The omniscience of god?

Your understanding is much more reasonable in light of the whole revelation of the Bible. And it reminds me of what God says in Hosea 11:4. The footnote of the Recovery Version on verse 4 says: The human like attributes displayed a number of times by God in the Old Testament are previews of the incarnation of God as a Savior Man in Jesus. The examples include His tender love but also do not neglect His judicial righteousness.God coming to have a friendly lunch with Abraham and also righteously warning the prophet about the justice to descend on Sodom is a good example (Gen. 18,19).Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.

Here I am in a relatively good mood and you're pulling my chain already. Sigh.Okay. If you recall the Egyptians had killed the firstborn Hebrew kids in spades earlier in the book. If you recall this slaying of the firstborn was after 9 lesser warning plagues that Yahweh was not playing around about wanting His people to be let go.And since they left Egypt "a mixed multitude" it seems God had mercy on quite a few believing Egyptians in the Exodus.It should be obvious that "lovey dovey" is not going on there because God is taking some judgmental acts upon Egypt. But you see I am the kind of person who reads the entire Bible and not just lifts up a passage here and there. All things considered there is no doubt in my mind that He loved the Egyptians and Assyrians also who were both traditional enemies of Israel. And in one place He makes it clear to Israel that they also are His people: I have graduated from viewing the whole character of God through the selective examples of skeptics searching for bones to choke on. Bitterness as expressed by folks like you frequently remind me of the proverb - "When a man's ways bring him to ruin his heart rages against the Lord."I'll just let you rage on. Oh, I have no problem recognizing that in the 66 books of the Bible "different people who had different ideas" were involved in the writing.But I also recognize the overall Divine Mind orchestrating the progressive unfolding of the revelation of God. So that there are different flavors and styles in the manner of writing is not a problem to me believing the whole plenary revelation of the Bible.And I didn't take Exodus as the last book in the Bible. I went on to read more. So I think I benefit from an unbiased and well rounded more complete appreciation then the rather warped ragings of the type you are entertained with. Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.

Well, that could be a problem - not reading the Bible carefully.Sometimes people who are more prone to digging up so called "pictures of Jesus" either pretty or otherwise are also ignorant of what is the written content of the Scripture. I never had that problem because I am not hyped by religious pictures one way or the other.Why don't you go back and read from chapter one until you notice it?Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.

But I bet you spend far more time railing against the God of the Bible than you do visiting forums and trying to debunk Father Christmas, Thor, Zues, Neptune, Aphrodite or Fairies at the bottom of the garden.So this disproportionate vehement treatment of the Bible's God causes me to suspect that the prospect of His reality is of far greater concern to you.The issue here is that God's behaving with human attributes at times does not detract from His omniscience. So I see no "glitches" concerning this.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.

Focusing on the matter of omniscience you continue: Genesis 6:5-6 is also not a problem to me. The hatred of God for sin must be firmly established in the minds of sinners. Then the fact that in Christ God carried up our own hated sins in His body onto the cross reveals how great the love of Christ is for us.If some of us did not appreciate that sin was an abomination to a righteous God we would not grasp the significance of Him coming in the Son to bear our judgment that we might be saved.In fact the law of Moses in the Old Testament was called "the ministry of condemnation" (2 cor. 3:9) The backround of the divine condemnation of man's transgressions needed to be established to appreciate the atoning sacrifice of the Son of God that sinners may be justified - Christ having absorbed into His person the wrath of God against our sins that we may be saved.Along with the examples in Exodus the things in Genesis were written for the instruction of the new covenant believers not because God was not omniscient:"Now these things occured as examples to us, that we should not be ones who lust after evil things, even as they also lusted ... Now the these things happened to them as an example, and they wee written for our admonition, unto whom the ends of the ages have come." (See 1 Cor. 10:6,11) The Triune God is very profound in His eternal purpose and in His salvation. So the revelation was gradually unfolded in a manner which communicates His heart to those whom He will save.The ark of Noah is a type of Christ. And the details of the flood and the ark are a type of the death and resurrection of Christ who is our living Ark. Peter tells us this in First Peter 3:20-21. And the omniscience of God is surely indicated in the fact that the day that the ark rested upon the dry land was the same day on which Jesus Christ rose from the dead. I will go over the calender details if you are interested.So in this we see not only God's salvation but His omniscient foreknowledge. It would have been quite a coincidence that Christ resurrected on the same day that the ark (a type of Christ) rested on the dry land. I think it is not a coincedence but a demonstation of God's wisdom and foreknowledge.Without Christ's redemption we could all be wiped out and God would be righteous to do so. As it stands the wicked generation can enter into Christ by beliving into Him. They can be "shut in" as God shut Noah and his family in the ark.Also Christ's redemption is the salvation not only of man but of the earth. Hebrews says that He tasted death on behalf of everything. So the creatures along with human beings reveal Christ's work to save man and man's environment for His eternal kingdom.Let's see your next example.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.

