Actually, I would argue that your bolded statement above is the problem. You are reducing eternity to “the present moment.” That is not what most classical theists, and, in particular, not Thomists, would claim. It is not that only the present moment is “eternal,” but that from the perspective of eternity all temporal moments (past, present and future) simply are.
The only reason things … of what God works with in “writing” the story.
I recognize what you are saying. We say the eternal moment or the eternal present as a way of conceptualizing pure Beingness, pure Existence, I am Who am. But, too, we (our consciousness) only encounter God in the present. It is for this reason that we see that Beingness which knows no future and no past, as the present. Becuase He created time, we can say present, and it has a meaning that would not be available without the creation of time, as all that would be is God, Beingness, unchanging and infinite.
Right, God is not constrained by time, but He did create it, and He did give it certain characteristics. I believe He is “bound” by the characteristics he created, in a manner of speaking, because nothing binds God. I am saying bound in the same way I might say that God is bound to loving, since that is His nature, and He cannot hate, which is really npt constraining God, but merely describing Him for Who He has revealed Himself to be. I believe that we, our consciousness, exists only in the present and that it is at this point in the continuum of time that we can touch God, commune with God, or however you wish to put it, and so it is with reference to our own universe that we see God as the eternal present. Our consciousness is not at all points in time at the same time. For example, before we were created, our consciousness did not exist, even though time did exist. The moment we were created no longer exists, and so our consicousness no longer exists there. The future does not exist, and so our consciousness cannot abide there. We know where it is because it is us and we are at all times in the present. God created it that way. God watches time unfold because He created it that way. God reacts (figuratively) to whatever happens in the world in always the same way, He loves. He is infinite Love, and He never changes. What we see as love, anger, compassion, jealousy, patience, sadness, happiness, etc. on God’s part is really only love seen through a different set of circumstances, as God is unchanging and not given to emotional changes. God is Love. I am Who am. Infinite Love. Absolutely Incomprehensible. Do, I contend that tings do come into existence and go out of existence and that God sees this as it is happening, not as one instance to which He is All Present. We do not exist in the past, and so God cannot be present to us in the past. It’s the way He created it to be. God cannot see us in the future, because we do not exist in the future, It’s the way he created it, and He is simply following His own laws of existence.
Of course God can know exactly what will happen with anything that is cause and effect. And of course God can cause any events to happen in the future that He so chooses. The future I contend that He cannot see is the future free will decisions of a man, if they are entirely free. Because of slavery to sin, because of concupiscence, much of what men do is not really free at all. For this reason, I believe God can with almost certainty, perhaps with absolute certainty, see what future so=called free will decisions will be. But if there exists pure free will anywhere, I would say that God cannot know with certainty what its decisions will be until they occur. Perhaps, this discussion about free will is academic, because who has perfect free will, and even if we look at Adam and Mary, could not actual grace be a deciding factor in the decisions they made? I am no expert is this area, but it would seem that grace might have a lot to do with the exercise of free will, and that the human race was doomed to fall due to this factor, and perhaps Mary (forgive me Mary if I am wrong) sure to succeed due to the grace of God working in her life, notwithstanding her ability to say, “No.” I think all creation, the angels, and God Himself, awaited her fateful, “Yes.” It may be something like the fact that we love freely in heaven, so what is to stop us from freely choosing not to love? Yet we know that once we go to heaven we will never want to say no to love. Free, yet enslaved. So, all this being said, perhaps free will is less free than we normally view it, and perhaps my entire argument falls apart, and indeed God does know our every future decision. Nevertheless, I believe that if He knows our future, it is because He can see it before it happens, not by being present t othe future, but by envisioning how it must turn out. To me, being presnet to the future is nonsense, but knowing what the future will be, not beyond possibility.
I have to go now, but I think I have said most of what I can say. Peace. I enjoyed hearing from you very much.
