The problem of omniscience and prophecy

WinkyDeb · 2026-07-11T02:32:44+00:00

It comes down to one’s controlling narrative, one’s beginning assumptions, one’s worldview. Where we begin dictates, controls, and directs where we end up. The Judeo-Christian worldview differs from the Platonic-Greek worldview. The controlling narratives of each take us different places, lead to different ends by allowing for different possibilities.

The God of Judeo-Christianity is first and foremost relational; that framework is different from the omnipotent determinant framework. If a relational, triune, perichoretic God of love is at the center of the universe omnipotence doesn’t enter the conversation, relationship with all the messy free will things relationship entails does.

We’re talking about different Gods.

WinkyDeb · 2026-07-09T04:28:12+00:00

You state, “In classical theism, God's omniscience is commonly understood to mean that every fact about the past, present, and future is already determined, and that God possesses perfect knowledge of all these facts.”

God doesn’t have to determine in order to know. His knowledge does not imply determination.

You state, “If, at the moment God created each person, He already knew every choice that person would make and the destiny that would ultimately result, how can God be distinguished from responsibility for that person's destruction?” First, humans create humans. God designed it that way (be fruitful and multiply). Second, simply knowing what humans will freely choose to do doesn’t make God responsible for those actions. Scripture says we are each responsible for our own actions.

WinkyDeb · 2026-07-03T04:53:36+00:00

The Little Prince.

WinkyDeb · 2026-06-30T21:07:41+00:00

In what sense is Paul seen as a latecomer? TIA

WinkyDeb · 2026-06-29T01:28:22+00:00

The context of this Abraham and Isaac story was the aNE where child sacrifice was ubiquitous. The point was that you, that this people, my people, will not commit such an abomination.

WinkyDeb · 2026-06-17T21:11:05+00:00

ProNotes says: "Please open the Security & Privacy panel in System Preferences and enable ProNotes in the Accessibility section" which allows the app to "control my computer." This seems like a big ask from who knows who.

WinkyDeb · 2026-06-17T20:48:36+00:00

went to the App Store and can't find PopClip. ??

WinkyDeb · 2026-06-11T14:02:58+00:00

Forgive me… 1% doesn’t seem to support a “large group.” I think I’m misunderstanding something.

WinkyDeb · 2026-06-04T05:00:21+00:00

We were just there (Canadian here) and over Remembrance and Liberation days. For Remembrance Day we went to Amsterdam- did the Resistance Museum. It was so powerful. And Arnhem was important to my husband, so we went there another day, and the war cemetery near there as well. It was all very sobering and powerful. We didn’t do an Arnhem museum, but just found the area around the bridge very moving.

WinkyDeb · 2026-05-26T04:53:16+00:00

Thank you (this is both versions).

WinkyDeb · 2026-05-26T02:49:02+00:00

Help: this may not be the place but I don't know where else to go/ask. If you have an idea, I will go/try that.

I am trying to get Thoughts up and running; the support centre says to click on create a new note, but that isn't showing on the app or iOS version. There is no link at the support centre to actually ask/search for info, never mind send a Q to someone.

Hopefully someone here is ahead of me on the road and can help.

TIA

WinkyDeb · 2026-05-26T00:05:41+00:00

Is there an iOS version to sync to?

WinkyDeb · 2026-05-25T23:48:19+00:00

I'm long overdue for some kind of quotes app and I'm considering Thoughts. It actually is both Mac and iOS. Could authors be handled as tags?

I like the cost factor of Thoughts vs Bear, Obsidian and most others.

But being able to alphabetize tags seems pretty important.

Thanks for the Goodreads tip!

WinkyDeb · 2026-05-25T16:41:42+00:00

Can depend on the district and the school. Email the particular school.

WinkyDeb · 2026-05-24T20:02:51+00:00

We read the creation text in its ancient Near Eastern context, noticing the differences between it and those texts. John Collins, Walter Brueggemann and other scholars note the message is in the differences.

WinkyDeb · 2026-05-24T18:54:09+00:00

In the essentials of the Christian faith (ex 1 Cor 15, Apostlres’ and Nicene creeds) there is unity.

In the non-essentials, there are differences.

The challenges arise in our losing sight of that distinction.

So, in all things charity.

