As a Christian, one of the things that really puzzles me is God's omniscience. If God knows everything, then he knows what I'm about to say in the next sentence, even before I type it. If he knows what I'm going to type, do I really have any choice in typing it? If God knows with certainty what I'm going to type, then that thing is set, even before I punch the keys. On the other hand, if I have a choice, then what I type is not set. If it's not set then God can't know it.
This entire problem of choice and determinism manifests itself in Christianity through a couple of names: Calvinism and Armenianism. The Calvinists are the determinists. In their world view, God's sovereignty demands that he knows what we will choose before we even choose it. Which means that even the act of accepting God is a gift from God. In other words, God is the one who chooses who will and won't be saved. But if God knows who will and won't be saved, before we're even born, then this opens up the prospect that people are born who never are freely able to choose God.
I wouldn't call my self Armenian, because I don't fully understand what that means, but I can't call myself Cavlinist because the very proposition seems untenable to me. While scripture makes it abundantly clear that God is sovereign, I wonder what the full implications of that are. For example, in Job, God chooses not to exercise his sovereignty over Satan. Satan then turns around and "tests" (to put it mildly) Job. Does this mean that God was not omnipotent? Of course not! God's omnipotence includes his ability to decide when and when not to exercise his primary will. In exactly the same way, I believe that God's omniscience is a matter of his choice to exercise it.
God has a plan. He knows that plan will be fulfilled. He will make certain of it. But I think that when it comes to minute details of that plan, he chooses not to exercise his omniscience. He does this in order to create free will. God offers salvation through Christ to all, and we are all free to choose or reject it. If God knows in advance whether we'll accept it or not, then our path is already set, and our choice is not free - it's constrained by God's fore-knowledge of the outcome. But God, in his wisdom, can choose not to exercise that fore-knowledge and in doing so gives us free will. I don't see this as a knock on his omniscience. I see this as an incredible act of mercy to all people.
But, of course, this is just my simple minded take on the issue. I'm sure that there's at least half a million Christians who've I've deeply offended. For that I apologize. By saying this, I open it up to criticism, because I want to know God's truth. I am not trying to represent this as God's truth. Instead it's my best guess at the moment.
