Jesse: I don’t remember saying that the Future was settled and predetermined, the statement that I made was that God knows all and everything that will and has happened.

Jesse,

I made a logical leap from that statement… sorry. If God knows the future as a certainty, then as Sonny points out it cannot be other than God knows it to be and it is therefore a settled fact. I do not believe in, nor do I think the Bible points to, a completely settled future. As such, I do believe there are parts of the future which cannot be said to exist and therefore cannot be known.

Also, I do not think God simply gives us all the answers He wants us to have. There is much growth to be found in the pursuit of Truth. I believe God desires us to seek Truth because in that quest we are drawn closer to Him. Some have decided that they possess all truth and do not need to search for it… And they cannot abide others who are willing to search while they themselves hold on to dogma. I think that is a dangerous place to be and is ultimately the great sin of the Pharisees. All Truth is God’s Truth, and if it is discovered in the comments of a blog or in the pages of a Bible, it is worthwhile and should be cherished.

Sonny, don’t ever stop seeking. You are an uplift to many.

Justin A: BTW, was Jesus literal and was there a literal resurrection?

This is just an asinine question. No one should even humor you with a response. The whole basis of Christianity is on the belief that Jesus died on the cross for us. Plus there is also actual record outside the Bible to back this up (not that that matters).

So asking this question is basically saying that you do not believe the others you addressed it to are Christians. Is that the case?

Have you become the ultimate judge? Do you hold the book of life in your hands?

Stop questioning sincerity of their beliefs. It makes you look like a bad person, and I think you are probably not.

The questions you ask over and over again are just ploys to try to catch someone making a mistake so you can look like the purveyor of truth and salvation.

God wouldn’t do that, and Jesus wouldn’t do that. It seems a little petty.

God bless you, and may he continue to bless you for all eternity.

Peace and love to you all

Chris, I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you didn’t know why I asked the question.

In a previous post I was told that many of the historical accounts in the Bible were not literal history. I asked for some criteria as to how anyone was supposed to be able to determine which accounts were literal.

The best answer I recall was to see if the claims in the account were credible or if they sounded ridiculous, such as all mountains being covered by water in the flood of Noah’s day. Based on this criteria a large number of historical accounts in the Bible can be relegated to the status of allegory, i.e., not real.

The story of the resurrection is clearly not credible since people are not known to rise from the dead. So, based on the criteria I was given, I would have to assume that some people think the resurrection may not be real history but just an allegory. I think it is important to know.

You may say I am being ridiculous for saying that some don’t believe in the resurrection but I am sure you are aware that some do not.

If I were asked the question whether I believe in a literal resurrection I would just answer “yes”. As I have answered your question above. I believe the story of the resurrection as told in the Bible is a true historical account. Apparently some people have difficulty in answering the question.

Maybe you and I can figure out why they can’t or won’t answer.

I hope this answers your question. If I missed anything please let me know.

BTW, your question about “Do you believe in one God….” seems to me to fall into the same category as “do you believe there was a literal resurrection”. Do you consider both questions asinine or is there some distinction of which I am not aware?

Welcome back.

This verse (Jer 1:5) shows God’s love and plan for Jeremiah before he was born. Do you think this implies that Jeremiah could not have “rejected God’s purpose for himself?” This was just what the Pharisees did in Jesus’ day (Luke 7:30).

The Bible contains many examples of people that God appointed for a purpose but who freely thwarted His plan for their life. In fact, every person who damns himself or herself does so by thwarting God’s loving plan for their life since His will is for “all to come to repentance” and be saved (2 Pet. 3:9).

There are many things in the Bible that lead me to believe that God is working in our lives as we live them and to the degree that we allow Him. This is what I am getting at in this post to begin with.

If God does not know what choices that we are going to make and He still is able to work them all out to the good makes him even more awesome than if He just already knows it all or even decided and predestined it all. I am not trying to be offensive here, and this question is for you because I already know some on here’s answer, but as I said earlier, if God already knows everything that is going to happen, whether he caused it or has just foreseen it, does that not make it all predetermined and unalterable? Just wondering what you think.

