God's Foreknowledge and Determinism
Author: Steve Amato
Description: Biblical Theology concerning the doctrines of Election & Predestination
Keywords: bible study,Bible, election, predestination, theology, eternal security

# God's Foreknowledge and Determininism

An idea that Calvinists have often proposed on Forums is that God's foreknowledge of the future implies determinism or fatalism, which is the philosophy of Calvinism. This stems from their false premise about God. The god of Calvinism cannot actually see future events. Rather their god can only calculate future events. From this premise they reason that since future events can be calculated therefore everything is programmed to occur as it does and therefore people don't have free will.
In contrast, the God of the Bible can actually see the future, not simply calculate it. For the God of the Bible has the ability that the Calvinist god doesn't. For not only can he create free will human beings but he can also foresee the future, not by calculation, but by actually going there. God is not limited by physical laws, as is clearly evident from the miracles he performed. And in fact such miracles were performed to prove that it was God who was speaking. In contrast the "foreknowledge" of the god of Calvinism can apparently be simulated with a big enough computer.
And if Calvinist opt for a puppet model in which God causes future events to occur, then of course they are left with quandaries such as the fact that when people sin or commit acts of injustice it is really God doing so in puppet like fashion making God guilty of sin. This apparently doesn't cause a problem with Calvinists as their view of their god is that their god is good by definition independent of his actual behavior. (Which is STUPID!)

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