Analogy of a Matrix relevant to Foreknowledge?
KJV Colossians 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
KJV Psalm 147:5 Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.
A computer generated Matrix (like in the Movie having the same name) is uncannily analogous to God’s power granting coherence to the microscopic structure of all things in spacetime.
The analogy is not tautological, merely explaining data it was designed to explain. On the contrary, it contains fundamental truth relevant to other theological considerations.
Like creation “ex nihilio,” or how a 156 billion light year large (or greater) universe, could come to be in 1 day. As soon as God thought it, from nothing it was, in no time at all. Just like a thought.
KJV 2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
“Shall melt” is LUOO (3089), the very atomic structure will be “loosed.” It will no longer have coherence, consist.
God simply has “another thought” and the microscopic structure of all things is changed.
Or the problem of evil. God’s power gives form to microscopic structure of all things, but it does not follow God is the author of evil, as the movie illustrates, actors in the movie operate independently, analogous to permissive will.
Or Omnipresence. How can a Holy God be omnipresent where there is evil? A computer-generated matrix illustrates that nicely, the substance of the computer doesn’t occupy the same space as the “substance” of the Matrix, yet it is omnipresent in it.
As there is only One God, the notion of “parallel universes” is impossible.
Spacetime Matrix achieves coherent form by God’s power, therefore past and future don’t exist, and so time travel is impossible.
Only the present exists because God allows it to be actual.
KJV Romans 4:17 …God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
This is possibly relevant to God’s foreknowing in Rom 8:29.
An aspect of God’s foreknowledge not hitherto considered.
God is Omniscient because He knows Himself perfectly, and He fully knows everything He made, perfectly. He knows what they can do under any and all circumstances, including also what they will do in the Matrix He generates.
But that is cognitive.
As God is eternal, He knows what the state of the matrix will be, at any time frame He chooses. If I may describe this according to our finite modes of thought, His essence “mirrors” and He can see it like a movie.
When He watches an event God can say “now I know” (Gen 22:12; etc), not because He didn’t before, but because now His knowing was achieved via vision, and was not cognitive only. To illustrate, one may fully know what jumping off a building will be like, but doing it adds a dimension that will really make one “know it.”
If God foreknows via vision, if I may describe this according to our finite modes of thought, He accesses the specific point in His Eternal essence that is generating the desired time frame in space, and so “foreseeing” what will actually be.
But if God is foreknowing cognitively, then He may be foreknowing contingencies that never achieve actual existence. For example:
Matthew 11:21-24 Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. 23 And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. 24 But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee.
God knew these would have repented if they were blessed with the same revelation that the generation Jesus had. But it never happened in history therefore God was not foreknowing what actually would be.
Suppose God foreknew them He did predestinate, similarly, that is, in such way that it justified their being conformed to the image of His Son, but not as they actually are, lest any should boast.
This was not for His benefit as He already cognitively knows all, and can see all “frames” of space time, singularly or collectively, anytime He wants. No, it was for OUR benefit, that we can objectively know His decree they be conformed to the image of God the Eternal Son, was just and right:
Deuteronomy 32:4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
Revelation 15:4 Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.
Perhaps foreknowing them where their free will was truly free, and documenting what they did, for us, so that we would know it was just and right they be conformed.
It then was an act of kindness we not see what those who were not conformed, were capable of. In other words, watch what they did when in the same situation as their father the devil, when he rebelled against God, without cause.
The juxtaposition of foreknowledge and predestination in Romans 8:29 naturally imply the former caused the latter. This foreknowledge defined those who are predestined to be conformed, for some reason.
As this foreknowing concerns only those already elected, the reason for the foreknowledge must lie elsewhere.
As God knows all things, it cannot be these are conformed because of something He learned about them.
The only possibility remaining is that his foreknowing was for OUR benefit, that we might know God's decree these be conformed, was just and right.
Isaiah 40:4-5 4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: 5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
Every argument against God will fall, be leveled or straightened, by the truth from the lips of whom we have to do. Amen, Come LORD Jesus!
