God's perfect knowledge.
Do you know about God's middle knowledge?
Craig talks about it. Weird stuff. We get too caught up in trying to understand GOD.
That's like an ant trying to understand a HUMAN!!
But if the ant were capable of pondering the nature of it's own existence, and by extension, that of it's creator, would we fault it for doing so?
God wanted to create a race of humans.
I'm told it's because He loves us and I tend to agree with this reason since He had no real NEED for us.
Maybe he does need us. We only assume that he doesn't because he's a divine being.
But God is slightly intelligent....isn't He?
Do you suppose He would have been happy with a race of humans that He would have liked to be able to freely love Him back? Maybe He didn't want to program the entire human scene, so He left a lot of decision making to us?
That's just it though, there are no decisions to be made. Our free will is an illusion if God has perfect knowledge of every choice well ever make in this life. If there is no freedom to choice, how is it moral for God to judge us?
Think about the consequences of this. It means that the slaughter of six million Jews at the hands of the Nazis was part of God's unalterable plan. It's a lot like what we read about in the Old Testament.
So, Adam and Eve were free to eat of the tree.
The tree held the knowledge of good and evil.
Did ADAM only want to know good?
Or did he also want to know evil?
I doubt Adam wanted to know anything. He seemed rather content for the most part until Eve showed up. Women have way of... complicating things. :p
God could have not put the tree there,
God could have made Adam choose to NOT eat,
God could have done this any way He wanted,,,
but He chose to let us make the decision as to whether or not we wanted to know evil,
Or only good.
Would man belong to God freely and lovingly
or would man end up a robot that followed God's instructions?
I think God should have laid it all out from the very beginning. Just why did he get so upset at mankind for wanting knowledge? Putting prefect knowledge aside, is it free will if God casts you out of the garden for exercising it? Or... Does he want you to be more like a robot?
And how are we judged for making any choice?
Because God gives to us the free choice to choose between Him and the enemy.
He clearly states that if you choose the enemy He will have nothing further to do with you because you decided to give your love to the enemy.
This is perfect justice.
But what is giving your love to the enemy? What does that entail? Is it asking questions? Is it the pursuit of knowledge? If one isn't convinced that the bible is the word of God, is that choosing the enemy?
Good thinking!
Simple answer:
GOD HAS FREE WILL.
The REAL question is:
Can God negate/oppose His nature?
For instance,
Can God sin?
It kind of reminds me of that question, can God create a rock so heavy that even he can't lift? God's nature, at least in the Old Testament, is very human. He admits to being a jealous God, having fits of rage, and even regret.
If God has these human traits, especially regret, then it stands to reason that in a fit of rage, there's a chance he could go against his own divine nature. But then again, there's no judge above God to punish him for sinning, and the angels must obey, or they will be cast out of heaven.
Not mythology.
How about this:
The Hebrews, and those that came after them, had discovered this new God.
A monotheistic God that had great power.
God commanded many actions/incidents/rules, etc. in the OT.
Could it be that the Hebrews, and those that came after, began to attribute
everything that happened to God?
I think it's likely that Yahweh was the god the Jews needed at the time. A war god that would smite their enemies and deliver them. People don't just discover gods and begin communicating with them. Just as God doesn't talk to human beings today, it is unlikely he talked to ancient man either.
As I said, I think most of it is mythology. We're you around during the time of Hector and Achilles, you would have had complete faith in the Greek gods. They too believed that the gods were to be feared and respected, and they very much believed that the stories of these gods were truly.
In a thousand years, assuming we don't join the 99% of all species that have ever lived on this planet in extinction, it is likely that the Christian God will be thought of in the same way as the Greek gods are today. That doesn't mean the Christian God does not exist, but how else do you expect a people to react to a god that prefers to remain hidden?
We will never fully understand God but can only grasp what has been revealed to us,,,and I'd say the best revelation is Jesus.
You could be right. Jesus certainly made an impact unlike anything we've ever seen in our history. For my own sake, and the sake of my fellow humans, I hope that the Christian God is more divine in nature than he's made out to be in the bible... and less blood thirsty.