Does God know or decree what happens in the future?

Every event, good or bad, ripples forward into the future to touch countless other events and people. This "ripple effect" is impossible for our human brains to understand or comprehend, but an all-powerful God who is outside of time can. Even so, as the ultimate authority over the universe, what is the logical order of God's decrees? It seems that by simply asking this question, we are demonstrating that our finite minds think differently than God's. Apologist Eric Hernandez explains in this video that we need to explore even more questions before we can make assumptions about how God's omniscience plays out in our lives. Watch and learn!

📚 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀

🤝 𝗦𝗨𝗣𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧 𝗖𝗥𝗢𝗦𝗦𝗘𝗫𝗔𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗗 (𝗧𝗔𝗫-𝗗𝗘𝗗𝗨𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗕𝗟𝗘) 🤝

👥 𝗦𝗢𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟 𝗠𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗔 👥

🗄️ 𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗖𝗘𝗦 🗄️

🎙️ 𝗦𝗨𝗕𝗦𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗕𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗣𝗢𝗗𝗖𝗔𝗦𝗧 🎙️

#Apologetics #Jesus #Christianity #Theology #Doctrine #Bible #QuestionsAboutFaith #Answers #Skeptics  #ChristianityIsTrue #True #CrossExamined #FrankTurek

[EricHernandez]

Hey I know that guy! Thanks for sharing Frank. Always an honor to share the stage with you my brother. 🙌🏼

[new_comment]

I feel that even when we're eternally in Gods presence, we will not completely know or understand His future plans or reasoning, nothing nor no one will ever be on the same intellectual and ideological playing field as God, I GOD!

[kevinclint]

GOD KNOWS EVERYTHING, ……..HE IS THE BEGINNING AND THE END, ………AMEN

[tomszabo]

People have got to realise that God doesn't live in time like we do. He created time, he is not governed by it. Think of it like this; we live outside of the Bible, I am able to pick up my Bible and read it at any point I desire. I could read about David in the book of Samuel, and then turn straight to the gospels to read about Jesus. For David, there was a 1000 years before Jesus would even be born, but for me, I can flip between the two whenever I want. This is obviously just an example, God's ways are always higher, but God doesn't have to predict, He just is.

[J]

Can a perfect God choose? Surely not (options/choices are imperfections, one being greater than another). So if not, how does He endow man with that which He is not? (free choice of the will)

[fidelloza]

In Matthew 12:16-21 they quoted about Jesus Isaiah 42:1-4 calling Jesus the chosen servant of Jehovah and in verse 5-7 says Jehovah who stretched out the heavens, I have called you to do justice and I have grabbed you by the hand and I will protect you.

Isaiah 42:
42 Look! My servant, whom I support!
My chosen one, whom I have approved!
I have put my spirit in him;
He will bring justice to the nations.
2 He will not cry out or raise his voice,
And he will not make his voice heard in the street.
3 No crushed reed will he break,
And no smoldering wick will he extinguish.
In faithfulness he will bring justice.
4 He will not grow dim or be crushed until he establishes justice in the earth;
And the islands keep waiting for his law.

5 This is what the true God, Jehovah, says,
The Creator of the heavens and the Grand One who stretched them out,
The One who spread out the earth and its produce,
The One who gives breath to the people on it
And spirit to those who walk on it:
6 “I, Jehovah, HAVE CALLED YOU.. in righteousness;
I HAVE TAKEN HOLD OF YOUR HAND.
I WILL SAFEGUARD YOU AND GIVE YOU AS A COVENANT for the people
And as a light of the nations,
7 For you to open the blind eyes,
To bring the prisoner out of the dungeon
And those sitting in darkness out of the prison.

8 I am Jehovah. That is my name;
I give my glory to no one else,
Nor my praise to graven images.


Matthew 12:16 but he sternly ordered them not to make him known, 17 in order to fulfill what WAS SPOKEN THROUGH ISAIASH the prophet, who said:
18 “Look! My servant whom I chose, my beloved, whom I have approved! I will put my spirit upon him, and what justice is he will make clear to the nations.
19 He will not quarrels nor cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the main streets. 20 No bruised reed will he crush, and no smoldering wick will he extinguish, until he brings justice with success. 21 Indeed, in his name nations will hope.”

[sierraclark]

“If you declare with your mouth “Jesus is Lord, ” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). Now is the time to accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. Obey His commands and repent of your sins because Jesus is coming back soon. Tomorrow isn’t promised.

[Controle]

“declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose, ’”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭46:10‬ ‭

[joen.]

God has constructed the most exquisite laws governing this universe, and specifically to us, the complexity of cause and effect here on earth. We have to try and live holy lives, so the actions we take will lead to most enlightened effect and not cause more darkness.
In Jesus name, we pray.

[Franci]

To me Molinism just sounds like a much more convoluted form of Calvinism. My issue is not with Him having foreknowledge (knowing what we will do) which I definitely believe He has, or even middle knowledge, in the sense that He knows what I’d most likely do in any given circumstance (since He knows me even better than I do) and using that to achieve His good purposes (like I would with my children for example), my problem is with the “possible worlds” scenario.