"We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous"This lets us know that can God responds to intercession. What He has the righteous ground to do He may alter for the sake of petition made on behalf of the guilty party. In this particular instance I believe the petitioner was Moses. In that regard Moses was a type of Christ.Christ on His cross petitioned for mankind "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."You will have difficulty understanding this quite logical exegesis as long as you can't see how all of Scripture is pointing to Jesus Christ. It is leading up to Him and in various ways the positive people in the Old Testament dipicted various aspects of the coming Son of God. The same could be said of this. We see that God responds to intercession. This passage reminds me of Christ who is the Advocate for the new covenant believer: The Apostle Paul assures the Christians in Rome that Christ's intercession for His believers is totally effectual before God. He will present us without blemish and pure before His Father in utter sanctifying love: These instances of a prophet interceding for the people of God foreshadow the effective priesthood of the Son of God whose intercession will accomplish the eternal plan of God to produce many sons of the Divine Father.Here again we see that Christ ever lives to intercede for His redeemed people: The verses you have pointed out so far foreshadow the mighty intercession of the Son of God to save sinners to the uttermost. One of the most significant things about Saul to me is that he represents a man from whom God withdrew His mercy. There is hardly any more pitiful person in the Bible than King Saul. Even the witch of Endor felt sorry for him.God replaced Saul with David and said that He would not withdraw His mercy from David. So Saul's decline depicts the decline of the person from whom God has withdrawn mercy.I don't see how these lessons are less valuable than the dubious objection to God's omniscience. God knows a lot. Things are not a surprise to Him. It is we who have to be enlightened. If God chooses to teach us by saying that He repented of this or that, that is fine with me. This is another picture of the intercession of Christ as God's High Priest. Christ is the centrality and universality of the Bible. And all the positive types, shadows, and symbols are pointer toward Him.If you go on to read you will see the burnt offering offered on the spot where the angel ceased to carry out God's judgment on Jerusalem. The burnt offering also points to Jesus Christ. He was the Son absolute for the Father's will. And His being consumed with the will of God was an ascending fragrance to the Father by which sinners destined to perish for eternity are rather saved and become sons of God. I think these are the difficulties one gets in when he honess in on one and only one aspect of God's character. What impresses some of us is rather how His love, His righteousness, His omnipotence, His omniscience, and His omnipresence all coordinate together.In other words you are hammering on one and only one divine attribute. Some of us prefer to get a more well rounded portrayal of such a Divine Life from various angles.It is not as if the omiscience of God was the only subject in the revelation of the Bible. But how He became a Man that He might be our Lord and Savior - and the Head of a new race of divinized humanity - sons of God."Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers.

