We have two big problems in the Christian faith. One is where evil began and the other is reconciling God's sovereignty with our free will.
If God is sovereign and determinism is correct, then, being a Just God, He cannot hold us responsible for our actions, since HE determined what our moral choices will be.
If God didn't eternally decree all things to occur the way they would, with a purpose, then we are forced to conclude that God comes to know events as they take place. He learns something from what transpires, rather than what he ordained to happen. Even if you claim omniscience, it doesn't have a different conclusion, actually it would be a contradiction, because you cannot know all things and still learn and determine events based on what you foresaw. God no longer is immutable and all-knowing, but has become subject to the law of time and space. Rather than affirming that all events were predetermined and under the providential sovereignty of God, you are forced to conclude that what transpires in time influences God and his actions, and can change his plans. Seems like a power struggle between him and his creation, instead of him ruling all things under him.
The other option is to deny God's real intervention in the world, a kind of deism, where he creates something and abandons it to its contingent and ever-changing course. The fall? Either he made a mistake, he wasn't able stop it, or he sat back and watched it to see what will happen.
This doesn't only conflict with his immutability and omniscience, but also every other attribute of his. His wisdom isn't perfect, his justice isn't objective, his love is conditional, his power is limited, his goodness is influenced, and the list goes on. You have a completely different God if you take a good look at it.
In the story of Joseph, we have a perfect example.
Did God WANT Joseph to be captured and brought to Egypt. As a result the Israelites became enslaved for about 400 years.
The enslavement in Egypt was predetermined:
"Then the Lord said to Abram, 'Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.'" - Genesis 15:13
So the life and mission of Joseph was predetermined in light of a greater plan that was predetermined through the actions of men and women.
God did plan Jesus' sacrifice from the beginning of creation. However, please not that you used the word FOREKNOWLEDGE...In Jesus' case I believe it was planned,,,but most of the time when the N.T. uses words about something being elect....it's always speaking about God's foreknowledge and not predestination of who will be saved or who will be lost.
How does 'foreknowledge' help your case? It doesn't contradict predestination, but rather affirms it. Jesus was foreknown and predestined to save sinners. I think you are mistaking 'foreknown' with the term 'foresaw,' they are not the same thing. To 'foreknow" is to know someone beforehand. Whenever the word 'foreknowledge' is used in Scripture, it never refers to anyone's actions or events, but always a person. God foreknows individuals, not just foresees their actions.
It is funny how you affirm Jesus' birth, life, and death was predetermined, but deny everything else was predetermined? How does that work out? How can some part of history be predestined, but not the rest?