Monday, March 22, 2004

The "Pastoral" Problem of Divine Foreknowledge and Human Freewill

As a Christian philosopher I acknowledge God's sovereignty over His creation. I acknowledge that God is the greatest possible being: God is omniscienct, God is omnipotent, and God is omnibenevolent. No being is greater than God. An implication of God's omnibenevolence is that God is perfectly good; God cannot sin. As Anselm described it, sin is a deficiency, if a being sins it is because that being lacks the power to do good - God does not lack the power to do good. James 1:13 says, "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone." So God cannot do evil according to biblical revelation.
Now, God being omniscient means that God knows everything that is possible for God to know. Since I am not an open theist I believe that everything that is possible for God to know includes the future. So God knows that the future decisions that I will face and how I will decide. Though God might have a plan for me, I am not a fatalistic determinist, I can make choices on my own that are wrong. An example of this might be a divorce, divorce is never the will of God but God allows divorce for people who have made bad decisions.
God's omnipotence implies that God is all-powerful. God's plans cannot be foiled. (The question of whether God can create a rock so big that He cannot lift it is an incoherent question.)
So, God knows what will happen to me, God can control what will happen to me, and God loves me more than I love myself. Why don't I trust God? I don't know. I realize that it is often the case that we do not realize how God is working in our lives during the current situation and thus do not realize what the good is that He is doing in our lives... Managers of a baseball club are second guessed after they lose a game due to a questionable decision that they made. We do not have the ability to question God after He makes what appears to be a decision concerning our lives. I think my problem might be that I don't realize what God is doing and that is what frustrates me the most. God knows what decisions I will make and whether they will be good or bad decisions, I guess my prayer is that God gives me the wisdom to make good decisions and puts me in the proper place so that I might best suceed. --Amen

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