What do you understand by the term “Foreknowledge?” Does it have a temporal component only?We all know that God knows everything. He even knows our decisions through his foreknowledge. Here we are asking another question: Lets assume that God does not have foreknowledge. Could God know our decisions only by given circumstances?
Foreknowledge or better to say foresee is the capacity to see past, now and future in eternal now.What do you understand by the term “Foreknowledge?”
It is not temporal.Does it have a temporal component only?
Yes. I meant whether God could know our decisions only by given circumstances due to other quality, omniscience for example.Honestly, it sounds like you’re saying, “Could God know our decisions if He lacked what I (STT) am presuming is the means by which He knows them now, due to some other quality He has?”
But if you are saying He lacks the quality of foreknowledge (as defined by you, and I agree with it in theory), then He is not ‘complete’ and therefore not God.Foreknowledge or better to say foresee is the capacity to see past, now and future in eternal now.
It is not temporal.
Yes. I meant whether God could know our decisions only by given circumstances due to other quality, omniscience for example.
That is right, God could be complete without foreknowledge. But the problem that I would like to take your attention is whether God can know our decisions only by given circumstances and not by using His foreknowledge.But if you are saying He lacks the quality of foreknowledge (as defined by you, and I agree with it in theory), then He is not ‘complete’ and therefore not God.
Right?
Why would He not use what is His?That is right, God could be complete without foreknowledge. But the problem that I would like to take your attention is whether God can know our decisions only by given circumstances and not by using His foreknowledge.
We want to know if He is capable of doing what was stated.Why would He not use what is His?
But you’re asking Him to change Who and What He is, if you are ‘removing’ one of His attributes.We want to know if He is capable of doing what was stated.
I already changed the question for sake of clarity. Lets assume that God keeps his foreknowledge. I am asking whether God can know our decision without using his foreknowledge and only by knowing the circumstances.But you’re asking Him to change Who and What He is, if you are ‘removing’ one of His attributes.
God is changeless.
Is this one of those, “Can God make a rock too heavy for Him to lift” kind of things?
Again, why would God not use what is His? He is God. He ‘uses’ what is His, if you will, 100% and at all times, so I do not see how He could change Himself by suddenly NOT using an attribute He has and uses, eternally.I already changed the question for sake of clarity. Lets assume that God keeps his foreknowledge. I am asking whether God can know our decision without using his foreknowledge and only by knowing the circumstances.
The existence of you, your will, your intellect, and everything else is due to God’s present action, which is at all times. God doesn’t know the future by seeing the future. He knows the future because He knows Himself, and He knows His Act. Since everything, everything exists in and by God’s Act, and because He knows His Act perfectly, He knows everything that is part of that Act. That is where his omniscience comes from: His knowledge of Himself.We all know that God knows everything. He even knows our decisions through his foreknowledge. Here we are asking another question: Lets assume that God does not have foreknowledge. Could God know our decisions only by given circumstances?
If you’re asking if God has perfect abilities of deduction of the result based on a set of circumstances, the answer is yes.I already changed the question for sake of clarity. Lets assume that God keeps his foreknowledge. I am asking whether God can know our decision without using his foreknowledge and only by knowing the circumstances.
Ah, but that would mean that we don’t have free will, because in order for God to deduce what we’ll do under a given set of circumstances, the outcome must be deterministic.If you’re asking if God has perfect abilities of deduction of the result based on a set of circumstances, the answer is yes.
I do not consider God to have foreknowledge apart from his omniscience?Yes. I meant whether God could know our decisions only by given circumstances due to other quality, omniscience for example.
I really don’t understand the point of your question. It’s not God’s foreknowledge that lets him know our decisions, he knows what’s in our minds and hearts at all times. You think God can’t read our minds?I already changed the question for sake of clarity. Lets assume that God keeps his foreknowledge. I am asking whether God can know our decision without using his foreknowledge and only by knowing the circumstances.
But that means that we are machines without capacity to freely decide.The existence of you, your will, your intellect, and everything else is due to God’s present action, which is at all times. God doesn’t know the future by seeing the future. He knows the future because He knows Himself, and He knows His Act. Since everything, everything exists in and by God’s Act, and because He knows His Act perfectly, He knows everything that is part of that Act. That is where his omniscience comes from: His knowledge of Himself.
He doesn’t have visions of the future or foresight in the sense we’d ascribe to a human seeing the future.
So the answer to your question is “yes”, I believe. Or perhaps, it is better to say that His knowledge of circumstances is both knowledge of His Act and His foreknowledge. They’re actually the same, and so treating them as separate faculties within God is incorrect. It’s like asking if God could have knowledge of His act without knowledge of His act by using only knowledge of His act instead. It’s a bit nonsensical.
This means that we don’t have free will as EnosJadon correcly recognized.If you’re asking if God has perfect abilities of deduction of the result based on a set of circumstances, the answer is yes.
However, such an ability is not needed because of His foreknowledge.
Good, I agree with you. But you didn’t answer my question: Could God know our decisions only by given circumstances?I do not consider God to have foreknowledge apart from his omniscience?
God is not all-foreknowing, he is all-knowing. He is not omnipraescient, he is omniscient.
:twocents:
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It does not. Please elaborate.But that means that we are machines without capacity to freely decide.