Humility and Knowledge

Humility is the right understanding of yourself in context with God and Others. This is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less.

This week I have been struggling a little with humility. As most of you probably know, I can quite happily debate theology. And the speaker this week, some of his theological theories don’t match up with mine. I have realised that some of the debates I have spurred or participated in have been because I value my own theories above even going back to the scripture. So using scripture I am going to write one theory and then my own rebuttal. Hopefully this will help me understand a little bit more and make it easier for me to walk in humility.

Question: Does God know the future before it happens?

Stance Uno: God doesn’t know the future.

If God knew exactly what humans would do, why does he experience regret about creating us (Genesis 6:5-6, 10). It is true God has the power to know the future, but does God limit himself? I mean, nothing and no one on earth can limit God, but he has to have limited himself through giving humans and angels free will. This means God cannot be 100% certain of the future because we are still creating it by the choice we make daily. He may now how the world will end but he doesn’t know how we will live our individual lives. Because of choices humans make, God's will sometimes doesn’t take place, does not happen. Now, there’s two words in the original Hebrew that are translated into "God's will" in English. Boulema, as found in 2nd Peter 3:9 (some versions don’t even use the word will here, just a side note), means 'what is determined'. Thelema, as in Matthew 6:10, means "pleasure'. It also appears that God changes his mind. Think of Jonah, He did end up destroying Ninevah like he said he would but spared them for they repented (Jonah 3:10). In Jerimiah 18:6-11 it says that God will not carry out his threats if the nations repent to him. Why would God test us if he already knew the outcome? God tested Abraham with Isaac and then says “For I now know.” There is an even a verse in Matthew where Jesus speaks to his twelve, saying that they will all be in heaven with him, ruling over the tribes of Israel. What about Judas? (Matthew 19:28)

Stance Duos: God does know the future.

To the point made above about God feeling regret, you can still feel emotions to circumstances that are certain. I mean, it’s certain that if I drove into a tree my car would get damaged, but I can still feel regret after it. There is a difference between God knowing something and God predetermining it. I know one day my mum will die, but I haven’t chosen to make her die. So if God knows what will happen, does that take away free will? No. God already knows what we will say before we are even conceived, he knows what actions we will take, if they are good or bad (Psalm 44:21). The Humans free will part is that he still lets us stuff up and make our mistakes and our choice, thought he knows the outcome (1 John 3:20). To the point about God changing his mind, maybe his threats are simply empty because he knows that we, humans, need to hear them in order to put our lives back on track? Besides, we can’t put a timeline to God as he is out of time (Psalm 90:4, 2 Peter 3:8, Revelation 1:8), he is also often described as before time (Titus 1:2, 2 Timothy 1:9), so how can we say God changed his mind at a certain point of time? There are scriptures that relate to God knowing our choices and ultimate destiny “before the creation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:20). The reason we are tested is to prove to ourselves and others around us. God already knows how we will react to being tested, it is ourselves that gets a revelation about ourselves and our own strengths and weaknesses. When Jesus address the twelve please keep in mind there is a verse in John that says (John 6:64) "Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him". And the wording of Matthew implies Jesus wasn’t in private council with the 12 disciples but with all who had been following and the one who replaced Judas, Matthias, would have been there (Acts 1:12-26). Besides, who are we to say Judas isn’t in heaven?

So which view?

Personally, I believe that God knows everything about me and my choices (Jeremiah 1:5 and 29:11,). So I’m a view Duos girl. This means, beyond our own understanding, God just knows. He doesn’t know just what is knowable, but he knows the unseen. God knew, before I was created in the slightest, that I would be studying at YWAM writing this blog post, but it is still my choice that lead me here. There is a difference between predetermining and God knowing what will happen.

I hope this has made a few of you think, I am definitely still earning and figuring out. But from now on, I want to debate in humidity to gain understanding, not debate to prove my theology is better.

God bless,

Naomi-Out!