“That is more like the calvinist view. I am arguing against that. People’s destinies, while known beforehand, are not caused beforehand. We make those decisions.”
Whether you are right or Calvinists are right, in either position the number of persons condemned to hell was fixed before the foundation of the world and as history plays itself out, nothing can change that number. A person can only make the choices he was forseen to make before the foundation of the world. Since God makes the rules, doesn’t his omniscience then have a deterministic component to it? If He knows, it has to be true.
Your interpretation of sovereignty is similar to a Deists understanding since God can’t intervene in history since that intervention could be construed as “causation”; again, history is just a rerun.
No. Knowledge is not causation.
God can’t intervene in history since that intervention could be construed as “causation”; again, history is just a rerun.
I never said He can't intervene. Scripture and history are full of instances where He has intervened. Note what's missing though--His forcing people to make decisions He wants. He persuades, He talks, He smites (in the OT), but He never forces someone to change their mind.
Also note that I am NOT saying He is unable to do this. I am claiming that He is unwilling to do this. Big difference.
History is not "just a rerun." We need to make these decisions on our own--so that we KNOW we are responsible. This is not for His benefit--it's for ours.
Not exactly.
History is a first run.
It is a 2nd viewing.