Burgy wrote:
>Dick Fischer wrote: "But if God can be "surprised" by future events, then
>"those He foreknew were predestined" is a hard verse to reconcile with
>that point of view."
>Why?
>One is not irreconcilable with the other at all, Dick.
>I know that someday I will die. Along the way to that event I am all too
>often surprised by events.
Ah, but you are not God. His ways are higher and all that. What I am
alluding to is God's foreknowledge. As someone put it, the past, present,
and future are all in the "now" of God. If you and I were known to God
from the foundations of the earth, then there are no surprises. Our
fathers and mothers were known, all of our forefathers were known. Nobody
in the long chain of countless billions of possibilities did anything that
would have precluded you and me from being here today. And that goes for
everyone else on the planet. All the ants and alligators too. Either God
knows the future or He does not. You can't have it both ways.
>God knows I am of the elect. (I'm Presbyterian, BTW, one of the "frozen
>chosen."). Yet he MAY (note the absence of a strong claim here) be
>surprised at some of the goofs I make along the way, goofs performed
>because I am not a robot. Hopefully, he may well be surprised at some of
>the better stuff I do too!
We could argue as to whether or not He does know the future. And I will
admit that I am not adamant on that point, but I lean toward His being
all-knowing because that is what permits prophesy, and the Bible is replete
with prophesy. But if God can be surprised by what you may or may not do,
then how could you say you were "elected"? Your election and mine is
predicated on God's knowing that we would come to Christ. Sure, we could
have chosen to be devil worshippers, but if we are truly part of the
"elect," our decisions to come to the faith were foreknown to God. No
surprises.
Dick Fischer - The Origins Solution - www.orisol.com
"The answer we should have known about 150 years ago."
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