We might as well give up prayer to change things then because we have no freedom of choice and we are just programmable robots.
I never suggested the removal of the
will, but that it is by necessity
inclined to and
enslaved in sin, that
nothing sound remains from it. We, as rational creatures, must and do have a personal
will, the responsibility to do what is morally good, but its very nature is
damaged and
corrupted through the fall, and cannot at all
fulfill that responsibility by necessity.
"The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." - Genesis 6:5
"...for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth." - Genesis 8:21
I am also assuming that you believe that the
liberty of our will can oppose the sovereign purpose of God. This is a
foreign concept,
contradicted by a great cloud of witnesses. You say that prayer is pointless for a sovereign God, but it is actually
the opposite. If God is not in
sovereign control of the affairs of this world, then what is the point of praying to someone who cannot violate the
liberty of man's will? It would be
pointless to pray for someone to be saved. It would be
pointless to pray for someone at all. It would be
pointless to pray for the
outcome of any one thing, since it would require God to
change the course of nature and
violate the "freedom" of men's wills. Is man greater than God? We are not programmed, as you suggested, we have a will that is
compatible with his
sovereignty. This is clearly spelled out throughout Scripture. The greatest example of this truth is Christ. All the events leading up to, all the events surrounding, all the individuals participating
(with their personal will), in his birth, life, ministry, and death were
predetermined. The religious leaders, and Pontius Pilate, were used by the sovereign will of God, through their own conscious actions, to bring about his crucifixion. That's a paradox that you cannot explain otherwise. How can God predestine Christ's death and all the leading events up to that point, yet do so through the willful choices of sinful men who weren't aware of this? This is a mystery of the
compatibility of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. Christ
wasn't an accident.
The question is though. if God decided to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, why did He agree to change His mind if there were 10 righteous men living there? Why would God tell Abraham something that He did not intend to do? Wouldn't that be lying? We know that God is not a liar, so there is a contradiction, because if God knew the future and was not go to change anything, so why did He enter into negotiation with Abraham if it were cast in bronze that the cities were going to be destroyed no matter what. Why would God even consider Abraham's request if He has decreed the events as you say? Doesn't make sense.
On the contrary, even though Abraham made these bold requests, it was already established that there wasn't at least ten men who were righteous. When we read of God "relenting" of a disaster, it is in reference to a change of events, rather than a change within the divine nature.
God does not change, he does not make mistakes. Whenever we read, for an example, that he "regretted" that he made man, it is an anthropomorphic description of the
change in his dealings with men.
"God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?" - Numbers 23:19
It is the same as saying God's
was provoked to anger, this is in relation to men, not to his divine character. He is
impassible, he cannot undergo any sort of inner emotional change. He is perfect act of being, he cannot
become something he wasn't before. When he was "provoked to anger," it is the language of his divine wrath exercising against a sin. He is
wrathful toward sin. He does not change, it is us that place ourselves in a position where his wrath is exercised against sin, so that it seems as though
he were provoked.
How come God was prepared to destroy Israel and start a new nation from Moses and then changed His mind after hearing what Moses had to say to Him?
I refer you to the comment above.
What about all the trouble He went through to set up the people in the land of Canaan and then allow it to be taken over by the Assyrians? What happened to change things? God's original intention was that the people lived in the promised land for ever. He decreed it! But it didn't happen. Why not? What happened to change things? Does God keep His promises or not?
Actually, we read that Moses prophesied of the events that would take place in the latter times regarding the captivity of Israel. This was by the determined plan of God.
My question in return is, why did Jacob pronounce blessings to his children, if the contingency of them could thwart them in Genesis 49? Or Joseph, when he told them that God will bring them again into the land of Canaan, requesting that after his death (430 years later) that they would carry it there, if there was contingency?
How come God told Saul that his descendents would always be on Israel's throne, and yet they weren't? What changed God's mind about Saul?
I mentioned this above. It is spoken of his
dealings with men, and not a real change in the
divine nature itself.
If God knows exactly what the future will be, and has His decrees cast in bronze, then the actual events in the Bible contradict it. Is God double-minded then? Or is He creating the future from the decisions we make and the prayers we pray for ourselves and others?
On the contrary, if God only knows the future, yet did not decree the events, then he
changes, he
learns, he is more
mortal than
divine. This leads to Open Theism.