7878	Forums / Theology Forum / Catholic Apologists	on: February 09, 2007, 04:51:44 AM
Consider a simple example: The Lord tells Isaiah to go to King Hezekiah and get his house in order because he is sick unto death. Isaiah exits Stage Left. Hezekiah cries out to the Lord, reminding Him that he has been totally faithful. God sends Isaiah back to tell him He is adding 15 more years to his life. . .Problem #1: If God foreknew Hez (who had done no wrong), then He had Isaiah lie to Hez. Indeed, the Lord, foreknowledeable, had also lied to Hez. Don't give me that garbage about God's ways being inscrutable and we won't know the reason till we get to heaven. The Scriptures don't say that and it is nothing but typical theological speculation. Further it becomes Problem #2 in that this god now closely resembles the Greek and Roman gods who were whimsical and totally unpredictable, to say the least; but more appropriately, such human postulating is chimerical -- a product of our fertile imaginations and completely out of accord with this and other biblical accounts. Now hold on here. Here chicky,chicky,chicky, The scripture says that God works all things for His purpose. He works directly as well as through the means, or second causes. So God worked through Hezekiah's prayers , in other words He ordained from eternity that Hezekiah would pray , and He answered Hezekiah prayers as well in His decreeing. If you look at mans choice as a long line then each movement would be decreed by God, even tho man had a free choice. History is all of mens choices bringing about a stated effect within the order of the universe. God holds all things together. God also has a disposition. He loves all men even tho He has not chosen all men, otherwise all men would come.  God is also long-suffering in His disposition yet He never changes in His decreeing purposes.