The example you gave about a child falling is not valid simply because we cannot know this as fact like God would know it if He has really foreseen a future event happening. Our knowledge about that situation is how I actually see Gods foreknowledge of us. He anticipates better than we ever could our future choices because He knows us even better than we know ourselves. But we can and do constantly go against His plans, direction and instruction.

Love you all

Chris, you wrote:

Justin A: Do you believe Peter had free will to deny or not deny Jesus?

Wow this is a simple question. If you feel Sonny hasn’t answered to your liking then I will.

I agree it is a simple question. You would think Sonny would just answer it. However, Sonny knows he hasn’t answered this question and he still refuses to do so.

You wrote:
*All men have free will including Peter.*

This also does not answer the question. I know Sonny was avoiding a direct answer while claiming that he was answering. I am not sure if you understand the significance of answering the question exactly. The question was, “Did Peter deny Jesus of his own free will?” I explained why the answer is important in one of my last posts to Sonny.

You wrote:
“All the other fluff you are trying to stir up is irrelevant. Jesus predicted it, Peter did it end of story. The belief that Jesus died for us is the important issue here. If you accept that then this little tirade you have going is pointless.”

I explained why it is important and not irrelevant after your post. I assume you understand now why it is relevant.

You wrote:
“Do you believe in one God the father almighty who sent his only begotten son to die for our sins? Answer that simple question with yes or no – no more no less. Can you do that? We will have to see”

Yes, of course. Whatever possessed you to think you needed to ask that question?

OK, so you refuse to answer the question. Thank you for clarifying that.

Well, I guess there will be one more post just for reply to your comments.

First off, I don’t think that your questions are tough (you should meet my pastor if you want tough questions). Sometimes your questions have no true answer, so there is not way to prove them or disprove them. Sometimes the only answer that we can have as a Christ Follower is “I don’t know”. If God wanted us to have all of the answers than He would have given them to us, but He didn’t.

If God does not know the future please explain Jeremiah 1:5 – “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations”.

I guess you can think of it this way, If you have a son and he is just learning how to walk, you know that at some point he will fall down, so by acknowledging that are you predestining him to fall?

Sonny I did not align you with the devil’s side (that was you assumption). My point about the devils playground is because when people start losing focus of God’s plan and start to question things that they know or believe, that gives the devil opportunity to plant seeds of doubt and confusion.

Sonny,

This will be my last post. This blog use to be something that was uplifting to God and Chrisitans but know has turned into a playground for the devil. The questions that you ask and your comments can be very misleading or confussing to a unmatured Christian and even some matured Christians too. I do not feel that this is helpful in the lifting up of believers. Your questions could cause doubt and possibly unbelief, and I want no part in that. Christ told us “as we go to make disciples”. What kind of disciples are you making?

I am sorry to see you go. If you think my questions are tough then you should have met me before I came into service. If my questions, which are aimed at finding answers to the basic fact about who God is and how we can introduce Him to a lost and dying world, cause you or anyone else to doubt, then I do believe you need to check yourself and not me.

The basic concept of God knowing everything about the future in itself makes it settled and determined because it cannot be any other way than what He has foreseen. This is the illogical conclusion I am attempting to expose here.

And thanks for aligning me with the devils side; you are not the first one that sees this as a helpful and non-divisive way to avoid a conversation.

Again, I hate to see you go.

Love you all even if you don’t think so

I have attempted in my feeble way to explain this here and even in person. I won’t get through to you and you will not change my mind either so the subject of Peter is done.

Love you all

The questions I am asking are related to previous posts and you don’t know the context.

Chris can’t answer this for you.

You said a few months back that if God knows the future then men do not have free will. I attempted to show from the Bible that God does know the future and that men do have free will.

I gave the example of Peter denying Jesus. Jesus said Peter would deny him. Not a general prediction but a specific one. You agreed at the time that Jesus did indeed know what would happen in the future, at least in this case.

According to your philosophy then, Peter had no choice but to deny Jesus and therefore Peter did not have free will. You would not at the time answer the direct question of whether you believed Peter chose to deny Jesus of his own free will. I finally gave up asking for a direct answer. It appears you still will not give a direct answer.