Evidence for God from Science

Nicki wrote:I've never before heard the idea that God doesn't (or didn't) know the future. What about Revelation and other prophecy in the Bible?

In a sense this is true. God does not have to know or be aware of the future, because He has no desire or need to. This does not mean He is unprepared or oblivious to the future, as you have pointed out from the prophetic books.
To illustrate - when you want to meet someone that you want to be with, your heart plans for love, but it does not plan what to do or say, unless you have never dated before and lack confidence in what kind of a person you are. Planning what the other person will say is even worse. God does not do that. When you meet Him, every moment with Him is brand new and spontaneous, there is nothing contrived about it, if it was then it would be like talking to the devil with an agenda.

God's life is lived like a date, ready to love at any cost, and not afraid of anything except not turning up. The Devil does a lot of planning, and yet God who is just happy in the moment, is always one step ahead.

If you were perfect, you would be the same as God, confident in the love that is, never afraid. But because we are faithless, we conjure up things about the future, and then we wish we were like God who knows what's up next. But God does not need to know what is up next, because His actions will always be appropriate at the time, so He has no need to scruple about the future.

It does not matter if an imperfect human being lives with God either, because God accommodates and works with our incompetence in such a way that life is improved to such an extent that, if we were perfect, it would not be as good.

The same principle is being applied to our fallen earth, so that in the end it will be renewed and made even better than the original, such is the nature of Divine grace.

Starhunter wrote:

Nicki wrote:I've never before heard the idea that God doesn't (or didn't) know the future. What about Revelation and other prophecy in the Bible?

In a sense this is true. God does not have to know or be aware of the future, because He has no desire or need to. This does not mean He is unprepared or oblivious to the future, as you have pointed out from the prophetic books.
To illustrate - when you want to meet someone that you want to be with, your heart plans for love, but it does not plan what to do or say, unless you have never dated before and lack confidence in what kind of a person you are. Planning what the other person will say is even worse. God does not do that. When you meet Him, every moment with Him is brand new and spontaneous, there is nothing contrived about it, if it was then it would be like talking to the devil with an agenda.

God's life is lived like a date, ready to love at any cost, and not afraid of anything except not turning up. The Devil does a lot of planning, and yet God who is just happy in the moment, is always one step ahead.

If you were perfect, you would be the same as God, confident in the love that is, never afraid. But because we are faithless, we conjure up things about the future, and then we wish we were like God who knows what's up next. But God does not need to know what is up next, because His actions will always be appropriate at the time, so He has no need to scruple about the future.

It does not matter if an imperfect human being lives with God either, because God accommodates and works with our incompetence in such a way that life is improved to such an extent that, if we were perfect, it would not be as good.

The same principle is being applied to our fallen earth, so that in the end it will be renewed and made even better than the original, such is the nature of Divine grace.

Hmm, very interesting idea - I find it hard to get my head around it. To me predestination and foreknowledge don't contradict free will - God surely knows what we're going to choose to do but that doesn't mean he's dictated it. I suppose though that his mind could work quite differently from ours and it wouldn't be as black and white as it would be with us - either knowing the future or not knowing it.

Nicki wrote: Hmm, very interesting idea - I find it hard to get my head around it. To me predestination and foreknowledge don't contradict free will - God surely knows what we're going to choose to do but that doesn't mean he's dictated it. I suppose though that his mind could work quite differently from ours and it wouldn't be as black and white as it would be with us - either knowing the future or not knowing it.

I like your perspectives.