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And those whom He foreknew, He also called, and those whom he called, these He also justified; and those whom He justified, these He also glorified." (Rom. 8:28,29) You would get more out of the Bible if while you read you kept your focus that all these things are leading up to the accomlishing of God's will to have many sons of God, brothers of Christ the Firstborn. And all the divine repenting and powerful interceding in the Old Testament simply foreshadow that nothing can stop God from accomplishing His purpose, least of all man's failures and sins.God has made provision for all these obstacles in Jesus Christ. This is what such passages are trying to teach us. They are not glitches in the doctrine of God's omniscience. Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.

The Forum is about What The Bible Really Means. Omniscience is a theological construct which is man's attempt to use his finite philosophy to assign characteristics to God. I do not hold these words and definitions above what the Scriptures actually say.For example if by saying God is Omnipotent someone means nothing is impossible for God, I would counter that His word says that it is impossible of for God to lie:"In order that by two unchangeable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement ..." (Hebrews 6:18)I do not feel duty bound to allow creed to rise above what the Scripture says. For me what the Bible says is far more important then any theological axiom like "God by definition is omnipotent" or "God by definition is omniscient".Such axioms may be helpful. But they are theological creeds which are subject to Bible says. And if there is a tension between them and what the Bible says, what is written is more important to me.The story of Joseph seems to go out of its way to portray God's sovereignty over human affairs. Joseph had a dream for which his brothers hated him. All their envious acts against their brother because of the hated dream God used to fulfill the contents of the dream.This kind of providence of the divine is established without apology in the first book of the Bible. And any supposed tension it may cause the philosophical minded between a doctrine of omniscience and omnipotence is simply too bad for their theological construct. This is simply the kind of God we are dealing with. He can cause "all things to work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose" (Rom. 8:28).After the entire Bible reviews all of God's providential and soveriegn actions over history to accomplish His eternal purpose the last word of the revelation is still -"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with all the saints. Amen." (Revelation 22:21)That is the last sentence in the whole Bible. And it speaks of God impowering us to cooperate with Him. There is not a hint here that because God is omniscient or omnipotent therefore man has no responsibility and can just sit back expecting all the chips to lay as God has pre-arranged them.Our human freedom and willing cooperation with the aid of His grace is the final word. So any alledged mutual exclusivity of theological creeds does not absolve us of open our hearts to God to receive grace and coordinate cooperatively with Him for the fulfillment of His purposes. I don't see God robbed of power because of this. I think this is the atheists attempt to handcuff God so as to philosophically not allow Him to do anything, if they possibly could.I don't see God robbed of power except I see our unbelief postponing Him a little. But surely the Bible is also a record of God overcoming obstacles to His will of all kinds. His own promises do not stop Him. His foreknowledge doesn't hinder Him. Man's sins cause Him some trouble. But these also He makes provision for. We can postpone His work but cannot seem to stop Him.In the end His multifarious wisdom is made known to all other beings in the universe in eternity future:"In order that now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies the multifarious wisdom of God might be made known through the church, according to the eternal purpose which He made in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Eph. 3:9,10)In other words all obstacles whether from His own being or man's failures do not rob Him of His wisdom working out His eternal purpose. You cannot tie the divine hands. So some of us choose to go along with Him in His grace. Early in my Bible reading I noticed a passage in Psalms which became a kind of governing vision. God fashioned my heart and observes my deeds: While I recognize that God has fashioned my heart uniquely, He still observes what actions I take with that heart. So His Creatorship does not rob me of a certain amount of freedom and responsibility.