KJV Colossians 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
KJV Psalm 147:5 Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.
A computer generated Matrix (like in the Movie having the same name) is uncannily analogous to God’s power granting coherence to the microscopic structure of all things in spacetime.
The analogy is not tautological, merely explaining data it was designed to explain. On the contrary, it contains fundamental truth relevant to other theological considerations.
Like creation “ex nihilio,” or how a 156 billion light year large (or greater) universe, could come to be in 1 day. As soon as God thought it, from nothing it was, in no time at all. Just like a thought.
KJV 2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
“Shall melt” is LUOO (3089), the very atomic structure will be “loosed.” It will no longer have coherence, consist.
God simply has “another thought” and the microscopic structure of all things is changed.
Or the problem of evil. God’s power gives form to microscopic structure of all things, but it does not follow God is the author of evil, as the movie illustrates, actors in the movie operate independently, analogous to permissive will.
Or Omnipresence. How can a Holy God be omnipresent where there is evil? A computer-generated matrix illustrates that nicely, the substance of the computer doesn’t occupy the same space as the “substance” of the Matrix, yet it is omnipresent in it.
As there is only One God, the notion of “parallel universes” is impossible.
Spacetime Matrix achieves coherent form by God’s power, therefore past and future don’t exist, and so time travel is impossible.
Only the present exists because God allows it to be actual.
KJV Romans 4:17 …God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
This is possibly relevant to God’s foreknowing in Rom 8:29.
An aspect of God’s foreknowledge not hitherto considered.
God is Omniscient because He knows Himself perfectly, and He fully knows everything He made, perfectly. He knows what they can do under any and all circumstances, including also what they will do in the Matrix He generates.
But that is cognitive.
As God is eternal, He knows what the state of the matrix will be, at any time frame He chooses. If I may describe this according to our finite modes of thought, His essence “mirrors” and He can see it like a movie.
When He watches an event God can say “now I know” (Gen 22:12; etc), not because He didn’t before, but because now His knowing was achieved via vision, and was not cognitive only. To illustrate, one may fully know what jumping off a building will be like, but doing it adds a dimension that will really make one “know it.”
If God foreknows via vision, if I may describe this according to our finite modes of thought, He accesses the specific point in His Eternal essence that is generating the desired time frame in space, and so “foreseeing” what will actually be.
But if God is foreknowing cognitively, then He may be foreknowing contingencies that never achieve actual existence. For example:
Matthew 11:21-24 Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. 23 And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. 24 But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee.
God knew these would have repented if they were blessed with the same revelation that the generation Jesus had. But it never happened in history therefore God was not foreknowing what actually would be.
Suppose God foreknew them He did predestinate, similarly, that is, in such way that it justified their being conformed to the image of His Son, but not as they actually are, lest any should boast.
This was not for His benefit as He already cognitively knows all, and can see all “frames” of space time, singularly or collectively, anytime He wants. No, it was for OUR benefit, that we can objectively know His decree they be conformed to the image of God the Eternal Son, was just and right:
Deuteronomy 32:4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
Revelation 15:4 Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.
Perhaps foreknowing them where their free will was truly free, and documenting what they did, for us, so that we would know it was just and right they be conformed.
It then was an act of kindness we not see what those who were not conformed, were capable of. In other words, watch what they did when in the same situation as their father the devil, when he rebelled against God, without cause.
The juxtaposition of foreknowledge and predestination in Romans 8:29 naturally imply the former caused the latter. This foreknowledge defined those who are predestined to be conformed, for some reason.
As this foreknowing concerns only those already elected, the reason for the foreknowledge must lie elsewhere.
As God knows all things, it cannot be these are conformed because of something He learned about them.
The only possibility remaining is that his foreknowing was for OUR benefit, that we might know God's decree these be conformed, was just and right.
Isaiah 40:4-5 4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: 5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
Every argument against God will fall, be leveled or straightened, by the truth from the lips of whom we have to do. Amen, Come LORD Jesus!
