If God Predestines Us...

[jbergsing]

I'm not sure if this is the correct place for this question, but here it goes. I was asked this today by a good friend and I thought it might be a good one to throw around here. My buddy asked, "If God predestines you before Creation, does God know you better than you know yourself?"

Thoughts???

 

[VictorBravo]

I'm not sure if this is the correct place for this question, but here it goes. I was asked this today by a good friend and I thought it might be a good one to throw around here. My buddy asked, "If God predestines you before Creation, does God know you better than you know yourself?"

Thoughts???

Yes, the heart is desperately wicked. We don't truly know ourselves at all.

 

[RamistThomist]

And I would hasten to add that I really don't know myself that well.

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Ps. 139.1 O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.
Ps. 139.2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
Ps. 139.3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
Ps. 139.4 For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.
Ps. 139.5 Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.
Ps. 139.6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.

Jer. 17.9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Jer. 17.10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

1 Chron. 28.9 And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.

Matt. 6.8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

Ps. 44.20 If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god;
Ps. 44.21 Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.

1 Sam. 16.7 But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.

Ps. 94.11 The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.

Prov. 20.27 The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly.

Matt. 9.4 And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?

Rom. 8.26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Rom 8:27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

Heb. 4.12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

 

[Devin]

Not only do we not know ourselves fully, but often we deceive ourselves about ourselves. God definitely knows us better than we do.

 

[reformedman]

I'm going to guess that I have 5,138 hairs on my head, but God has an exact answer.

 

[Ivan]

God not only knows us better than we know ourselves, He knows us completely and totally. Sometimes that's a scary thought.

 

[RamistThomist]

Throw in the token Calvin quote:

We know God as we know ourselves. We know ourselves as we know God.

 

[etexas]

Throw in the token Calvin quote:

We know God as we know ourselves. We know ourselves as we know God.

I like that.

 

[toddpedlar]

I'm going to guess that I have 5,138 hairs on my head, but God has an exact answer.

I don't have that many. (but God knows)

 

[RamistThomist]

I like that.

Unfortunately, I didn't make that up. Professor John Frame, fortunately, has taken that line to write a book to that effect: The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God.

 

[Romans922]

Yes, I agreed with the Hebrews 4:12-13 verse said above, God's very breath pierces soul and spirit. He providentially planned your whole entire life before you were even born. So he knows you better than you know yourself because he knows everything about your past, present and future which you have not experienced yet.

 

[jbergsing]

It seems to be unanimous and I'm in total agreement, as well. I'll be honest, I'd forgotten about those Scriptures in Psalms.

 

[etexas]

It seems to be unanimous and I'm in total agreement, as well. I'll be honest, I'd forgotten about those Scriptures in Psalms.

There is such a wealth for a Christian in the Psalms. We sometimes admire them so much for their splendor and cadence that we (or at least I) somestimes for forget to slow down and learn from them.

 

[caddy]

Throw in the token Calvin quote:

We know God as we know ourselves. We know ourselves as we know God.

 

[Anton Bruckner]

I'm going to guess that I have 5,138 hairs on my head, but God has an exact answer.

and without the receeding hairline?

I remember one time in a car one the way to the airport to see some relatives off. Rain was falling, and the place was eerily dreary in the late afternoon. It then hit me, that God knew how many rain drops fell, and where exactly each of them landed. Just the idea alone was scary. What was even more scary was that He had already predestined that day and its weather patterns and natural phenomenon to be exactly the way it turned out. Now that is one person who should not be triffled with.