This will cause an adjustment in the discussion. There are paradoxes in the Bible. There are some mysterious things in the Bible. There are some things upon which we could meditate as being "knowledge too high and [we] cannot attain to them" (Psalm 139:6)There are things which make more sense as we spiritually mature once having received the life of Christ into our innermost spirit. That is we have been regenerated and are in the process of moving from one level of growth to the next spiritually as any child would grow. But even a very spiritually mature person like the Apostle Paul left us with the impression that there were still mysteries to him in the Scriptures. This Paul writes after explaining quite about God's providential ways with Israel and the nations in Romans 9 through 11. He leaves us with the impression that as much as he has insight there are still deep mysteries in God's ways. And his attitude seems an echo of Deutoronomy 29:29: The Scripture is less a test on God then it is a test on us and our hearts.Jeremiah spoke of receiving the Word of God as nourishing spiritual food: The prophet Jeremiah came to the words of God as food to feed a spiritual hunger in his heart. You seem mostly interested in either tickling your intellectual curiosity or finding ground for accusations against God. It is no wonder that you leave it hungry, grumpy, and confused.I think you will get better and truer meanings from your Bible when you come to receive it as eating spiritual food for the heart - the conscience, the mind, the emotion, and the will, not solely seeking out philosophical inconsistancies. Let it rather shine on the moral problems of your own life so that you can be reconciled to this God.He is trying to speak to you but you are too busy fault finding in a proud way. I think you should let the Scriptures rise above your ego and feed and enlighten you about the condition of your heart before God. Those who humble themselves will be exalted. But the proud God knows from a distance.I come to the Scriptures in a certain way. I come to touch the living Spirit of Christ deep in my being. Behind the words is the living God. Whenever I come to Scripture I come to contact this living Spirit of God.Jesus told the Pharisees that they searched the Scripture but that they would not come to Him that they may have spiritual life: You should at least balance your time of researching Scripture with a time for coming to them to obtain Christ Himself as spiritual life. This means you are not searching primarily for dead information, much less mistakes to gloat over. But you come with a heart willing to be changed by an encounter with the Spirit of Christ.You should come to the Bible ready to be dispensed into by His Holy Spirit. It is the contradictions in your life which you are willing have light shone upon them. You allow the Bible to ascend above you to shine down on your life. You humble yourself that you may be exalted in due time. This is better than combing through the Bible to discover mistakes to justify your disbelief in Christ.This is a book of life. This is a book meant to nourish something spiritual and deep within you which should hunger and thirst for life. So far you have displayed a hunger for "glitches". I would like to see you come hungry to "taste and see that the Lord is good." I come to the Bible prayerfully and praying over what I read. At least I like to balance my time of just seeking facts in Scripture with being nourished by each word in my praying inner man.It is better to let the words of the Bible convict you of your sins and confess them than it is to search for rationals to accuse God.You read the story of Noah. You seem to miss so much of God's compassion, faithfulness, power to save, trustworthiness as shown by the salvation provided by the ark. Instead you notice something about God being sorry that He made man who became so evil.At least you should pray and ask God to impress upon you what He wishes to impress upon you. At least you should try this for a season. Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.

The best way to understand the part of the Bible you do not understand is to respond in obedience to the part that you do understand.To him who has will more be given. But him who has not even what he has will be taken away. Often God will not waste further enlightenment on the person who has not responded to the enlightenment that they previously received.He gave you something and you were too casual about it, not repenting or responding. Then you want more understanding. But you did nothing with what God already gave you. In that case He may not be pleased to give you more.

Because the opposers did not love the truth God sends them strong delusion. Since they loved not the truth He allows them to follow the lies of the Antichrist.This is not the lying of God. On the contrary. He spoke truth to them repeatedly and they reject it and have no love for it. So He allows them to fall headlong and full throttle into the deception caused by Satan's man the Antichrist.You may protest that God sends this delusion. In the sense that He removes the restraining force keeping Satanic deception from running rampant ( 2 Thess. 2:6-8) it is an indirect "sending" according to God's permissive will. That is correct. And this has nothing to do with God lying but of Him turning the truth haters over to their self destroying love of deception. That is an interesting passage. And it goes well as a parallel passage to 2 Thess.2:6-8. For for sure God is sending Ahab strong delusion and for the same reason as He will turn over the victims of the Antichrist. They loved not the truth.And you did not quote the enough of it to get an accurate picture. Verse 19 tells what the vision of the prophet Micaiah:"And Miciaiah said, Hear therefore the word of Jehovah, I saw Jehovah sitting upon His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him, on the right and on the left." (v.19)I take this matter of the hosts being "on the right and on the left" to signify that God had them divided up separating the obedient spirits from the rebellious and evil spirits. It is very similar to the separating the sheep on His right hand from the goats to be damned on His left hand:"But when the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, at that time He will sit on the throne of His glory.