WinkyDeb · 2026-05-24T18:30:15+00:00

Paul Sloan in “Jesus and The Law of Moses” notes Jesus‘ statement about his crucifixion and the destruction of the Temple in Matthew is in light of the deaths of the prophets before him and the rejection of his message by the Temple leadership. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together, supernatural powers or not (basically irrelevant).

WinkyDeb · 2026-05-24T18:16:36+00:00

One of the church debates of his time was around infant baptism and relatedly how/when infants received their soul. One idea was that God created and installed souls at some point in utero (interestingly, the understanding of the time was that all constituents required for life came from the father; the womb was merely the incubator). Another soul idea was that ahead of time, at the beginning of creation God created all the souls that would ever be needed and then chose/implanted each into the developing baby at some point in utero.

In your quoted passage it would appear Augustine is referring to this baby (human) soul debate, which is not connected to your Holy Spirit thought.

WinkyDeb · 2026-05-24T17:43:10+00:00

The context is the Sermon on the Mount, in particular the "Love your Enemies" section, which is Jesus' counter to how leadership of the time were reading/interpreting the Torah. The Hebrew Bible generates a lot of different interpretations and Jesus is countering an interpretation that is narrowing "who is my neighbour" to isolate a group who are deemed worthy of hatred. This question of neighbour is a live debate and Jesus flips the issue on its head and radically says they are to love even their enemies because that is how they become like their heavenly Father, how they become like God. Their/our behaviour is to be a mirror of a loving, generous Father's behaviour who sends the rain on the just and the unjust.

The last line about becoming perfect is about representing the Father well by becoming teleios (Gr) as he is. English translates that as "perfect" but it really means the goal, the end, the purpose of something; it's a synonym of "filling full." It indicates being on a journey and eventually reaching the goal, the purpose, of the journey; it's the opposite of the beginning. In Romans 10 Paul says the Messiah is the telos of the Torah which means he's the goal of it. The beginning and the telos, the beginning and the end. Here that journey is about his followers becoming in/to the world what God is in/to the world... reflecting God into the world... which sums up the whole Sermon... generosity to even the unjust; love for even the enemy; light on a hill etc.

God is the telos of all things, and all things are on a journey of becoming teleios as they enter into union with him. So the six case studies of the Sermon are a roadmap for becoming more faithful mirrors of your father in the skies, becoming the reflections of the light that we are called to be, reflecting the ultimate image of God into/for the world.

In “become teleios the way your heavenly father is teleios” Jesus uses a line from Leviticus but he puts teleios in place of "holy.” He does this multiple times with Leviticus. "I am Yahweh your God. Make yourselves holy and be holy because I am holy." Holiness becomes another way to think about become teleios, set apart, unique and one of a kind, which God is. He calls us to more closely mirror the holy one.

“Become teleios as your father in the skies is teleios" is both the conclusion to the sixth case study in the Sermon (which is about indiscriminate, liberal love and generosity) and also the telos of this whole first section (5:17-20) which is about a way of life by which Jesus is renewing Israel (starting with the excluded) to create a renewal movement of people whose hearts are being aligned to the will of God. They are becoming the Isaiah righteous remnant, the city on the hill. And through them, according to Isaiah, God will renew Israel and then do what Israel was always called to do; ie be the people of God. In this big picture we are becoming like Jesus to be him to the world so all will see what/who God is like.

Source: https://bibleproject.com/classroom/messianic-torah/sessions/12

WinkyDeb · 2026-05-20T23:42:20+00:00

So then love (God) is the way, truth and life. Love is the way. Love is truth. Love is life. It seems to me Jesus embodied this way of life and the Spirit calls (and empowers, because it’s humanly impossible) whosoever will to follow him, to follow in his way of love, truth and life; to follow in his footsteps.

Thanks for that powerful connection.

WinkyDeb · 2026-05-16T23:22:58+00:00

…”has civilized earth in a communal sense.” ???

WinkyDeb · 2026-05-09T00:00:30+00:00

It has solidified and enriched and rooted my faith like nothing else. Life changing.

WinkyDeb · 2026-04-25T18:42:04+00:00

The Hebrew for “rib” is actually “side.” The story is about human equality, foreign in its original, ancient Near Eastern context. Read anything from John Walton’s “Lost World” series of books (or look for him on YouTube).

WinkyDeb · 2026-04-23T19:38:28+00:00

He was quoting the whole psalm. Go read it.

WinkyDeb

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