God has a plan for your life. A plan that takes into account all of the choices you make. Some choices for good, and some for evil. But God knew them from creation, and uses your choices to accomplish his purpose for your life. God is sovereign, and his purpose for his creation, and each of us, will be accomplished. Yet at the same time he gives us the freedom to make our own choices, and to live with the consequences of those choices.
It is mistakenly believed that Calvinists believe in sovereignty and not free will and Arminians believe in free will but limited sovereignty, but that is not the case. Both believe in sovereignty and free will, although they mean different things by the terms. I believe that looking into this will help to better understand the role of God’s grace. But first I want to look briefly at God’s omniscience in regards to the future; how can God know the future.
Omniscience is the doctrine that God is all-knowing. That nothing happens in his creation that he is not aware of. Omniscience could apply only to the current time as well as to the past. But the Christian doctrine of the omniscience of God also includes the future. And that that future was know before God kicked off the universe and the laws that shape it. An implication of this is that God is responsible for all that happens in the universe because he knew ahead of time what the results would be based on the initial starting conditions. And …
You no doubt have heard of the shooting in an Aurora Colorado theater this past Friday morning. It has been the topic of endless news releases and speculation as to just why an apparently quiet, intelligent and well adjusted individual would plot and execute such a grisly mass killing. And, as of yet, no one other than the shooter seems to have any idea as to his motives. But there is another question concerning this event that some are asking: why would a loving, all-powerful, and all-knowing God allow such a tragedy to occur. If there is such a God, why would he not …