Is God all knowing?

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twoboys said:
Sorry Mboo, this sentence sounds funny and apparently self contradictory. Freedom that can only choose only perfect things is not really free
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In this case, Jesus and Mary were not really free …
And as currently I can not deliberately poison my child, so I’m not really free …
 
Does His knowledge just ends in knowing all possible outcomes of any decision we make out of our freewill or does it surpass to knowing the very decision we may take in all situations? If the latter, what are the exact implications to our love for Him?
 
this lapidary remark does not advance the debate, because I can also replicate “it is you who know nothing of what is free will”
 
The way I see it, is God knows all ends from the beginning, there is a path, or paths, that everyone can take which will lead us away from hell. And He, in His loving goodness, tries everything to lead everyone in that direction. But we have the free-will to choose. It is like one of those books that you get to a page and it gives you a choice, if you want to choose A turn to page 56 if you want to choose B turn to page 93. You don’t know where each path will lead, but God knows the entire book.
 
Darryl_B said:
The way I see it, is God knows all ends from the beginning, there is a path, or paths, that everyone can take which will lead us away from hell. And He, in His loving goodness, tries everything to lead everyone in that direction. But we have the free-will to choose
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it’s really hard to show that the real problem of evil in general is not free will. Well I will say the same thing but a little differently and I hope you or someone else can answer point by point:
  1. God has given me free will but in the present context I can not deliberately poison my child
  2. So God, while giving me free will, also wanted that I am currently incapable of committing the sin of deliberately killing my child.
  3. So God giving me free will could also have given me the perfection of not committing any sin, exactly as he did to Mary. To say that in this case I would no longer have free will meant that Mary and Jesus did not have free will either, so they were not fully human!
 
Being human is not marked by the evil one does, it is marked by the pain one suffers, and on the other side of that, is the love one enjoys.

Therefore
  1. Should something happen to your child, you will feel pain.
  2. You enjoy your child, as you should.
  3. Jesus Christ our Lord, experienced the pain and the joy, as did the Blessed Virgin Mary.
That is what makes us human, not the sins we commit, but our sins bring pain to others and God.
 
Suffering is the consequence of sin, and God could very well prevent us from sinning without compromising our free will!
 
If God could make us love without compromising our free will, I would say that would be true, but I am not sure it is possible.
 
it’s possible because he has already done so with the Virgin Mary. He made Mary unable to sin without suppressing her free will.
A good example that I found in another thread. If you offer someone two dishes: one he likes and another that he does not like at all. He is free to choose what he does not like, but he will certainly choose the dish he likes.
It’s the same thing, if God gives us hatred, and natural disgust against sin, and a great love for virtue, then without suppressing our free will we will be unable to sin
 
Let me ask you a counter question that is more important than creation…
Why did Jesus die on the cross knowing that some wouldn’t be saved and go to Heaven?
Creation, salvation, sanctification… same God three persons
 
I think God gave us free will, how we use it is up to us, even if he IS all knowing.

Here’s another puzzle for you. Does the Father who is all knowing, know all the thoughts of Jesus at the exact same time that Jesus is having those thoughts? The mystery of the Trinity is fascinating. But don’t imagine we all have the answers. Acknowledge that the questions are sometimes great teaching tools by themselves
 
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I believe you make a valid point with the case of the Virgin Mary, however this situation is really a one off special case as part of a very grand design.

With the two dishes I am not so sure. If I always chose the same dish, I would eventually wonder about the other one, it would eventually reach my attention, and probably become an obsession, for I would have no milestone in which to evaluate it.

I will try a different approach, if I always choose the good by God’s graces, how will I ever recognize God’s graces in my life, and how will I ever be thankful for His mercy, when I don’t know where it is?
 
Darryl_B said:
I will try a different approach, if I always choose the good by God’s graces, how will I ever recognize God’s graces in my life, and how will I ever be thankful for His mercy, when I don’t know where it is?
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All good we can choose, is always by God graces, always! without God graces we’ll unable to do anything for our salvation. We recognize God graces by the Faith, not by the human experience.
And why do not you recognize someone who only does you good? I do not understand where would be the difficulty of recognizing the goodness of God if we could not sin.
 
Mboo said:
All good we can choose, is always by God graces, always!
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I don’t disagree. My approach was " if I ALWAYS choose good by God’s graces", not “if the good I choose is ALWAYS by God’s graces”. It is the position of the word “always” that has been repositioned. It has been moved.

And since I am defending myself against something I never said, I find myself in a difficult position of reply. Could we perhaps not do that?
 
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