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And all the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them from one another, just as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand and the goats on the left." (Matt. 25:32,33) Now this vision of Micaiah seems to be a judgmental separation of the spirits on either side of God rather than a combining them all together. This is also not God lying. But of the rebel spirits who are of the opposition party siding with God's enemy, He providencially allows a lying spirit to get into the mouths of all the prophets. Judging from the degradation of the times, the prophets were morally in bad shape to begin with is sometimes the case. In Ezekiel and Jeremiah God condemns groups of prophets for speaking lies pretensiously to His people.I take this as another instance in God's permissive will turning over the truth rejector to eat the fruits of his own stubburness. My version reads "And Jehovah was with Judah. And they took possession of the hill country, but they could not dispossess the inhabitants of iron." It reads "THEY [Judah] could not" an not "God could not".The question here is not why didn't God simply dispossess these enemies without any cooperation from Judah. Rather something in their lack of consecration hindered them from fully benefitting from God's help. They also were not able to subdue Ai at first because of the disobedience in the matter of stealing the cursed objects from Jericho. The problem was not on God's side but on thier lack of consecration.God works here in coordination and cooperation with man. He does not act here unilaterally or usurp human will.So this is not an instance in the inability of God but in the weakness in the Divine / Human coordination due to the incomplete consecration on the human side.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.

I don't see this interpretation as "wiggling on the hook". It may be dealing with a few difficult passages. I don't mind that because I am not naive to assume the subject matter about God's nature and ways will always be easy to understand.That passages about divine allowance of deception overtaking the truth haters reveals judgment. The truth came to them and they repeatedly rejected it. Both instances of them being deceived floow long periods in which God repeatedly try to reach them with truth.Furthermore the Bible squarely deals with the paradox of God's permissive will in one entire book, the book of Job. There Satan accuses God of protecting Job. God gives Satan limited permission to attack first Job's possessions and than Job's physical body. Job however throughout the entire book does not relent in recognizing that it is ultimately God's assault upon him.Not only does inspiration provide us one whole book to ponder this but a number of times in First Samuel we are told of "an evil spirit from the Jehovah" (1 Sam. 16:14,23;18:10;19:9) that came upon the reprobate King Saul.These repetitions seemed aim at making sure the reader is adoubly affirmed about what is being said. It is like "You heard me ... and evil spirit from Jehovah". This frank discloser impresses me that the word of God is not running from the irony but faithfully communicating that judgment from God can have such twist.Interestingly enough, the relief from this "evil spirit from the Lord" is completely reverse when Saul goes to be among the prophets and the Spirit of God comes upon him restoring the depressed King to the grace of God (1 Samuel 19:19-24). King Saul should probably have forgotten his jealous ambitions and remained there with the prophets.The judgment of an evil spirit coming upon Saul or the lying spirit causing the prophets to mislead rebellious king Ahab is alluded to in this article: What I find is the case with many Atheists and Skeptics of the Bible is that they project their own human failures and motives unto God and therefore cannot believe that such a Being exists. They look within themselves and see their imperfections and assume that no Ultimate Governor could possibly as they themselves are. They fail to realize that God is not like them. They have self projected warped thinking which leads them to beleive no God could exist. I do not read or write ancient Hebrew. I depend on English translation. In the Recovery Version when words are supplied by the translator to either interpret or clarify those words are supplied in italics so the reader knows they are not in the original language.The passage I quoted did not have "they" in italics. But checking a few other versions that I respect: That version is say "he" - Jehvovah God, was not able to drive them out. You might consider that sympathetic to your view. But my interpretation is the same. In the New Testament Christ the Son did not do many miracles in a certain town because of the people's unbelief (Matt.13:58). So I think the limitation was on the cooperation of the Hebrews (possibly thier weakness in faith) and not on God's inability to act unilaterally.Darby's New Translation also has "he" there in Judges 1:19. So when in doubt I check more than one English translation.That man's shortage of cooperation could limit temporarily God's desire to deal with evil forces is a theme consistent from early Genesis. Obviously Adam's disobedience brought the earth under a curse and the previously limited Devil gained a foothold through Adam's unbelief.That a similar scheme be seen going on in the judgment and conquest of Canaan with Hebrews does not surprise me. Rather something in their lack of consecration hindered them from fully benefitting from God's help. We see the same theme repeated that the degree of God accomplishing His will through man depends upon the degree of His people abiding in Him. So a more total consecration facilitates a more powerful coordination of God and man."Command Me concerning the works of My hands" (Isaiah 45:11)We can see that God is ever working towards that full consecration in which His people could command Him concerning His actions.It should be added that in the book of Joshua God fought for Israel in dramatic ways. And throughout the Old Testament there were high points when the Hebrews prevailed mightily because of their oneness with Jehovah in moral and spiritual cooperation. Judges 1:19 is a deficient instance.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.

