From: igevolution@earthlink.net
Date: Tue Apr 22 2003 - 13:43:30 EDT
Burgy wrote, in part:
In recent years, however, I have come to think it incorrect. I think God does NOT see the future -- at least not in detail -- but can and often is surprised by what we, his created yet partially autonomous beings, choose as courses of action in certain circumstances.
Respectfully, I would differ with you on this. God is an entity entirely outside of time. He does not experience the moment-to-momentness of our life. Eternity is an instant to him; past, present, and future are synonymous from his perspective. Because of that, He knows with perfect clarity what the future is. In my mind, it is not necessary to see a dichotomy here with regard to our free will. The fact that He knows, perfectly, what we will do does not mean that that action is determined. We are completely free to choose, but because he sees "tomorrow" as clearly as "today," he has simply observed our choice already. As a matter of fact, he observed our choices before we or anything else came to be.
The doctrine of salvation is intimately woven into this view (please don't hear me questioning the salvation of those who differ with me on this perspective--I'm certainly not). From an eternal perspective, Christ is now and always has been on the Cross (and simultaneously risen in glory by His Father). The sins of Adam and Cain were not forgiven by blood sacrifice. That was a picture for them of the real atonement, which for them was future. However, as God sees all of human history at once, Christ's atonement was already available to them, and their sins (assuming they trusted in God for their slavation) were placed on Christ's shoulders when they were committed. My sins committed today and in the remainder of my life are placed on Christ's shoulders, as He is still and forever making atonement for me.
God's perspective is hard to talk about with our temporal language, but he "observed" my sins that I have not yet committed from eternity past, determined that there would need be an atonement, and provided that in Christ before anything came to be. From our perspective, God is telling the future, but that isn't the case. He has simply already witnessed it. This can be seen in the prophecy in Genesis 3:15:
"...and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: he shall crush thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."
The atonement was already accomplished from an eternal perspective. The language is, of course, in the future tense, but that is due to the audience's temporal nature, not the perspective of the speaker. God certainly is aware of our free-agent choices in advance of our making them. In fact, He has already paid the price for those made in error.
Jason
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Tue Apr 22 2003 - 13:39:59 EDT