If God didn't know what's going to happen, wouldn't that negate all the foretelling of the future by the prophets?
Did God know adam and eve would sin?
by gavindlt 73 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Ding
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ThomasMore
Long-winded, legalistic essays typically are attempts to wear the reader down. Simple answers on the otherhand are more honest, especially when the scriptures don't provide a clear answer on the matter.
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MeanMrMustard
No, the problem I have is simply ... WHY.
Why did our loving heavenly Father not say to Able "it is a good idea to not go out with your brother today"?
Here is one logical reason: What if, because He has all knowledge, he knew the worlds in which he prevented the murder of Able also turn out worse - in one way or another. Suppose Able had a son, who had a son, who had a son who killed hundreds of people.
What if all possible worlds with free will have evil in them, but this world just happens to be the one with the least amount of evil?
Also, is it really true that we were supposed to be created free from hardship? I know that's the JW doctrine, but I don't think it's the Christian one. Why are we assuming humans were supposed to be created as God's pets?
What if Able was kept physically alive, and less suffering occurs over time, but less people are "saved" in the long run?
In short, if you believe in God, as a human, you aren't in a good epistemic position to ask "why".
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Phizzy
As the whole Eden Story is a rehash of the Canaanite/Sumerian "Eden" Story, we are presented with a god from a time when the concept of gods was primitive, not as the concept later evolved.
We must not read such Stories with a 21st Century or especially not a believers "eye".
The Canaanite gods were never presented as Omniscient, or Omnipotent come to that, hence we see a god who does not know even outcomes that perhaps a perceptive ordinary human could have foreseen.
As an aside, this very old story was from long before a time when the "Satan" figure had entered Israelite religious thought, and so does not figure in the Story.
Ancient Texts should be read as they are, and taking in to account what the Writer wished his readers to understand, and what they would have understood his words to mean.
To approach Scripture in any other way, results in us reading in to the Text what is simply NOT there, a JW org. approach that is both totally wrong, and an insult to both the Writer and his Text.