I think you are not as clear as you think.He is not everywhere in the capacity that He ultimately wants. He is not everywhere if He is not in your spiritual being. He is not everywhere if He is not indwelling you as His Holy Spirit to give you eternal life.Paul discribed the life of Jesus and the Spirit of Jesus as a treasure that had been placed in the earthen vessels of the apostles' beings:"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not out of us." (2 Cor. 4:7)They were not born with this treasure simply because God is omnipresent. They had to be saved by Christ's redemption and let His Spirit enter. They had to receive Him.God longs to dwell in man to be man's life. God created the universe. He made man in the image of God something like a glove is made in the image of a human hand. He made man in order to be where He was not from the time of man's creation - within man.The doctrine of God's omnipresence does not account for God not being in man. In the New Testament He begins to dwell in man as the Spirit of Jesus Christ.The doctrine of God being "everywhere" as portrayed here is superficial. A more complete view of the whole Bible shows that there are places where God is not where He desires to be.For example Isaiah wants to be IN man even though He fills the heavens. The message here is that God is not satisfied with our sense of His omnipresence in terms of Him being everywhere. He desires a house in man. That is why it says "But to this kind of man will I look". This means to look for His house. The Old Testament saints desired to build Him a house. But ultimately He says His house is to be in a certain kind of man. We should go on from seeing God's omnipresence in the superfiscial way to grasping that He wants to live in man.Since the eternal purpose of God is to dwell in man there are some problems that have arisen in creation because the omipresent God who fills all heaven and earth is left OUTSIDE of His desired house man.Though God is almighty He cannot accomplish His eternal purpose unless He dispenses Himself into a place where He is not. That is into human vessel of the saved. For this reason we see the Triune God coming to make an abode with those who love Christ:"Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him." (John 14:23)He may be everywhere. But He says He and His Father as the Divine "WE" will come to the lover of Jesus and make an abode with him. This making of an abode in the believers in Christ is the building of the house of the Father in which Jesus said there would be many abodes. Not He alone would be one in whom the Father lives. But all His redeemed people would be the many abodes of the Trune God: God is everywhere yet in His process to dispense His life into man He must enter where He is not. He must come into the vessel of man's being to make an abode with man. Some men and women will be saved for this reality and God obtains a habitation of God in spirit", ie. the house that He longed for and looked to man for in Isaiah 66:1,2.It is not simply a matter of God's eyes being everywhere so all knowledge is a piece of cake to Him. He is not satisfied with being everywhere in that sense and seeing everything. He desires to be where He has been shut out. That is in the living vessel of human life. Man is a living container and this omnipresent God's eternal purpose is to dispense Himself into this vessel to build a corporate habitation of God.Tensions seen in the Bible because the omniscient God and man are at odds is the temporary glitch until He accomplishes His plan to enter into His redeemed people's being. This corporate house of God is called New Jerusalem. And the divine revelation closes with the omnipresent Triune God imparting His life and nature into His people for a corporate dwelling place.God is not everywhere in the sense that He is not in those rejecting the new covenant salvation:"Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God."(1 John 4:15) Omnipresence does not account for the fact that God is not within the one who does not believe that Jesus is the Son of God. He is within as many as received Him.In this case all He knows about the person only goes to accumulate an infallible and indisputable record of that persons sins to which he will have to answer to God in judgment.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.

