superdave!
buddy! thanks very much!
good to see you as well.
love you dave
zone
.....................
all diggs said was:
"God has foreordained all things."
Amen.
This is The Word of the Lord.
Genesis 50:20
"But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring about as it is this day, to save many people alive."
The choices of men were free will choices which God, in his foreknowledge, used for His own eternal purposes.
Job 23:13
"But He stands alone, and who can oppose Him? He does whatever He pleases."
It would seem to please God to allow free will choices to His creatures.
Psalm 115:3
"Our God is in heaven; He does whatever pleases Him."
Ditto.
Psalm 135:6
"The Lord does whatever pleases Him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths."
Ditto again.
Isaiah 46:10
"I make known the end from the beginnings, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please."
Ditto a third time. It would appear that God's purpose was to allow free will so that His creatures would love Him freely, while also creating a redemption plan to atone for man's resulting sin, which God foreknew.
Daniel 4:35
"All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as He pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back His hand or say to Him: What have You done?"
Indeed it has pleased God to allow some autonomy to His creatures. It certainly is not God's will to see the pain and suffering that is the result of that free will, except that it fulfill a more eternal purpose. That eternal purpose is a relationship with man. The relationship that God envisioned is similar to the marriage relationship. A perfect marriage is one in which each member is volitionally free to offer love to the other.
Lamentations 3:37-38
"Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?"
Indeed, when God said, "Let us make man in our image", thus with the ability to love and to do so freely, He did decree both good things and evil.
Isaiah 45:7
"I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things."
Ditto again.
Acts 2:23
"This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing Him to the cross."
Notice foreknowledge, not foreordainment. God purposed what was to happen based on His foreknowledge of man's free will decisions.
Acts 4:27-28
"For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, where gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done."
Part of God's plan of redemption, which He DID FOREORDAIN, from before the foundations of the world.
Ephesians 1:11
"In Him we also obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will."
God predestined those whom He foreknew would accept the grace that He would offer them.
Romans 11:36
"For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen."