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Does God micro-manage or macro-manage?

ShareTheLordShareTheLord
edited March 2015 in General Announcements
Does God micro-manage or macro-manage?

How does His intervention, impact free will? And what relation does His intervention have with foreknowledge and with predestination.

Debate. Go :)

Comments

  • mnc_hnnmnc_hnn
    I'm not sure, but very intriguing questions that I could not verbalise myself!

    Just one comment, I thought we do not believe in predestination in christianity
  • minatasgeelminatasgeel
    micro vs macro management from God....I'd like to think that He does neither. To limit God to specifically manage in a certain way, to me, is against the nature of God or atleast my definition of Him being omniscient and omnipotent. It would go in the same category as how can God be in different places at one time. The reality is, we don't what "time" He is in.....He is out of time and above it, He is out of space and He is out of our universe. 
  • ShareTheLordShareTheLord
    I can't disagree with your answer for micro vs macro managing. I dont see the relation of the time aspect of your answer has to do with it. God is within our realm of time. He is however above time. He abides within our realm of time when He deals with us because we are bound by time - just like when He was incarnated - at least that is my understanding. Now He is outside the realm of time nonetheless. Probably impossible to describe :)

    @mnc_hnn Agreed, our church does not believe in predestination. However, if we start answering those questions - predestination must be considered. Why? Because some answer may imply predestination thus invalidating the argument ;)

    I will provide the background of the questions. I was in a discussion with someone about how saddening it is to hear of the 12 year old child who was beaten by his teacher in Egypt for not doing his homework and died. The person argued that since God permits it, then I submit and am comforted by His Fatherhood and love. He has a plan. I didn't necessarily agree - bare with me. Because He desires all men to be saved and brought to the knowledge of the truth. What God wants doesn't always happen. In fact, I'd argue that it rarely happens (personal opinion of course). Why? Because evil exists in the world. So if the will of God were exercised, then there would be no evil but then subsequently there would be no free will. Pouff. Then we kept going in circles hehe. As I kept reading up, I came to a more defined conclusion but I will keep that for a little later - I want to hear what you guys think !
  • mnc_hnnmnc_hnn
    God has a plan for each one of us. We have free will to choose what we want to do. But God is all knowing so he is not surprised. And any evil that happens in the world only happens if God permits it. Look back at Job's story in the Old Testament..the devil had permission to test Job within limits as God said do not take his life.

  • menafayik
    What is our church's position on free will? As Christians, we have to believe that God possesses the ability to control the world, including things that might interfere with our "will." So the question becomes, does He?

    What is even our will? Is it the random decisions that we think we make throughout our lives or something a little more complex in terms of salvation? For example, when you pray for someone's salvation, you're asking God to take away their free will and save them. Is our will just a reflection of his will?

    God hardened pharaoh's heart so that he wouldn't let Israelites go. Saul changed from persecution to apostle due to God's intervention. So, was Saul free?
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