Predestination

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njd83
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Re: Predestination

Post by njd83 » Mon Dec 05, 2016 3:09 pm

Yeah I think it makes sense to say he knows all things, but that we have a free will also.

However, to throw something else out there:

Did God not know where Adam and Eve were in the Garden after they ate from the Tree of Knowledge? When he asked them, "where are you?"

Does he anthropomorphize himself just to relay conversation to limited mankind?

waiting your thoughtful response

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Paidion
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Re: Predestination

Post by Paidion » Mon Dec 05, 2016 3:47 pm

Does God think like a human being, have remorse like a human being, get angry like a human being? Or is it the other way around?
Do people have minds that think and behave like God? After all, man was created in the image of God.
Paidion

Man judges a person by his past deeds, and administers penalties for his wrongdoing. God judges a person by his present character, and disciplines him that he may become righteous.

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njd83
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Re: Predestination

Post by njd83 » Mon Dec 05, 2016 6:10 pm

I don't understand your response

If God knows everything but asks questions he already knows the answer to, that's peculiar.

We dont know everything so we aren't made like him in that area.

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njd83
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Re: Predestination

Post by njd83 » Mon Dec 05, 2016 10:07 pm

Yeah I'm thinkin' now foreknowledge is not of all future exact whatevers

We literally have a free will I guess. I thought God somehow knew every future detail.

It's nice that way though. Freeing

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Paidion
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Re: Predestination

Post by Paidion » Tue Dec 06, 2016 3:50 pm

What I mean is that theologians and philosophers think of God as "wholly other," exists outside of time, and that He has no emotions, and is not affected at all by man's decisions. I am saying that this is false. Having been created in God's image does not imply that we have all the powers and knowledge that God has, but it DOES imply that God is not completely different from us, that He has emotions, is sorrowful about people hurting other people, is happy when people are happy by living the way God wants them to live, for He knows that that is what will make them supremely happy, and that He does respond to man's decisions. For example, when the Israelites wanted a king like the other nations had, God lamented, "You would not have me to rule over you!" He knew that having a king would not be good for them, but He gave them a king (Saul) anyway since they insisted on it, but He warned them that they would have trouble because of their king. Thus God does respond to people's wishes and decisions. He is not wholly other, but in many ways, His nature is similar to ours. That's what I meant by stressing that we (humanity) were created in His image (though that image was distorted when man began to make independent choices apart from God).
Paidion

Man judges a person by his past deeds, and administers penalties for his wrongdoing. God judges a person by his present character, and disciplines him that he may become righteous.

Avatar shows me at 75 years old. I am now 83.

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njd83
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Re: Predestination

Post by njd83 » Tue Dec 06, 2016 4:34 pm

Gotcha.

That's an important doctrine to get right to understand God better (foreknowledge, predestination/preappointing)

I had been puzzled on that for a while

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