If god is all knowing why did he repented?

Perhaps, the scriptures are a bit anthropomorphic at times. They speak to us in terms we understand. To say that God regretted creating humanity, is to say we are evil, and for no Godly reason.

Again with the "All Knowing" lol

Godsangel89 said:

So he isnt all knowing?

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In the New Age sense where God is Everything, the Universe, All-Knowing, blah, blah, blah - I would say no.

Would there be any reason to test Job is God was all-knowing?

If you read the Bible with the idea that God is all-knowing it wouldn't seem to make much sense. You would start asking questions like, "Why would God do this if He already knew" or "Why is God even asking this question like He doesn't know."

Other dilemmas as well such as on free will and introducing Evil in to this world.

public hermit said:

To say that God regretted creating humanity

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Are you saying that this was a figure of speech in the Bible and that God never really regretted it?

Might I suggest the apophatic way? If you think you know what God might or might not know, first consider what you know about God. Eliminate all that cannot be true of God's perfect being, then marvel at what is left that you actually know. In the Cloud of Unknowing we find humility and true adoration.

Robrain said:

Are you saying that this was a figure of speech in the Bible and that God never really regretted it?

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I'm saying it tells us about God in terms we can understand without delivering to us a direct correspondence of the Reality.

"The Anthropomorphites also, who dreamed of a corporeal God, because mouth, ears, eyes, hands, and feet, are often ascribed to him in Scripture, are easily refuted. For who is so devoid of intellect as not to understand that God, in so speaking, lisps with us as nurses are wont to do with little children? Such modes of expression, therefore, do not so much express what kind of a being God is, as accommodate the knowledge of him to our feebleness. In doing so, he must, of course, stoop far below his proper height." John Calvin Institutes 1.13.1

This is the way I see it

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Those verses need to be viewed from a view of love.

God's will is that we walk in love with him and eachother. When God saw the evil in our hearts he was deeply grieved. Basically man was killing, raping, stealing, doing nothing but evil to eachother, everyone was suffering.

It was his love for us that made him grieve deeply in his heart. He created us to walk in love, he wanted us to be happy, but he had found no love in us, only evil

If God for example had not cared, he would of not grieved, for it is what we deserved for turning against him.

As for the all knowing aspect. Everyone knows their parents are going to die. Does it mean that we don't have any feeling when we actually go through it?

Godsangel89 said:

He wish he never made man but he is all knowing.

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Just because God knows everything that happens and will happen, doesn't mean we do. He allowed that to be recorded in Genesis for our sake, not His.

In regards to that passage, I've always heard it explained it's more he was sad he had to go thru that part of our history.

public hermit said:

"The Anthropomorphites also, who dreamed of a corporeal God, because mouth, ears, eyes, hands, and feet, are often ascribed to him in Scripture, are easily refuted. For who is so devoid of intellect as not to understand that God

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Being that the Bible said that we were created in His likeness and image, I can understand the confusion.

Understanding who and what God is in His entirety is probably pretty moot. Unravelling some of the mystery of what He has already revealed to us about Himself through the Bible seems pretty practical though.

Robrain said:

Are you saying that this was a figure of speech in the Bible and that God never really regretted it?

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It's expressing the regret of a world fallen. But it's really important to understand that the story of the flood isn't about "the world was so bad so God started over", it's bigger than that. It is part of the larger set of themes and the overarching message of Scripture.

Here's a really good question to ask: What, exactly, did the flood solve? In the context of evil and sin and death in the world, what did the flood accomplish to correct it? The answer is, very soberingly, nothing.

Immediately when the waters recede and Noah and his family have this fresh new start in the world, we have Noah drunk and naked cursing his grandson after his son enters his tent. And then we get the story of the tower of babel, of men trying to climb their way to heaven.

This establishes something really important here, and that is that the world cannot be fixed by wiping the slate clean and starting over. Get rid of all the "wicked people" and leave only the "righteous people" and sin, death, it's still here, just the same as it was before.

So what is God's answer to evil, to sin and death in the world?

It begins with a man named Abram, the son of Terah.

-CrypoLutheran

ViaCrucis said:

Here's a really good question to ask: What, exactly, did the flood solve? In the context of evil and sin and death in the world, what did the flood accomplish to correct it? The answer is, very soberingly, nothing.

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I don't know if I would say nothing.

I felt like if God didn't intervene the world would be a much darker place. At least today I feel like there's at least a power struggle between Good and Evil. Without God's intervention and without some of the Faith Giants like Abram, Moses, Joseph, Jesus, etc. the world would be mostly Evil.

When God said that He saw that the world was wicked I pictured a lot of like idolatry, witchcraft, human sacrifice, raping, oppression, slavery, chaos, etc - way more than what we see today.

Chris35 said:

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Those verses need to be viewed from a view of love.

God's will is that we walk in love with him and eachother. When God saw the evil in our hearts he was deeply grieved.

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Besides our physical bodies, did God create us out of the same thing?

I think the thing that a lot of people struggle with is why did God create us with Evil in our hearts in the first place.

Robrain said:

I don't know if I would say nothing.

I felt like if God didn't intervene the world would be a much darker place. At least today I feel like there's at least a power struggle between Good and Evil. Without God's intervention and without some of the Faith Giants like Abram, Moses, Joseph, Jesus, etc. the world would be mostly Evil.

When God said that He saw that the world was wicked I pictured a lot of like idolatry, witchcraft, human sacrifice, raping, oppression, slavery, chaos, etc - way more than what we see today.