If God premeditatedly thought of different worlds and possibilities before creating this one, and only actuated a world in which people in some given circumstances will respond the way He wants them too (even without causing them to), He is effectually predetermining who will be saved and who won’t, because freedom would just be an illusion since He chose to create this particular world and rejected the other worlds, so He would ultimately be the author of evil and sin because, given many options, He would have predetermined to create the world in which Adam and Eve sinned. And since we know that God is not the author of sin we cannot postulate that He premeditatedly created the world where they would sin.

I personally don’t think that God picked and chose one specific world, because the only way that all this is not just a big game, is that if God just created one world (without considering other possible worlds) and gave us all free will, period. Because if you make God to be someone who picks and chooses between different possible worlds in order to accomplish his purposes, you definitely end up in determinism (albeit a more disguised and convoluted one compared to Calvinism), and you’d also grossly underestimate God’s power as well as taint His intentions. God is not like a big computer that spews out the best possible scenario just to win some sort of game, God created us out of love and in order to have a relationship with us and He made us in His image and our life is immeasurably valuable to Him, and He is so powerful that He can create just one world, and still achieve His ultimate purpose. Or it would all really sound like cheating, wouldn’t it?

[chiaza]

My brain cells is dying trying to understand this lol

[rolysantos]

*"Well if he knows it, its because its going to happen"*
Not so, God *KNEW* that men of Keilah *would have* given him over Saul, so David and his men left, therefore, what God said would happen (because he KNEW) never came to pass (1 Samuel 23:12-13)

Again David asked, “Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me and my men to Saul?”
And the Lord said, “They will.”
So David and his men, about six hundred in number, left Keilah and kept moving from place to place. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he did not go there.

Did God KNOW what was ACTUALLY going to come to pass even as He knew what MIGHT have come to pass?
YES! *BUT IT IS GOD WHO DETERMINES WHICH CIRCMSTANCES WILL OCCUR* So that, that which he "KNEW" would come to pass, ACTUALLY DOES come to pass!

*Are there examples of The LORD bringing circumstances to pass so that what HE decrees (and knows)*
*ACTUALLY* come to pass?

*YES*
> *In Judges 14* Sampson tells his parents he wants a wife from the Philistines, which displeases them because The Lord has commanded that they not intermarry with Canaanites but should get wives from their own people. But in verse 14 it states:
" *His parents did not know that this was FROM THE LORD* who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel."

THE LORD orchestrated circumstances that gave him an opportunity to destroy the philistines.

> *In 2 Samuel **15:31* David prayed that the advice of Ahithophel, who had betrayed him and became loyal to Absalom, would be "turned into foolishness."

As soon as he prayed the prayer, he encountered his friend Hushai (v32)
(Yes, David told Hushai that he could help him by staying behind and getting close to Absalom so that when Ahithophel offered his advice to Absalom, Hushai could defeat it in Absalom's mind. *But the fact that Hushai was presented to David upon his prayer was the working of God's providence*

Then, in 2 Samuel 17, Ahithophel offers his counsel to Absalom on what he should do (attack David and his men) and scripture says that Hushai then gave his own counsel to Absalom which contradicted Ahithophel's and Absalom chose Hushai's counsel *IN ANSWER TO DAVID'S PRAYER* (i.e. Ahithophel's wise counsel was turned into foolishness)

*KEEP IN MIND*
We know that Ahithophels counsel was to be regarded as best and Absalom should have listened to him, were it not for GOD.
In 2 Samuel 16:23 it states:

"Now the advice of Ahithophel, which he gave in those days, *was as if one had inquired at the oracle of God* So was all the advice of Ahithophel both with David and with Absalom."


*Again, God orchestrated circumstances. God Ordained, and of course, God KNEW what would come to pass.

[williamprice]

God obviously has to alow everything for He is sovereign, He can allow freewill. And He can calculate every possible choice you, and everyone else, make and figure out what choice accomplishes His will and decree that.God staying sovereign and us with freewill.

[JoyElectric]

God isn't restricted by our linear dimension of time. He created this reality to work in those ways, but he is outside of those restrictions because he's the architect of it. It's like making a drawing. Just because you create a drawing or a piece of art obviously doesn't restrict the creator to be forced into the boundries of the piece of art. Time as a concept doesn't actually exist outside of the limitation of the human mind.
It's more like a dream state. When you do something you enjoy "time" moves by fast and visa versa.

[leonmajcen]

In my opinion He sees all possible futures and know the chance for each to happen. Just as Dr Strange saw all 14 billion possible futures in Infinity war.

[toomanyhobbies]

Think about this: God is the creator. Now, does attributing human traits to God make sense?

[NewCreationInChrist]

Amen, omniscient God.
1 John 3:20
For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.

[craigmayberry]

from God's "position" three is no such thing as past present or future, only we do that. He exists outside the dimension of time. PP or F only applies to us when we discover or find out something

[rustydaboyrobot]

God created time...and is not bound by time....and is all knowing. So, it's a horse before or after the cart type question...

And the answer is...YES. God knows your choices, but still interjects out of HIS perfection, even if you don't say yes till the 4th. Or 346th....time God asks.

If that makes sense. 😊

[NewCreationInChrist]

Revelation 21:8
But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”