures are. The universe, the angels and man are all subject to time and will forever be subject to it. God works within the bounds of time but He is not bound to it and, make no mistake, neither is His creation if He so deems
Exactly. WE are subjected to time, and thus, the Scriptures describe God's actions in this manner. But if you take this thought of timelessness, that God exists in an eternal, unchanging present, to its logical conclusion, then God doesn't plan like men. Thus, God is able to see simulataneously my birth and death, my response or lack thereof to His grace.
The question that the Church has not answered: What makes a grace efficacious - man's response or God? That will twist your noodle (or maybe not, since you don't believe in free will). However, the very fact that the Church does not declare either answer incorrect shows that we just don't know - that the Church HAS NOT taught that man has no free will.
Regards