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I'm uncomfortable with the language of a cosmic battle between good (God) and evil; that's a highly dualistic view that is more in keeping with religions like Zoroastrianism and various Gnostic/neo-Gnostic religions such as Manichaeism.

In the Christian and biblical understanding, the world is held in bondage to the devil through the fall, by sin and death; but it's not like there's an actual contest. Good and evil are not equal-but-opposite powers operating in the cosmos. Evil isn't good's opposite, but rather the deprivation of the good, the malformation of the good. And there is no contest because the victory of God is certain, evil is temporary and always has been. God overcomes evil not through power struggle, but rather the triumph of grace and love, in the Incarnation, and the invasion of God into the world to redeem, heal, and sanctify it by His grace.

That said, is there reason to believe that the text describes the state of wickedness at the time of Noah as the worst it's ever been? I think this is a common assumption (after all, in the text God destroys the world with a flood due to the wickedness of man)--but I don't know if that can actually be ascertained from the text.

After all, in the past century we saw two world wars, the systematic genocide of millions, the invention of atomic weapons, wealth inequality is arguably at the greatest ever in human history. Which isn't to say that things also haven't been better, they have. Quality of living has never been like it is, though there are still billions who lack that quality of living, access to medical care, etc. Systemic racism is still really bad, but things are better than they have been in the past, though we've only taken tiny baby steps in addressing it as a society.

I simply don't think the point of the story is that God saw the world and thought the answer was to genocide us all away. The point of the story is I would argue:

It provides a necessary narrative bridge between Adam and Eve and Abraham and Sarah, helping to establish the mess of the world left by Adam and Eve and thus the need for redemption from God for the world which is the story that begins with Abraham and Sarah. And, of course, the the direction toward which the entire biblical narrative is pointing us toward is Jesus Christ.

But I should probably admit that I don't view the flood story as literal history, I believe it is divinely inspired narrative myth ("myth" does not mean "false story", myths are stories that have something to say about us, the world, and our place in the world). That isn't an attack on the integrity and divine inspiration of Holy Scripture--I freely and boldly confess the authority, integrity, and divine inspiration of Scripture. I just take the position that the pre-Abrahamic stories in Genesis aren't intended to be read as literal history, I don't think that's what the biblical authors were trying to do here. That isn't a radical or "modernist" position to take, it's a pretty old and traditional position to take within the context of two thousand years of Christian teaching and tradition.

-CryptoLutheran

Your going to get alot of debate, opinions and controversy asking these questions or questions like these. It's important that you make sure that you asking God these questions as well, and that the answers are inline with his nature.

Just like thoughts, were telling you that God can't be all knowing. When the simple answer was he knew but he chose to do it anyway. It's important you keep seeking truth, and if it doesn't line up, it's not the truth.

The best way that I can answer your question is that he didn't create us evil, he only created the choice to be obedient or disobedient, and why that choice had to exist, I can't answer it with 100% truth only speculate. However I can say this.

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”


22And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

Essentialy man come to know Good and Evil, and man loved evil more then good.

Now I'm not saying that all man loves the darkness, on the contrary, Jesus is the light, and all those who love the light are drawn to him.

However it is not the whole story, it is alot more complicated then that, it takes alot of learning, growing and searching for answers to understand. I encourage you to keep going.

ViaCrucis said:

In the Christian and biblical understanding, the world is held in bondage to the devil through the fall, by sin and death; but it's not like there's an actual contest.

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Power struggle was probably a bad expression to use. What I meant to say is I think the world would have been more devoid of good without God's intervention.

ViaCrucis said:

That said, is there reason to believe that the text describes the state of wickedness at the time of Noah as the worst it's ever been? I think this is a common assumption (after all, in the text God destroys the world with a flood due to the wickedness of man)--but I don't know if that can actually be ascertained from the text.

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I'm not sure if it's the worst it's ever been. However, I always wondered how God could be so cruel if He's made of all Love like some people claim. The Israelites wiped out entire nations (men, women, and children) under God's authority. Then when I researched some of the wicked practices of some of these ancient civilizations, I could see why. The Bible doesn't go in to detail so I had to draw from other sources (History books and such).

ViaCrucis said:

I simply don't think the point of the story is that God saw the world and thought the answer was to genocide us all away. The point of the story is I would argue:

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This would be hard to say: So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

It sure sounds like complete genocide if it hadn't been for Noah. But I do know what you are saying about taking things to literally. The Bible is a higher form of language full of rhetoric, metaphors, hyperbole, etc. Things that we would normally find in classic literature and poetry. For example, the Bible would say that the Israelites wipe out the entire Nation of Canaan. But the Canaanites were still around.

As for the flood, if it was metaphorical then I would expect a metaphorical rainbow but the rainbow is literally there so I would have a hard time seeing it that way.

"... not that repentance, properly speaking, can fall upon God, for he never changes his mind or alters his purposes, though he sometimes changes the course and dispensations of his providence." Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible of Gen 6:6

God knows everything.
"For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things." I Joh 3:20

God asks:
"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me if you have ⌞such⌟ insight.
5 Who determined its dimensions?
Certainly, you know!
Who stretched a measuring line over it?
6 On what were its footings sunk?
Who laid its cornerstone
7 when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

8 “Who shut the sea behind gates
when it burst through and came out of the womb,
9 when I clothed it with clouds
and wrapped it up in dark clouds,
10 when I set a limit for it
and put up bars and gates,
11 when I said, ‘You may come this far but no farther.
Here your proud waves will stop’?" Job 38 There's more but think He makes His point.