Divine Foreknowledge
Growing up as a Christian, in the Christian church, I was always taught that God knows everything. God knows the beginning and end, and everything in between. This is something that, until one starts asking tough questions, one usually accepts. My goal in writing this essay is not to change someone’s beliefs about God, or beliefs in God, but instead to challenge people to quote, un-quote, think outside the box. Consider the pros and cons of God knowing everything and also be open to other solutions. There are a few questions that need to be answered when one considers God’s knowledge. First, if God knows the future with absolute certainty, then, are we as humans truly free? Second, if God does not know the future with absolute certainty, then what does God know? And third, is there any biblical backing for God not knowing the future with absolute certainty?
The first question is an extremely difficult one to answer. Augustine and Calvin define God’s foreknowledge as "The future will happen a certain way, because God foreknows it. If God knows the future with absolute certainty, then are humans truly free? No, if God knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, what I will choose to do from now to eternity, then I am not truly free. That is not to say that what is happening is caused by God, because that is a totally different claim. But if God knows the future and God knows what I am going to have for lunch tomorrow, and God cannot be wrong, then I do not have the ability to choose other than, what God knows I am going to have for lunch tomorrow. Some use the argument, everyone is free and has had the choice, but the choice has already been made in God’s eyes, because God is eternal and outside of time. That is ho...
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...ies from the things that do not happen, as well as all the possibilities from the things that do. God knew me and what type of a person I would be, and God even knew everything that has happened in my life up to this point, and everything that will to me in the future. God did not know that the things in the past would happen for sure, and does not know what will happen in the future. Instead, God knew and knows them as possibilities. This is a difficult thing to grasp, but at the same time it gives God more knowledge because now God knows everything that will happen as well as everything that will not. But God has given us the ability to make each possibility a reality.
The God of possibility, one that can know all things and still provide freedom, that is my kind of God.
Citations
Boyd, Gregory A. The God of the Possible. Grand Rapids, MI. Baker Books. 2000
St. Augustine of Hippo, Boethius, and Anselm all address the concept of free will and God’s foreknowledge in their works “The City of God”, “The Consolation of Philosophy”, and “De Concordia”. While each work was written during a different time period, each of their approaches consists of a solution comprised of both unifying and unique points and arguments. While there is no clear contesting between one work and another, it is clear that free will is a complex and critical idea in Christian theology that has long since been debated. '
This book was published only after it was first a series of sermons delivered in England right after World War II. According to Weatherhead, God actually has three types of will: intentional will, circumstantial will, and ultimate will, which are all distinct from one another.
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The above ideas seem relatively straightforward when presented as independent beliefs. A great deal of confusion does arise, however, when the ideas are brought together as a system of beliefs. Some parts of God's nature seem to disallow the possibility of free will. How can God's knowledge of all actions - past, present, and future - allow any human to make a choice of his own volition? By its very nature, omniscience is infallible, therefore it seems that one is not free to choose anything other than that which God knows. Th...
...o tensions. Paul the apostle wrote by the same Spirit that Milton claimed that the Potter has the power over the clay and by the riches of God’s mercy he shall show mercy upon who he wants to show mercy. Theologians of history, Augustine, Wyclif, Luther, Zwingli, Calvin and others all held this doctrine of predestination and taught it with vigor. With vigor predestination stands in Scripture and the challenge for Milton was to demonstrate the Father is reasonable, but at the same time God is the Almighty. So where does Milton’s views stand in relation to a perfect God? As others before "of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will and Fate, Fixt Fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute," in the Apostle Paul’s reply "O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus" (2.559,560- Romans 9:20 K.J.V.)?
If God is omniscient, he would know how to make this world the best possible world.
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...rything. He is all knowing, and before Adam and Eve ate from the tree they didn’t know anything. They were like a young five year old who thinks that the world is fine and dandy. After eating from the tree though they get to see the world the way that God sees it.
A foundational belief in Christianity is the idea that God is perfectly good. God is unable to do anything evil and all his actions are motives are completely pure. This principle, however, leads to many questions concerning the apparent suffering and wrong-doing that is prevalent in the world that this perfect being created. Where did evil come from? Also, how can evil exist when the only eternal entity is the perfect, sinless, ultimately good God? This question with the principle of God's sovereignty leads to even more difficult problems, including human responsibility and free will. These problems are not limited to our setting, as church fathers and Christian philosophers are the ones who proposed some of the solutions people believe today. As Christianity begins to spread and establish itself across Europe in the centuries after Jesus' resurrection, Augustine and Boethius provide answers, although wordy and complex, to this problem of evil and exactly how humans are responsible in the midst of God's sovereignty and Providence.
The world is becoming increasingly more accessible due to the internet; specifically for monetary transactions such as shopping and banking. In 2009, a group of people under the name “Satoshi Nakamoto” created the Bitcoin, a form of digital currency that can be used to conduct transactions on the internet. In the past six months, there has been a sudden spur of popularity for the Bitcoin, which increased the coin’s net worth, as well as stock prices for investors. Its stocks started accumulating investors in September 2013, at roughly $130 a share. Now in 2014, a share of the Bitcoin, sits at approximately $600. On a purely economic level, the Bitcoin may appear to be a promising investment of both money and hope for the economy in the future as technological advancements make improvements in our day-to-day lives. However, the very thing that is attracting investors is also sending red flares to government officials – uncertainty. A virtual currency is innovative and a very new concept to the society which we have today that is caught in a limbo between holding onto the old and transitioning into the new. The Bitcoin generates an interesting outlook on global politics and economy in the 21st Century. The virtual currency analyzes the threat of a foreign currency within a state, the possibility of a potential global currency and the technological economy of the future.
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The concept of God can be a difficult one to grasp especially in today's world - a world in which anyone that believes in God is trying to define exactly what God is. To even attempt to grasp such a concept, one must first recognize his own beliefs in respect to the following questions: Is God our creator? Is God omnipotent (all-powerful) or omniscient (all-knowing) or both? Does God care? Is God with us? Does God interfere with life on earth? These questions should be asked and carefully answered if one should truly wish to identify his specific beliefs in God's existence and persistence.
Free will is one of the many gifts which God gave to humanity and it is in our power to make the right decisions. On the other hand, determinism deprives each human of the ability of choosing and having the power to make their own decisions. Determinism cannot be true as our actions are not pre-determined before events happen. God gave us the gift of free will because He has predestined what will happen to use during our lives. Galen Strawson stated “if events are not necessitated to occur just as they do, then we are still unable to exert control over our choices and actions” (Ethical Theory, 2012). The gift of free will results in an agent choosing their own course of action which is not determined by any previous or future events. The agent carries out their action in the way in which they wish to do so, and the agent makes their own choices. When an agent acts using their free will, they are right to be held morally responsible for their actions because events and actions are not pre-determined. For example, “a man's motives are not given by what was happening to him immediately before he started to act” (The Philosophical Review, 1957). Humanity have the gift of free will which allows us to make our own decisions. Free will can be a curse for some of us and for others it can be a blessing. God gave us the gift of free will so that we could live our life according to God and this would influence humanity to make the right decisions, but this is not always the case. Determinism if it were true, would mean that all our choices and actions would already be planned out including the bad ones, but Calvinists believe all of humanity go to either heaven or hell and this was predestined by God. When an agent makes a wrong decision and is punished, it would be morally wrong to blame God because the reason He gave