[CS-FSLUG] Everything Everywhere Everywhen

[George Rodier]

In my youth it seemed to me that teachers and preachers often put up
what I termed straw-men, i.e., a caricature of the idea and person to
whom they were opposed, and so easily dispatched them - case won. Please
do correct me if what I am about to present is just such a straw-man.

In said youth I was taught that, for many, predestination and election
were necessary because of God's foreknowledge. The argument being that
if He knows all about the future then it must happen just as He knows it
will - else His foreknowledge would be faulty.

I do not believe I am inconsistent with the Bible when I say that God is
omnipresent. And I am not confusing the creation with the creator for
'in Him we live and move and have our being'. Indeed I believe that God
knows everything that is happening everywhere right now because He is
there. God is not bound by space. Everywhere to God is for Him simply
'here'. For Him everywhere is everhere.

Likewise I believe He is not bound by time. With the Lord a thousand
years is like a day and a day like a thousand years. I take that to be a
poetic expression of His not being bound by time. Did He not also say,
'Before the world was, I am'? Is not everywhen to God simply 'now'? For
Him everywhen is evernow.

So, if His present omniscience is due to his omnipresence, is not also
His perfect foreknowledge? In other words He is not only present
everywhere but likewise everywhen. God knows what you are going to
think, decide and do tomorrow because he is already there as you think,
decide and do. His is a foreknowledge by experience. He 'knows' what you
are doing tomorrow and that does not obviate your free will.

Surely, God knows nothing about tomorrow - but truly He knows tomorrow.
It's the difference in French betwixt 'savoir' and 'connaitre'. Sadly,
in English we are limited to a single verb. But we do make a distinction
between knowing about a woman and knowing a woman, eh?

What say you, brothers, is God bound by time and space?

And, yes, in the Incarnation He chose to be bound by both so to be with
us.

For us, 'absent from the body, present with the Lord', no time for
pergatory, no time. All who die get to the Last Judgement at the same no
time.

Hopefully this OT is seen simply an Other Topic rather than being
totally Off Topic.

Respectfully,

Georges