Christians: predestination and foreknowledge

[Arduinna]

He knows what I am going to choose before I choose it.

I want to hear from other Christians how your belief in foreknowledge and predestination effects your outlook on life.

* reminder that this is in spirituality and as such a support thread, please don't bother posting if you are offended by the concepts or don't agree with predestination or foreknowledge and are posting to refute them*


I keep learning these new terms that describe beliefs I've held even during my time of rejecting God. So this is a another one I'm trying to understand more of.

I admit I have beliefs that seem to contradict each other.

Examples:

free will ( I think I have it?)

yet things happen for a reason and are meant to be for a purpose I may not understand at the time

I don't view God as controlling every single thing that happens in my life ( surely he has more important things to do ) yet see above. How do those reconcile?

I've had all kinds of painful experiences like cancer, near death of my husband, lost a child during pregnancy, been homeless ect and yet I've never been angry at God for them, or felt I was being punished, persecuted and no matter how hard it's been I feel I am protected and will be ok. I alway just felt that it was meant to be.



So how can I reconcile what appear to be opposing views? I have no idea They seem to have resided in me all these years though

[cappuccinosmom]

Well, I'll start, since I started it.

I am somewhere between full free will and full predestination. But I am not sure I know how to describe it. I'll try.

I believe God is all powerful and all knowing. I believe that he is Sovreign. I also believe that he *chooses* to give us choices. He knows what we will choose, because he is not bound by time and space, but that doesn't make it any less our choice.

It's kind of like when you come to a fork in the road. The "straight and narrow" is God's perfect will. But he won't stop me from taking the other road. If I want back into his will, he will bring me back to the right road, but that detour may be bumpy and difficult to travel in the mean time.

We have choices to make in our lives, and there are consequences to those choices--they affect us and they affect others. The ultimate consequences of Adam and Eve's choice affected all of us. And the "second Adam" (Jesus) made a choice that affected all of us as well. But those choices are all woven together into God's perfect plan in a way that we cannot comprehend, being so limited in our perspective.

[eastkygal]

I believe much as the pp said. We do have free will, it's just that God knows what we will chose before we chose it. I also think that god knows our heart and will allow us to experience the consequences of our choices good or bad in preparing us to experience heaven (if we are Christians). Helping us move to a faith based relationship with Him. I do believe that we chose whether or not to believe and serve Him, it is just that He knows our choice. I don't believe that that means He ever gives up because He is merciful. I also believe that the future can change and He knows at what point our heart might change. I do not believe we are taken from this earth before that chance is had.

[Arduinna]

Ok I think I understand, your posts are reminding me of some scriptures I've read that support the concepts, of course I can't remember exactly what they are now

[JamieCatheryn]

As a religious studies major I find it so cool that we all end up answering the same way many of the greatest minds in history have answered this.

Yeah, God sees it all from a point outside time and space, that doesn't change what I'm about to do though. As far as everything happening for a reason, well some things happen because we chose one thing or another, but God still can guide us to work it towards His glory (and to our own betterment).

[Kidzaplenty]

:

[tricia80]

I do believe we have free will but God knows what we will choose... and even if its the wrong path (which i have taken tooooooooooooooooo many times) i still ended up back at him...

Sometimes its hard for me to remember that God is not like us and our brains cannot comprehend but a tiny little piece of him (make sense?)...

He already knows what our future holds and what choices we are going to choose, and he is allowing us to choose it.. (again, make sense?)

I hope i answered this properly...