http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=theope-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0830826521&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrIf God KNOWS EVERYTHING BEFORE HAND, Why doesn’t he do something about our troubles?
The same question could be asked of a parent who knows full well that their child has the same propensity to bad decisions as they did when they were their age.
Why they would allow them to be tempted with those SAME weaknesses, when they could be preventing it? Shouldn’t they stop them from going to to the same places, doing the same things, having thew the same KIND of friends?
And don’t say, ‘This isn’t the same thing because God is much more perfect than they are, or God is more powerful than we are so he could do it better!’
Look, the premise is exactly the same, as parents even when we know for a fact our kids are doing, saying and acting out the same lifestyle as we did, WE CANNOT CHANGE ANYTHING BECAUSE OF PERSONAL CHOICE! God cannot and WILL NOT override our personal choice to kill ourselves for the same reason, HE WILL TRY TO CONVINCE US BY ‘CIRCUMSTANTIAL MANEUVERING’ in our lives.
The easy answer is FREEDOM of Choice, as with us they deserve the freedom to choose right things from bad things to build their character, that is all God is doing by allowing us the choice to obey or disobey!
Is GOD:
TEMPTER or TESTER?
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Believe it or not some people assume this to be true because of a lack of understanding about the difference between “Four-knowledge” and “Pre-destination.”
FIRST I’LL DEAL WITH “FOUR-KNOWLEDGE” which is Knowledge of a thing before it happens; pre-science.
NOTICE THIS EXAMPLE:
“If I foreknew, foreknowledge had no influence on their fault.”
In other words just because I know something BEFOREHAND does NOT change it’s outcome at all.
In the King James Bible the term “Forsaw” means To BEHOLD in Advance, to notice previously or to keep in one’s view.
“Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. For David speaketh concerning him, I FORESAW the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. ” (Act_2:24-25)
There is NOTHING STRANGE ABOUT GOD HAVING KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THINGS BEFORE THEY HAPPEN!
AS GOD UNLIKE US IS NOT BOUND IN ANY WAY BY TIME, HE ALWAYS SEES BEFORE HIM THE:
“End from the beginning” God can “Behold” at any time, the past, the present and the future simply because he does not exist within the framework of the limitations of time.
HE EXISTS IN A REALM OUTSIDE OF TIME…THEREFORE HE CAN BE WITNESS TO ALL OF TIME AT ONCE!
One of the KEY THINGS that makes God,God is the fact that he is ALL-KNOWLEDGEABLE about all things in every circumstance…
Isa 42:9
” Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.”
Isa 44:7
” And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and shall come, let them show unto them.”
Isa 48:3
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Isa 48:5
” I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I showed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them.”
Isa 48:6
” Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I have showed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them. “
You see there is NO MYSTERY involved in God’s foreknowledge..he stands outside of all history and therefore can see what is going on, past, present and future..therefore ONLY a prophet inspired by him will be right 100% of the time. Because God planned every detail of creation PRIER to creation, he must follow the laws he instituted. Even in special cases of Miracles the laws of nature are not broken but merely stretched within certain parameters.
Jer 1:5
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Dan 2:28-29
“But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these; As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass.”
Mat 6:8
“Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.”
O.k. so foreknowledge is not a problem, but what about “Predestination” did God determine before hand our PAIN and SUFFERING?
Did God determine before I was born I would go through so many problems?
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=theope-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B002SW8Y5Q&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrIn order to properly answer this question I must cover other doctrines first such as what God is, does he have “evil intent?
First we must define Evil:
Remember I told you that “EVIL” as a thing does not exist it can only be felt by a spiritual presence because evil is the ABSENCE OF THE GOOD.
Evil is Having bad qualities of a natural kind; mischievous; having qualities which tend to injury, or to produce mischief.
Having bad qualities of a moral kind; wicked; corrupt; perverse; wrong; as evil thoughts; evil deeds; evil speaking; an evil generation.
Unfortunate; unhappy; producing sorrow, distress, injury or calamity; as evil tidings; evil arrows; evil days.
Evil is natural or moral. Natural evil is any thing which produces pain, distress, loss or calamity, or which in any way disturbs the peace, impairs the happiness, or destroys the perfection of natural beings.
Moral evil is any deviation of a moral agent from the rules of conduct prescribed to him by God, or by legitimate human authority; or it is any violation of the plain principles of justice and rectitude.
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=theope-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0971756171&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrThere are also evils called civil, which affect injuriously the peace or prosperity of a city or state; and political evils, which injure a nation, in its public capacity.
All wickedness, all crimes, all violations of law and right are moral evils. Diseases are natural evils, but they often proceed by cause, from moral evils.
The real question is “Can God be evil?”
Jas 1:17
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness (CHANGEABLENESS), neither shadow of turning (CHANGING OF THE MIND).”
