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| Q: | I know God knows everything and I believe what I was taught. However, in Bible class today a person asked the question, "Did God know Adam and Eve would sin?" (when God told them not to eat of the tree in the midst of the garden). The pastor conducting the class said that this was was one of those things in the Bible that we really don't know for sure the answer. I said, if God is all-knowing wouldn't the answer be yes? He just sort of repeated that I was referring to God's omniscience and there are just some things we don't know........I was shocked. | ||||||
| A: | Of course the answer is Yes, God knew that Adam and Eve would disobey. The hesitancy of your pastor most likely does not stem from confusion on that point, but his desire to make sure that people don't draw wrong conclusions from that truth. So let's assume he was, on very short notice, trying to come up with words that speak truth but don't unnecessarily invite error. Rather than being "shocked," let's be thankful for his pastoral heart. Wrong conclusions or errors that might be embraced alongside the truth of divine omniscience regarding the Fall of Adam and Eve, would include: (1) the idea that if God permitted the sin he foreknew, he must have wanted it to happen (confusing divine omniscience with divine will), and (2) the idea that knowing sin in advance and permitting it makes God somehow responsible for the sin (confusing foreknowledge with fore-causing or foreordaining). | ||||||
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