“Remember this, fix it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels. Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do. Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, you who are far from righteousness. I am bringing my righteousness near, it is not far away; and my salvation will not be delayed. I will grant salvation to Zion, my splendor to Israel.” [Isaiah 46:8-13 NIV]
Several years ago, our Heavenly Father spoke to me in an audible voice[1]. He said, “Introduce Me[2].”
Oh yes, introductions are most certainly in order[3]. For our Heavenly Father truly is the Lord God Almighty[4], who is all-powerful (Omnipotent)[5], all-knowing (Omniscient)[6], always-present (Omnipresent)[7] and perfect in all of His most awesome ways (Holy and Righteous)[8].
Are not the contradictions with the way He has been so often portrayed obvious? For with our Heavenly Father truly being all-powerful, no one could ever do anything without Him allowing and enabling them to[9]. Therefore, how could Adam and Eve have eaten of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden without Him letting them?
As if that was not enough, with Him truly being all-knowing, He would know all about everything that anyone would ever want to do long before they did[10]. Therefore, He would have known all about Satan wanting to tempt to Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit long before the insidious thought ever crossed his mind.
Then there is the reality of Him actually being everywhere—all of the time[11]. Therefore, He was actually there when it all happened.
Lastly, there is the part about Him truly being perfect in all of His most awesome ways[12], which brings us to the greatest contradiction of them all. For He could not possibly be perfect in all of His most awesome ways if things really did go so terribly wrong in the beginning.
Yes, it has been widely taught that it is because of their freewill that prevented our Heavenly Father from interfering with the choice that Adam and Eve made, but was it not Him who gave them their freewill in the first place? So, was this another mistake that He made?
{1}Job 33:14-18; {2}2 Corinthians 5:20; {3}Colossians 2:2-4; {4}Exodus 6:2-3; {5}Psalms 33:6-11; {6}Psalms 94:11; {7}Psalms 139:7-12; {8}Psalms 18:30-31; {9}Job 12:13-25; {10}Isaiah 46:10; {11}Matthew 28:18-20; {12}Deuteronomy 32:4.
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That is a very thought provoking questions. One that at the moment I'm not quite awake enough to process.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by again, my dear Ann!!! Be assured that it blew my mind the first time our Heavenly Father laid it all out for me.
ReplyDeleteAh...the power of choice and the fact that He gave it to us to use as we see fit.
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is...yes, He is perfect.
People spew out expletives and giggle nervously after reading the exegesis for the firs 3 chapters of Genesis. Why? Because the sin Adam and Eve committed was anal sex, which is the mystery Saint Augustine almost solved. (His original sin exegesis was penile/vaginal sex.) If something is wrong with this very upsetting exegesis, then who can find the error? Google "WikiAnswers-What is wrong with Robert Hagedorn's Blogs"
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by again, my dear Roschelle!!! An analogy that was given to me early on is that our Heavenly Father gives us enough rope to hang ourselves, which is all part of the apparent unfairness of life in this world {Romans 8:18-21}. Nonetheless, since none of us would have ever existed in the first-place unless He wanted us to and He is perfectly willing to save us from eternal damnation if we will but want to humble ourselves enough to ask Him to, there is nothing imperfect about the plan that He set into motion long before He created this world. Of course, that requires a willingness to give Him the full benefit of our considerable doubts, which is also part of His plan.
ReplyDeleteAnother part is being willing to accept that we are not as free to choose as we would like to believe. Granted, we are completely free to choose whether or not we want to truly be one of His children by faith. For it would not fulfill our Heavenly Father's purposes to force anyone to spend all of eternity with Him in His Kingdom of Heaven as an heir to all that is His in glory against their will, but in regards to the choices that we make in our daily lives, the absolute truth of the matter truly is that He is more responsible for our actions than we are {Proverbs 16:33; Romans 11:32-36}. Yes, that is a very hard thing to accept, and it is only through the work of His Holy Spirit that any of us can {1 Corinthians 2:6-16}.
Thanks for stopping by, my dear Robert. Why would you want to go there? After all, is it not made abundantly clear that the sin that was committed in the Garden of Eden was eating of the fruit of the tree of good and evil after they had been expressly forbidden to {Genesis 2:15-17; Genesis 3:1-24}?
ReplyDeleteGod has to know what our answers are to our free choices. sandie
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by again, my dear Sandie!!! Yes, He most certainly does, and understanding that should lead to the next dot. For if He really does love us as much as He says that He does, why would He let us hurt ourselves so badly? Yes, it is has been widely taught that He gives us the knowledge and the abilities to keep ourselves free from sin, but if that is true, then why is it such an abomination in His sight for us to want to take pride in what we want to believe are our accomplishments {Romans 7:14-8:11; James 4:13-16; 1 John 1:5-10; Revelation 3:14-22}?
ReplyDelete