Originally posted by Littlejoe
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Did you misread what I wrote or just misunderstand it? Because this is not what I said and I know you wouldn't deliberately misquote me so....?
I said that God promised to save "everyone who trusts in His Son" . I never said He promised to save everyone.
I said that God promised to save "everyone who trusts in His Son" . I never said He promised to save everyone.
Where does God say He promised to give every man a chance to repent?
Well, one theory would include, the "Doctor Who" type theory that there are fixed points in God's plan that MUST take place and cannot be changed, and, this would be an acceptable explanation since in OVT theology, the future is as open or as closed as God wants it to be, so, this is plausible. God can close certain things but maintain a VAST majority of Free will. ISTM that in Calvinism they seem to be an all or nothing type theology. But, Scripture is full of examples of God doing exceptional things but not making it a rule. For instance, how many talking donkeys have there been? How many parted sea's? How many prophets swallowed by a fish to be regurgitated later? How many people were healed by Jesus power by grabbing his clothes? Just because it's happens a certain way once doesn't make it a rule.
There are several different ways this could have happened without Omniscience (absolute foreknowledge). Omnipotence would do it, i.e. God says this is going to happen and He just....makes it happen.
Another more nuanced way would include Jesus knowing Peter better than Peter knew himself and the whole point of this "predictions" was to bring Peter to a point that he would recognize he was actually a coward at heart and was only brave when Jesus was around doing miracles etc. Jesus who knew the time was short, (Judas was already in the process betraying him) also, He knew Satan was going to attack Peter. "...Simon, Simon, behold Satan has demanded to have you, (past tense) that he might sift you like wheat..." Notice that Bible Gateway footnotes that in vs. 31 "you" is plural...IOW, Jesus is talking to ALL of them (the disciples) but in vs. 32, Jesus shifts to a singular "you". Speaking only of Peter. So, Jesus knew all the disciples hearts and knew that Peters faith was so weak that he would deny him if push came to shove. Next, It would not have been anything to convince Peter to follow Jesus to the courtyard. Peter had been traveling with Jesus for over 3 years and was pretty well known. That a juicy piece of gossip would be in the works when Jesus is hauled into court in the middle of the night would have had anyone curious as to why. Seeing someone who had been his disciple for over 3 years there, it would be a natural question would it not? Hey! Your one of his disciples, what's going on? No, I don't know him. Are you sure? I know I've seen you with him. See, simple for God to see how this was going to go. To give you a simple example, if I offer my oldest son a choice between a bowl of Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream OR a bowl of steamed broccoli, I can tell you without even asking him which one he will choose one million times out of one million. He loves Mint Chocolate chip ice cream and absolutely HATES broccoli. If I being a mere mortal can make a determination like that, how much more can God who is infinitely more intelligent than I am.
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