tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1433428682510068517.post8593031069506859575..comments2024-02-29T19:21:32.831-05:00Comments on Possible Worlds: Has God done all he can for the unsaved?Randy Everisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06870605678781409126noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1433428682510068517.post-75286605629984327642013-09-13T11:40:29.417-04:002013-09-13T11:40:29.417-04:00Hi David, thanks for commenting!
I think a lot of...Hi David, thanks for commenting!<br /><br />I think a lot of your questions need to be explained more. For instance, what do we mean when we say "based"? If we are asking, "is the property of omniscience, ascribed to God, an essential (and hence, necessary) property of his nature, or is it a property he could have lacked?", then I think the answer is yes, it is based on his nature. However, that is not how you seem to be asking it. You seem to be asking "is the content that makes up the property of omniscience informed, determined, or caused by God's nature?" In that case, I think I would answer no. Many, if not most, of the statements you make following this suffer from the same ambiguity, and thus I think we have an insuperable communication problem unless or until those ambiguities are solved. :)Randy Everisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06870605678781409126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1433428682510068517.post-31508679315157217752013-09-09T14:45:22.895-04:002013-09-09T14:45:22.895-04:00Hello,
Thought I would through out a few que...Hello,<br /><br /> Thought I would through out a few questions of my own just for conversation's sake. <br />Is God omniscient based upon His own unchangable nature? Can God learn anything new? Can God forget anything?<br /><br /> I assume we would agree that God derives nothing of His being from anything other than Himself, and that immutablity is an attribute of God's being. If these are true then it seems to be a good and necessary consequence to conclude (deduce) that God's knowledge is grounded upon God's knowledge of Himself. <br /><br />For prior to God having caused any of His decree to coming into being through the works of creation and providence, nothing existed other than God Himself. <br /><br /> How then could it be otherwise that God could know anything other than what God has Himself decreed to come about? <br /><br />If we say that God "looks" into the future to "learn" what is to come about concerning anything at all, then doesn't that make there to be some external standard outside of God and His will to which God must examine to have full knowledge of what is true? If this is so, what is this Standard and how did it come into being? If this is true, then would it not be true that God does learn new things and his knowledge is mutable?<br /><br />Since I think we would continue to agree that the first things mentioned are true; that God knowledge is immutable, then that God derives nothing of His being from His creation, then it seems to me that it can be nothing other than to conclude that God knows something becausee he caused it.<br /><br /><br />To quote from the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter III which I take to acurately represent what Scripture teaches concerning these things:<br /><br />"I. God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.<br /><br />II. Although God knows whatsoever may or can come to pass upon all supposed conditions; yet has He not decreed anything because He foresaw it as future, or as that which would come to pass upon such conditions."<br /><br />So, in response to the initial person's post, I would argue that it depends on what is meant by "no freedom to choose our actions" If by freedom we mean that our choices are free from God's divine decree, then, our choices are not free at all.<br /><br />Thanks for considering,<br /><br />DavidAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1433428682510068517.post-19995923524264143732013-04-23T22:55:30.774-04:002013-04-23T22:55:30.774-04:00Hello,
I would ask him why he thinks that God can...Hello,<br /><br />I would ask him why he thinks that God can only know something if he causes it. If your opponent replies that is not the case, then I don't see any other reason for assuming God knows something because he caused it. In fact, if the above-question is false, it means, by definition, God can know something because it is true, and not simply because he caused it, which destroys the entire objection. So suppose he bites the bullet: ask him why he thinks it must be true, and evaluate that!Randy Everisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06870605678781409126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1433428682510068517.post-31983690113065755022013-04-16T14:39:41.350-04:002013-04-16T14:39:41.350-04:00I am debating in a forum whether man has free will...I am debating in a forum whether man has free will or not. One poster asked me what is was that God knew before the foundation of the world to send His Son. He basically is stating that since God has foreknowledge, we have no freedom to choose our actions. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com