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How much of Eternity is Already Determined?

S

SupporterOfCristo

 
Member
I know God is So Powerful that He can Actually provide Life that NEVER Ends to His Chosen Ones.

Does God Already Know All Eternity?

Is Everything Already Determined?

Or is Everything just Generally Established and it is up to God’s children to partake in the future set up for us?

Maybe God can see ALL, but Not Cause All Independently.

Have a Blessed Night! (-:
 
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Hey All,
These are good questions SupporterOfCristo. Let's take them one at a time.

"Does God Already Know All Eternity?"
Yes. God cannot be all knowing and not know all. The word "all" is an absolute term.

"Is Everything Already Determined?"
From God's perspective only, yes. Think of it this way. If you had a computer preprogrammed with every action you could take, but it did not tell you what to do, you would still be free to take any action but still have that action be predetermined. (I admit this analogy is not perfect. But you get my point.)

"Or is Everything just Generally Established and it is up to God’s children to partake in the future set up for us?"
We can use the computer analogy for this question as well.

"Maybe God can see ALL, but Not Cause All Independently."
As the creator of all, God is the first cause of all.

"Or is Everything just Generally Established and it is up to God’s children to partake in the future set up for us?"
God does not do anything generally. He knows the hairs on our heads. If a sparrow falls, He knows. God is microscopically involved in His creation. Read Job 38-41 to get a sample of God's involvement.
I hope this helps. Keep walking everybody.
May God bless,
Taz
 
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SupporterOfCristo said:
Does God Already Know All Eternity?
Click to expand...

Yes. He's omniscient - all knowing.

SupporterOfCristo said:
Is Everything Already Determined?
Click to expand...

God knows all that will happen but this doesn't mean He's determined for it to happen. I know a cat licking itself will eventually cough up a furball. But knowing this doesn't mean I caused the furball, does it?

God knows all that you will freely choose to do. But His knowledge of your free choices doesn't make them pre-determined, God-ordained, in the sense that theistic determinists like to assert. See Molinism. See Soft Libertarianism. See Modal Logic.

SupporterOfCristo said:
Or is Everything just Generally Established and it is up to God’s children to partake in the future set up for us?
Click to expand...

No one is utterly, radically free. We live under the constraints of the nature of God's creation. Gravity, blue skies, our ten fingers, the seasons, chemistry are all what they are (and much more besides) and we can do nothing to alter that this is so. These things are established by God without our input. But there are things about which we can exercise the free agency God has given to us, like moral questions, worldview questions, making plans for the future, choosing who we'll marry, or what clothing we like to wear, etc. Of course, as we make choices through life, we become increasingly constrained and bound by them, entrenching into habits of thought, preference and action. There are, though, will-setting moments that are genuinely free, for which we are entirely responsible.
 
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Hey All,
Read this from John:

John 9:1-3 And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

The disciples assumed that the man's disability (blindness) was caused by sin. Jesus said it was so God could show his work (miracle) in the man's life. So in this case, God directly affected the man's creation for His good purposes.

Now the greater question; does God affect every individual? He knows the hairs on our heads. Then we read that David wrote this:

Psalms 139:1-5 O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.
Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.
Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.

So God knows my thoughts before I think them. (Vs 2) But wait! There is more:

Psalms 139:13-17 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.
I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!

God saw you and loved you before you were born. God knows every grain of dust and dirt it took to make us. So yes I would conclude that God was a little bit involved in our creation.
What do you think?
Keep walking everybody.
May God bless,
Taz
 
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Josef said:
God saw you and loved you before you were born. God knows every grain of dust and dirt it took to make us. So yes I would conclude that God was a little bit involved in our creation. What do you think?
Click to expand...
Well, since it's been said that He is omniscient, does that mean that He knows before He creates an individual whether or not He will eventually be casting the individual into the lake of fire?
 
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