1Jn 1:5
” This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”
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Shadow is defined as “Shade within defined limits; obscurity or deprivation of light, apparent on a plane and representing the form of the body which intercepts the rays of light; as the shadow of a man, of a tree or a tower.”
God has NO SHADOW for he is PURE LIGHT BOTH IN FORM AND THOUGHT, to think of God in any other way is to say he is IMPERFECT and FAINT in representation and in OPPOSITION TO REAL SUBSTANCE.
What is DARKNESS?
It is Absence of light,Obscurity; want of clearness or perspicuity; that quality or state which renders any thing difficult to be understood; as the darkness of counsels.It is A state of being intellectually clouded; ignorance.
So we can conclude from this that God is perfect and pure and has NO EVIL INTENT IN THOUGHT OR DEED,ELSE HE COULD NOT BE GOD! In order for the above question to be true God would have to be a cruel, void of Love taskmaster without feeling for his creation.
So we know from our study here that God KNOWS EVERYTHING that has happened and that will happen,THIS IS FOREKNOWLEDGE.
We know that God has the ability to PREDETERMINE WHAT HE KNOWS IS FOR OUR BEST INTEREST, this does not mean, he wills anything EVIL TO HAPPEN TO US..IT SIMPLY MEANS THAT AS JESUS SAID THERE IS ONLY ONE NARROW PATH BY WHICH WE MUST GO TO GET TO HEAVEN AND ALONG THAT PATH TO EITHER SIDE IS EVIL “THE VOID OF LIGHT”AND TO STEP OFF THE PATH AT ANY POINT HAS CONSEQUENCES TO IT THAT ARE NOT HIS WILL.
Such as Adam and Eve and their choice to eat of the wrong tree first.
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=theope-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0830827595&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrIt was not God’s fault that they disobeyed him BUT because God knew they would he made a plan to reverse the process of sin through his son BEFORE THEY EVEN CHOOSE!
If God were remotely as bad as Atheists infer he would have left us in sin FOREVER by allowing them to eat of the tree of eternal life, instead he BLOCKED IT and provided a better plan!
God DID NOT put the trees there to tempt them BUT rather to TEST THEM, in other words just because you don’t pay attention in school, DOES THAT MEAN THE TEACHER WON’T TEST YOU AT SOME POINT? Why don’t we just pass every student without testing their knowledge?
Adam and Eve were WARNED MANY TIMES not to eat of the experience of Sin, but RATHER to know the same way God knows of Sin, by the comparison to his righteousness. If they had trusted what God said WE ALL would be free now of Sin and rebellion in the world and would NEVER have needed the Death of Jesus!
Adam and Eve were WARNED MANY TIMES not to eat of the experience of Sin, but RATHER to know the same way God knows of Sin, by the comparison to his righteousness. If they had trusted what God said WE ALL would be free now of Sin and rebellion in the world and would NEVER have needed the Death of Jesus!
And since we have proved that God has no VOID within him and will not do evil then the conclusion MUST BE THAT GOD INTENDED GOOD FOR THEM AND NOT EVIL.
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=theope-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1400200962&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrTo PREDES’TINATE means To predetermine or foreordain; to appoint or ordain beforehand by an unchangeable purpose.
Now think real hard about this is “EVIL”an unchangeable purpose? Will darkness EVER RULE the universe? NO! WHY?
Because Evil and Darkness are only perceived when Light and God are not there, so if we desire this then Hell is the ONLY PLACE PERMANENTLY WITHOUT IT!
So how could a God of GOOD, ORDAIN ANY EVIL IN PURPOSE OR THOUGHT?
Rom 8
“Whom he did foreknow, he also did predesignate to be conformed to the image of his Son.”
God knew that each of us would choose to come to him and he knows that some will not, BUT THE PLAN REMAINS THE SAME REGARDLESS OF OUR CHOICE!
Eph 1.
“Having predestinated us (The Church,NOT individuals) unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself.”
God did not predestinate EVERY PERSON ON EARTH,PAST,PRESENT, and Future to be http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=theope-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B00208GIN8&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrsaved weather or NOT they choose it,what he did do was to PREDETERMINE HIS PLAN OF REDEMPTION FOR ALL MANKIND WHICH IS AN “UNCHANGEABLE PURPOSE FOREVER”!
So let’s recap; TO HAVE FOREKNOWLEDGE MEANS THAT GOD WHO SEES EVERY MOMENT OF TIME FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE END, HAS THE BIG PICTURE.
But to PREDESTINATE MEANS THAT GOD USES HIS “WISDOM or FOREKNOWLEDGE” TO DETERMINE HIS PLAN OF ACTION WHICH HAS NO “SHADOW or VOID IN IT’S MATRIX” meaning The womb; the cavity in which the fetus of an animal is formed and nourished till its birth.
A mold; the cavity in which any thing is formed, and which gives it shape; as the matrix of a type.
The place where any thing is formed or produced; as the matrix of metals; gang.
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