Free-will and God's Knowledge

Originally posted by TheBear
"See, I used to think along these lines, but it doesn't make sense if you really think about it. God can't know what we will choose, else free-will is meaningless."

You are erroneously equating "knowing" to "orchestrating".

God also orchestrates.

Again, God is not bound by time, only man percieves past, present and future. :)
That's possible. Past, present, and future are just concepts that man created to organize thought.
 
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Originally posted by Neo

I've studied Hebrew. If you don't believe me, look in a Hebrew dictionary, or better yet, ask a Hebrew scholar.


I must admit that I did not believe you. I am sorry for passing judgment on you based on my own ignorance of the subject.

Even so, I have done some research and found that while Rah can be and often is translated as "evil" it can be translated as more than twenty other words, such as calamity, ill, and the like. Furthermore, the word for "create" in that contesx deals with "shaping" in the physical sense...so...my previous suggestion that the "evil created" is the calamity shaped by God which we would of course percieve as evil, not understanding for ourselves God's true purposes, still stands as a completely valid interpretation...even more so given the following:

There is yet another possibility which, being a Hebrew scholar I hope you can at least admit. Hebrew in the original writings did not have vowel sounds. The writings we have now added the vowels in later based on tradition. Coicidentally, in the consanant Hebrew Isaiah wrote in, what the Jews translated as Rah, could also be several other words, including Reh-ag (I think thats the word), which has a much more constant meaning: sound/noise. This may seem irrelevant, but there is an implication. In the verse under question God is said to creat both "light" and "darkness"...two polar opposites. Then, as you translate the Hebrew, God also creats "peace" and..."evil"...hardly polar opposites. Whereas, both "calamity" and/or "sound/noise" are both much more appropriate allegorical comparisons given the context of Isaiah's statement bout the all powerful God who, in the following verse, rains "down righteousness."

Furthermore and even so...the Bible must be taken whollistically. In Matthew 10:5-6 Jesus explicitly tells His disciples "Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaratins. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel." Reading this verse alone one would assume that Christ only came to save the Jews!

Yet, we also know that the apostle Paul was made by Christ the "apostle to the Gentiles." Therefore, Christ's words when taken in context of Scripture as a whole, can be seen to apply in another way...in this instance, as a special command only for the 12 apostles at a certain time (for Peter was also sent to Cornelius who was not a Jew in Acts 10).

This being said, we must in all and every circumstance take Isaiah (and Proverbs) in context with the much more easily translatable and (as Peter says in his second leter) "more clear" New Testament witness, which clearly states that "God is not a God of disorder, but a God of peace." (1 Cor 14:33) Since this verse apparently contradicts your translation, and since you are not God and God is, and God's Word is perfect, there must be a different meaning for the word Rah (or Reh-ag) in the context of the Isaiah passage. The several possibilites given above are more than enough to satisfy anyone who cares to be satisfied.

Yet, the answers will be trampled under the feet of your faith in your own logic and reasoning powers.

"Faith is often the boast of the man who is too lazy to investigate."
-— F.M. Knowles

Why are atheists so antagonistic about their faith? Knowles obviously has faith in himself, which by his own argument makes him too lazy to face the painful Truth of his soul. (The Bible doesn't say He's too lazt, just too wicked). The argument is as self-contradicting as any paradox in the Bible. The diffenrence is, I won't die, and Knowles will. Happy vs Sad? What do you want to be.

"Faith may be the boast of a lazy man, or the ignorance of the skeptic, but it is more readily the salvation of the wise."

Peace to all who seek it,
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