I tend to approach the question pragmatically. If He is able to keep an infallible and indisputable record of my life, He is for all intents and purposes omniscient enough for me to realize the need for forgiveness.God's "omniscient" knowledge of what is in a some deep crater on the dark side of the moon is not that critical to my life.I don't feel the complusion to defend or defeat that kind of doctrine of omniscience. My practical considerations focus on His knowing of my moral condition before Him and His provision for any defects.This seems more important to me: "And there is no creature that is not manifest before Him, but all things are naked and laid bare to the eyes of Him to whom we are to give our account." (Hebrews 4:13) I am more conerned with this then pursuit of the question of God's omniscience as a purely philosophical pursuit to rationalize - how ominiscient is omniscient is omniscient ? Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.

No, that seems to be what you are entertaiing yourself with here. Except that after Genesis there are 65 other books of the Bible unfolding His salvation and work. So some of us, instead of shrugging our shoulders and seeing it all as pointless, went on to learn more of His interaction with man.The Atheist has a need to convince herself that any supposed God has no need to exist or do anything. It is not surprising that some sinners would seek refuge in this kind of philosophy. Some of us rather look to God's salvation and purpose to discover how He has made plans to reconcile sinners to Himself.

I don't think you are being completely honest with your own self here.Rather than just reject the idea of a mystical supernatural entity, you reinforce your rejection with a challenge to the theist to show complete consistancy with some doctrine of divine omniscience.Hoping to expose logical inconistancies with taking an idea to the Nth degree accomplished for you (or so you think) justifying belief in God is unjustified.Anyway, not everyone thinks no evidence for a supernatural source of the universe exists.For instance, the founder of NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies and former director of the Mt. Wilson Observatory, Robert Jastrow, an astrophysicist, himself being a confessed agnostic wrote this about the Big Bang Theory: "Astronomers now find they have painted themselves into a corner because they have proven, by their own methods, that the world began abruptly in an act of creation to which you can trace the seeds of every star, every planet, every living thing in this cosmos and on the earth. And they have found that all this happened as a product of forces they cannot hope to discover .... That there are what I or anyone would call supernatural forces at work is now, I think, a scientifically proven fact."Expected Pushbacks:"Oh that quote is too old.""Oh, Jastrow is not qualified.""He didn't say that.""He's a pro crypto Fundamentalist.""Yea, But that is not your Christian God of the Bible."etc. etc.The quote is reminscient of Einstien's contemporary Arthur Eddington who though considered the idea of evoking the supernatural "repugnant" also admited: "The beginning seems to present insuperable difficulties unless we agree to look on it as frankly supernatural." This is off the topic. But I submit reasonable evidence for a Creator God is the very existence of the universe. A agnostic astrophysicist, Robert Jastrow, seems to at least agree "supernatural forces" have been proven to have operated if anyone is frank enough to admit that that is where the evidence points.On evidence for God, if you disagree you and I might go elsewhere on the Forum and we could kick around the question "Why is there something rather than nothing ? "Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.