Is this God's eternal plan?

@pb1022 said
Are you serious?!

Bigdogg made the same mistake four years ago!

Have you never asked someone a question already knowing the answer to see if they’ll be honest in their response?

If a father knows for a fact that his son went to a party instead of going to the library and asks the son, when the son returns home, “So how was the library?” does that mean the father thinks his son was at the library?

Good grief.

@sonship said
@Ghost-of-a-Duke

If God knows all, as you claim, why did he ask Adam where he was and if he had eaten from the tree?

Of course God knew where Adam was.
I believe He wanted Adam to consider where he was.

I don't see contradiction or divine naivete. I see God's heart wanting to have Adam contemplate and realize his state and situ ...[text shortened]... nger, when something seemed to be saying - "Jack, where are you? Look at where you are now. "

@Ghost-of-a-Duke


It appears that dignifying you with another answer would be wasteful.

I'll talk to someone else about Genesis 18, and GLADLY.
Go back to sleep.

@sonship said
@Ghost-of-a-Duke


It appears that dignifying you with another answer would be wasteful.

I'll talk to someone else about Genesis 18, and GLADLY.
Go back to sleep.

@ghost-of-a-duke said

How about Genesis 18:20-21?

'Then the LORD said, "How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their sin! I must go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me; and if not, I will know"

Why looky here at all the things God doesn’t know in just the first part of His conversation with Job!

“Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?

Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.

Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?

Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;

Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?

Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place;

Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? or hast thou walked in the search of the depth?

Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?

Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth?…

Where is the way where light dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof,

Knowest thou it, because thou wast then born? or because the number of thy days is great?

Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail,

By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth?

Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder;

Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew?

Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?

Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?

Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?

Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?

Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee?

Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go and say unto thee, Here we are?

Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart?

Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven,

Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.”

(Verses from Job 38)

G: Hey PB, whaddya make of Genesis 18:20-21? Sounds like God doesn’t know what’s going on down there in Sodom and Gomorrah!

PB: Glad you asked, hombre.

Let’s quote the verses and then examine them.

“And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;

I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.”

(Genesis 18:20-21)

God obviously knows what’s going on but is here instructing Abraham, like a parent instructing a child, the proper way to arrive at a determination and conclusion - not to go by what you’ve heard, but to conduct your own investigation and observe things directly so you have firsthand knowledge of that which you are judging.

G: Thanks, PB! It sure is swell having you here in the SF.

PB: Glad to be of assistance.

@ghost-of-a-duke said
Here we have an all-knowing God having to go down to verify what he had heard.

God needed someone to intercede for the people in Sodom who He wanted to spare. Abraham was a friend of God. Not everyone was called a friend of God.

God wanted Abraham to know what He going to do to judge Sodom. I believe He wanted and even needed Abraham His friend to intercede for the people in the place about to be judged by God.

Amid all the people on earth then Abraham was called a friend of God ( 2 Chron. 20:7; Isaiah 41:8; James 2:23)

"And Jehovah said, shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Since Abraham will indeed become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him?

For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him to keep the way of Jehovah by doing righteousness and justice, that Jehovah may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken concerning him." (Gen. 18:17-19)

This is in an unusual chapter where God comes to Abraham as a man with two other men. (Gen. 18:2) This is very mysterious. This, I believe, was a pre-incarnation visitation to Abraham of God as a man.

He had previously appeared to Abraham as the God of glory. Yet in this chapter God appears to him as one among three men coming to his tent in the heat of the day.

The two angels (who appeared as men) left and Jehovah God was left there with His friend (18:22). God was not wanting Abraham to be unaware that Sodom was about to be judged. God wanted His obedient friend to know so that he would intercede for Sodom.

Afterall, Lot, Abraham's nephew was there. God wanted Abraham to KNOW so that Abraham would pray and intercede for Sodom. And he did. In fact he challenged God to be true to His righteouosness and spare anyone who was not worthy to be judged along with the ones who were worthy of judgment.

This chapter is loaded with important matters in "seed" or "prototype" form which are latter developed more in rest of the Bible. IE. God wanting men on earth to harmonize with His will and pray for it, intercede for people, challenge God to be true to Himself in His rightness.

"Far be it from You to do such a thing, to put to death the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked. Far be it from You! Shall the Judge of all the earth not do justly?" (18:25)

@ghost-of-a-duke said
I'm only going to ask you one time not to respond to my posts directly. I will alert further such posts.

@suzianne said
Unless he does it more than three times.

Thanks for nothing, divegeester.

@pb1022 said
So you think responding directly to someone’s posts is a violation of the TOS?

@suzianne said
Unless he does it more than three times.

Thanks for nothing, divegeester.

@suzianne said
Unless he does it more than three times.

Thanks for nothing, divegeester.