Said and Done

Are, as some believe, the events of history predetermined by God? Is all that has happened, is happening, and will happen set in stone? But if nothing can happen spontaneously, then isn't even God Himself unable to alter the course of events, and therefore, once the process of determination begins (and until it ends), God Himself is lacking in free will? T. J. Kinsey responds: “God doesn’t have free will? What a concept. As is the idea that, while God can know everything about a subject or object, He cannot chose to know less than everything. Or, knowing everything, that God is somehow locked into one possible subsequent behavior, not allowed to evaluate among several different courses of action or inaction. It seems to me that the central flaw of determinist theory is that it reverses the idea that God knows enough to predict all sub-God behavior, to state that lowly humans can predict God behavior. Most humans aren’t particularly knowledgeable or perceptive about other humans who are different from themselves in relatively minor respects, yet a few presume to have insights into the mind and personality of God beyond the bits that He’s revealed. Tough sell.”