God knows ALL things ?

[MeCajunboy]

Hi again everyone,

My topic may seem simplistic but if you think it through with me you'll see why I'm concerned ! We all know that the Bible tells us that "God knows all things past, present and future. I have learned to trust my instincts and moreso trust the Word of the Bible; mainly God's Words. My question, if I can get through it all is, "If God knew and knows all things, when HE decided to flood the earth and basically save one large family and sets of most of the animals, why would HE have to say "I will never destroy my world for the sake of my people again? To put it another way, If HE knew how the people of early times would behave(sinwise) why would he think that destroying HIS world with a flood and destroying the people on it would have changed anything??? Does this make any sense? It just seems to me that if God knew and knows people , even of the future generations, wouldn't HE also know that it would be senseless to destroy people if HE also knew that eventually , with sin intervening, people would come to the point that we're seeing now, which by the way is almost a repeat of early times. History is practically repeating itself,but in a different location !

Or one might also ask themselves, why would God destroy the Israelites, which by the way we are told in the Bible that only two of the original several thousand lived to see the promised land, that the others died along the 40 year trip through the desert. But if God knew, the outcome already with the Israelites demise, and the fact that God's people eventually became a repeat of what HIS favorite Israelites did? Another words, what good did it do GOD to destroy HIS favored people, if they only did it again.....And as we know, God could have seen all this from the start, but chose to destroy HIS first chosen group????

Hope it makes sense? I'm much better expaining one-on-one!

Blesisngs

Cajunboy

[godrulz]

Hi again everyone,

My topic may seem simplistic but if you think it through with me you'll see why I'm concerned ! We all know that the Bible tells us that "God knows all things past, present and future. Hope it makes sense? I'm much better expaining one-on-one!

Blesisngs

Cajunboy

Where does it say that God knows the future as actual before it comes into existence? God knows the past and present exhaustively, but the future has an element of uncertainty so is correctly known as possible.

Open Theism elaborates on these issues and why exhaustive foreknowledge of future free will contingencies is illogical.

[terter]

God is all-knowing (no matter what human beings logically decide) see James 1:5; I Sam 2:3; Psa 139:1-6, Gen 6:5; Matt 6:4, 32; Acts 2:23, ETC.

[nebula]

It just seems to me that if God knew and knows people , even of the future generations, wouldn't HE also know that it would be senseless to destroy people if HE also knew that eventually , with sin intervening, people would come to the point that we're seeing now, which by the way is almost a repeat of early times. History is practically repeating itself,but in a different location !

It sounds to me like you don't think the Lord had planned out the need for Him to incarnate Himself as a man so that He could become the final atoning sacrifice for all sin.

[Rumple]

believe that God knows all things past present and future, but He only shares any of this knowledge at His discretion for His own purposes. God, however, does not not determine what actions a person will take. He knows which of us will endure to the end in Jesus, but He does not determine whether we are saved or not. We do based on our actions and/or decisions. We have been given the choice to serve God or not. The fact that He knows what all of our choices are in advance does not change the fact that they are our choices.

So why does He bother to give us the choices, if he knows the results anyway? Very simply He wants men to serve Him and love Him and do all that we can to please, BECAUSE we choose to do so, not because we had no other choice. Our choices are to be made in the midst of many difficulties and a certain doubt as to our reward, if any. He wants those to be with Him through eternity who given such difficulties and doubts remained steadfast in their efforts to please Him. If we knew everything from the beginning perfectly which of us would choose not to serve Him? Therefore He made it necessary for us to live by faith in things unseen with the natural eye, including Him.

Even the repetition is part of His plan:

"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us. " Ecc 1:9-10

Individuals rarely learn by other people's experiences and often not even their own. All of this and more is part of God's plan.

Edited August 1, 2007 by Rumple

[kat8585]

One thing I've never understood is why God would create Lucifer, knowing how many of His children would be lost because if him, not to mention all the heartache he would cause. All the pat answers about "choice" and Him not wanting us to be robots don't cut it for me, because those problems would never have been if he'd never been created.

Another one is that Jesus hasn't come yet because He is waiting on us to get ready. But in the meantime scores of His children are being lost for the sake of the few who may be saved.

[Smalcald]

Good question Cajan, also this type of question has been thought about for thousands of years by Christian scholars. There are many things that we cannot understand being three dimensional creatures who live in a time/space structure. How can a being exist in the past present and future for example? God however exists in the Eternal Now, so the future for God is now as is the past, God exists outside of time.

Thus Christ say's in John 58 "Jesus said to them,

[MeCajunboy]

Hi again everyone,

My topic may seem simplistic but if you think it through with me you'll see why I'm concerned ! We all know that the Bible tells us that "God knows all things past, present and future. Hope it makes sense? I'm much better expaining one-on-one!

Blesisngs

Cajunboy

Where does it say that God knows the future as actual before it comes into existence? God knows the past and present exhaustively, but the future has an element of uncertainty so is correctly known as possible.

(Cajunboy::::.K. then if I might ask you, "where does it say that in the Bible as to your statement of "God knows the past and present exhaustively, but the future has an element of uncertainty so is correctly known as possible?" I will begin searching for my foundation of knowledge but my first recollection of God's ability to know all things past, present and future would be as in when Jesus was nearing HIS death and soldiers and those that were trying to condemn HIM to death were talking amongst themselves, and the Bible says that "Jesus( who is God on Earth) knew what they were thinking! Now, if you are a Christian, surely you believe that Jesus/God are one in the same with the Holy Spirit. I've ready at least 3 different scenarios where the various writers depict in a situation where Jesus knew what people were thinking. THAT would have to mean "Knowing all things" in my mind!

Open Theism elaborates on these issues and why exhaustive foreknowledge of future free will contingencies is illogical.

(God would have no reason to inform us that HE has the abilities and powers to KNOW THE FUTURE as not to alarm or discourage anyone. That doesn't mean that HE doesn't know the future! I can't imagine a supernatural being having the ability to create the things God is responsible for creating, or even having the vision or even the fact that God will always exist, and someone would be limited enough to think that God does not know the future for all ! But I will continue my search as to my professing that "God knows all things."

[MeCajunboy]

God is all-knowing (no matter what human beings logically decide) see James 1:5; I Sam 2:3; Psa 139:1-6, Gen 6:5; Matt 6:4, 32; Acts 2:23, ETC.

Cajunboy:::With that information that you have supported, are you agreeing that God knows present, past and future as well?

[MeCajunboy]

It just seems to me that if God knew and knows people , even of the future generations, wouldn't HE also know that it would be senseless to destroy people if HE also knew that eventually , with sin intervening, people would come to the point that we're seeing now, which by the way is almost a repeat of early times. History is practically repeating itself,but in a different location !

It sounds to me like you don't think the Lord had planned out the need for Him to incarnate Himself as a man so that He could become the final atoning sacrifice for all sin.

Cajunboy::: Sorry if it sounds like that to YOU! But that's not what my question was meant to do. And if you think about even your own statement against my thoughts that "Perhaps there really wouln't have been a need for God to send HIS SON to suffer so much of a world of pathetic and sinful people if we had only listened to HIS WORD to begin with. While I realize tha it must have been inevitable to God that man would take the path of least resistance and choose to sin, one has to wonder why that one issue really had to exist....And I also realize that it began with the two first people on earth.....I still have to wonder.