God knows everything.
Does God know the future?
I wrote a paper on this in my theology class. At first I didn't know that there was any argument. I know there is between pre-destination and Arminianism, but aparently there is an argument even between Armianism.
Aparently there are people that claim that if God knew the future then we would not have free will. These people are called freewill or open theists. They believe freewill is only freewill if a person has the ability to choose otherwise and this is called Libertarian freewill. If a choice is foreknown by God then it has to end up the way God knows it to be.
Lets look at it this way. If later this afternoon at lunch I have the option of eating pizza or a sandwich and God knows I am going to pick the sandwich then I have to pick the sandwich. This reasoning makes sense to me, but so does the other side of it.
The other side says, basically, that because we do not know our future it is a free choice or compatiblistic freewill. It is not because God knows the choice that the choice is going to happen, but because it is going to happen that God knows it.
Both of these make sense and both of them fall under Arminianism. Yet Jacobus Arminius didn't believe either one of these but rather saw it as something that the human mind simply could not understand.
I really dunno what I think on this subject anymore. I have looked at it and read about it and there seems to be no one right answer. Even the predestination people got somethings right it seems like!
All I do know it that God is All-knowing, All-present, and All-powerful and that means He is so much more than I can ever understand. Whatever someone thinks they know about God, there is always more to know. And many times when we try to fit God into a box we end up having to cut part of Him off so that He fits. Every one of these possitions has to ignore some part of Scripture in order for their version to work 100% of the time. So maybe the way it really is, is that all of them are right, to some degree. Maybe we are predestined and maybe we have freewill. Maybe God knows the future and I still can choose one way or the other. Either way, God is God and I am just me. What do I know?
1 comment:
It really is quite an interesting argument isn't it. It is good for us to look at all sides, and I think you are right that at the end of the day we have to realize that we cannot know the answer. We can claim a side, but God is the only One who really knows the answer here. I know that I sure do not want to put God in a box because you are right, He gets cut off when we only give Him four walls to work within.
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