The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum omniscient

How would you respond to someone who said the following?
Personally I don't really know how to answer him, mainly because I don't understand why he came to that conclusion.

Tom

Here's a novel idea... Why not ask this individual why he came to that conclusion?

Pilgrim

I would ask him, but I am tired of dialoguing with this particular atheist. It is all one sided and so far every time I make an attempt at answering what he has to say, he says something like "that makes no sense at all, then he makes more innuendoes about Christians beliefs.
In my last post I told him I was bowing out of the conversation, because it is becoming unfruitful and his response was that I was a coward.

The reason why I asked this on this board is because I thought others might have some experience dealing with this particular issue.

Tom

Tom,

Here is probably the best advice you could receive and it is directly from the mouth of the LORD Jesus Christ Himself,

Matthew 7:6 (ASV) "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine, lest haply they trample them under their feet, and turn and rend you."

To continue with such an individual brings dishonor to God and shame to the name you profess to be marked with. Shake the dust off your feet and move on. (Matt 10:14; Lk 10:10-12)

In His grace,

Pilgrim

That is good advice and believe it or not, it was part of my reason for deciding to bow out of the conversation.

But that still leaves me wondering the reasoning behind his omniscient statements.

Tom

I think part of the problem is 'definition', i.e., how he is defining the word "omniscient". From what little you have provided, it could be he is using the word as a synonym for "foreordination" or "predestination". It is very common to hear objections to these other terms which allege that if God has foreordained/predestined all things then man cannot be held culpable for anything he does since this makes man nothing more than a robot or puppet. However, if he is defining "omniscient" as God's "foreknowledge", as used in Reformed theology, i.e., God's electing love upon those whom He has predestinated to eternal life in Jesus Christ, then his objection doesn't make any sense. Even if he means by "omniscient" how Arminians/semi-Pelagians define the term as simply 'prescience' (knowledge of raw facts), his statement is still not cogent.

Ah, a cherished opportunity to quote 1Corinthians 2:14-16...

"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ".

:-)

First of all,

Secondly, re: 1Cor 2:14-16, one must assume that the individual is unregenerate and not simply uneducated in the matter of biblical doctrine. We should not confuse ignorance (Heb 5:12) with a darkened understanding and hardened heart (Eph 4:17-19)

Lastly, I noticed you added this ":-)" to your response. Well, fyi we have about 100 "Smilies" available here to use in posts/replies. All you need to do is to 1) Make sure you are using the "Full Reply Screen", which you automatically get if you click on "Reply" or "Quote" buttons located on the bottom right of the post window (the Quick Reply textbox is immediately below that). 2) You will then get the Menubar with all the icons/buttons for the various features for posts/replies. The very first one on the left is the "Smiley" menu. 3) Find the Smiley you want to insert and simply click on it. The chosen Smiley will be inserted at your cursor's insertion point.

We also have a forum where you can "play" and try out all the myriad features at your leisure. It is found here: Testing! 1, 2, 3....