A classroom teacher has to administer tests. Why? The teacher doesn't know who is learning and who isn't or how much.
A Test pilot flys a new jet to determine what strengths and weaknesses correspond to the design because nobody knows how close
the manufacture of it came to the ideal.
Fire drills are a test: can everybody exit in an orderly fashion in a reasonable amount of time in case there is a fire.
If you think you may be pregant you take a pregnancy test because you won't know for sure otherwise (unless you wait 9 months!)
What all the above have in common is the element of IGNORANCE. What we DON'T KNOW we have to TEST to determine.
Tests go hand in hand with ignorance.
Just like the old saying: The exception proves the rule. (Prove in the sense of a proving ground or testing of..such and such).
With this firmly in mind we now ask: DOES JEHOVAH TEST MANKIND?
Is there ignorance on the part of God that He should need to work out?
Does the Supreme Being lack knowledge? Is deity limited in some manner?
Take a simple act of flipping a half dollar. The possibility is binary. Either (heads) OR (tails)...a mathematician will tell you there is 50/50 chance.
But, this applies only to an INFINITE number of flips.
Did you know that in the short run (thousands of flips) an amazingly counter-intuitive run of ALL heads or ALL tails can happen?
Have a favorite number like your birthday or Social Security number? What are the chances it is contained in PI (ratio of diameter to circumference of a circle?)
Number Length | Chance of Finding |
---|---|
1-5 | 100% |
6 | Nearly 100% |
7 | 99.995% |
8 | 63% |
9 | 9.5% |
10 | 0.995%% |
11 | 0.09995% |
Happily, if you include the zeros, birthdays are 8 digits long -- so you have a 63% chance of finding your birthday in the first 100 million digits of pi. Now that we're to 200 million, the odds are up to 86%, so it'll be a while before everyone can find their birthday in Pi.
TESTING TESTING TESTING TESTING TESTING TESTING TESTING TESTING TESTING TESTING TESTING TESTING
What has any of this got to do with the question: DOES JEHOVAH TEST US?
We really have to understand the NATURE of what is predictable and what KNOWING really would mean to an INFINITE being such as GOD.
So, why do I ask?
I propose that Jehovah CANNOT KNOW (in the short run) what mankind will do SPECIFICALLY. Only in the long run is the species predictable!
Why? WE HAVE VOLITION! We aren't purely rational. Many of us are illogical.
What conclusion can we reach, can God reach WITHOUT EXACTLY THE RIGHT LENGTH OF TEST?
Six thousand years of human existence is NOT LONG ENOUGH for Jehovah to determine if mankind can turn itself around and embrace the ransom sacrifice of Jesus!
To STEP IN and interrupt the flow of natural history would be to DENY FREE WILL unnecessarily.
There is a mathematical possibility that all of humanity MAY WELL christianize itself.
Just like searching the irrational number of PI for a particular...specific...possible#
Does this sound ludicrous? Well, tell that to your Puritan forebears who came to the New World with JUST THAT INTENTION!
A shining City on a Hill is what America would be and all nations of the earth would want to emulate it and become christian!
Yes, that was the plan!
So, predicting ARMAGEDDON in the short run (mere thousands of years) cannot provide Jehovah with the data.
Armageddon must wait until a sufficient number of generations has transpired!
Consider this:
At every moment, right now for example, there are women somewhere on this planet GIVING BIRTH.
There are approximately 216,000 babies born every day in the whole entire world.
(Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_babies_are_born_in_the_world_daily#ixzz1VnbjtijI) If Armageddon came RIGHT NOW--those babies have NOT HAD A CHANCE to choose or deny JESUS! If you give them a pass---they won a lucky jackpot or FREE PASS! If you destroy them....such as in Noah's Day...life is a crapshoot and Justice is illusory. Why would a Supreme Being arbitrarily cutoff opportunity if LOVE of MAN is motivating His mercy? Either you give everybody a pass or nobody a pass. Justice demands it. Mercy demands it. Either way! This is why Armageddon doesn't come when all the "signs" are there...........those signs COME and GO with regularity! Today's "signs" are convincing ONLY BECAUSE we cannot see the even BETTER signs next year, next decade..next millennium!! Your thoughts?