Predestination

I certainly agree that, as you state, God created us to love and obey Him, but does not force us to. This very statement supports the concept of human free will. In giving man that gift, God chose to allow us to either choose to fulfill His desire for us to honor Him, or to choose not to. While the Creator does know the final score in this game of life, he allows us to play the game. In allowing us to do so, He gave us some input into that final score. We must reject the idea that God created evil because we cannot fathom how an all-powerful God could create such a thing. The fruit produced from the Tree of Knowledge of both good and evil existed before man did, man didn't create it! So it must have been created by God. If God didn't create evil, then evil always existed. If evil always existed, then God did not create all things. Since we both agree that God created all things, then He must have created evil. "Both the deceived and the deceiver are His" because He created both. Until Adam ate that fruit, he did not have a sinful nature. The potential for sin existed as soon as God created man with the ability to exercise free will since sin is defined as "An act that is regarded as a transgression of God's will." The Creator expressed His will by telling Adam not to eat the fruit. In choosing to disregard God's will, Adam unleashed the power of evil into the world. Adam didn't invent sin, he committed it. Adam's original sin was so great that God decreed that it would taint all succeeding generations. Man cannot transgress from God's will without the God-given ability to choose to do so. If we have the ability to choose between right and wrong then it logically follows that man can choose to follow God's will. You choose to quote a portion of Paul's letter to the Romans but what does the whole chapter say? Paul is trying to explain that God offers salvation to all, not just the Jews. This is explicit in the verse preceding your quote: "What does all this mean? Does it mean Jews are better off than Gentiles? No it doesn't! Jews, as well as Gentiles, are ruled by sin, just as I have said." (Romans 3:9*) The summary paragraph of the chapter specifically delineates God's way of accepting people. "Now we see how God does make us acceptable to Him. The Law and the Prophets tell how we become acceptable, and it isn't by obeying the Law of Moses. GOD TREATS EVERYONE ALIKE. HE ACCEPTS PEOPLE ONLY BECAUSE THEY HAVE FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST. All of us have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. But God treats us much better than we deserve, and because of Christ Jesus, He freely accepts us and sets us free from our sins. God sent Christ to be our sacrifice. Christ offered His life's blood, so that by faith in Him we could come to God. And God did this to show that in the past He was right to be patient and forgive sinners. This also shows that God is right when He accepts people who have faith in Jesus. What is left for us to brag about? Not a thing! Is it because we obeyed some law? No! IT IS BECAUSE OF OUR FAITH, and not because they obey the Law. Does God only belong to the Jews? Isn't He also the God of the Gentiles? Yes He is! There is only one God, and He accepts Gentiles as well as Jews, SIMPLY BECAUSE OF THEIR FAITH. Do we destroy the Law by our faith? Not at all! We make it even more powerful." (Romans 3:21-30*) The Jews of the time claimed that only they were the chosen few who could be saved by God and Paul strongly pointed out that ALL COULD BE SAVED, IF THEY CHOSE FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST. My last argument does state, in essence, that God does change His mind for He is a compassionate God. Nowhere did I say that God changes Himself for God will not change. He may decide to change His plans in response to our repentance from sin and acceptance of His will as the quotes I presented state. Your statement that God's ability to change His mind goes against what scriptures teach cannot be true since the scriptures I quoted give specific examples of when God chose to change His mind. None of the scriptures quoted detracts from God's infallibility. Because circumstances and events have changed my vision of a situation does not cause, as you suggest, my original vision to be wrong. The same is true of God! Nothing I have stated denies God's sovereignty, omniscience or deity. While God certainly knows the final score of the game, he allows us to play the game by our own choices of plays and it is man who chooses which side he will end up on. God knows the outcome and, because "…I do not believe that He is dictating our every move or thought, it would defeat the purpose of creating us in the first place. God created us to love and obey Him, and if He forced us to love and obey Him, what would be the point?" Logically, it follows that if He gave us the gift of free will (to which you agree), what would be the point of that gift if He had already pre-ordained our fate? The omniscient God certainly knows the outcome but He chose not to use his power to preordain our fate when He chose to give us free will. You state that the scriptures I quoted are merely warnings from God. I agree! God in essence was saying that unless something changes, this is going to happen. When His warning was heeded, the threatened outcome did not come to pass. God warned that Hezekiah would die. Hezekiah lamented and prayed and God relented and allowed him to live. What if Hezekiah didn't lament and pray? Are you saying God's warning was hollow and without merit? If, as you propose, no matter what Hezekiah did, his fate was preordained, then it wouldn't have mattered what he did, God would still have not have taken his life as he warned. God clearly spared Hezekiah because he chose to lament and pray! We, as Christians, pray for the conversion of sinners. We pray that a spark of faith, of repentance, is ignited within their souls. We pray that God, in His infinite wisdom, will issue to the sinner a warning as was issued to Hezekiah and we offer prayers of hope that the sinner will heed the warning. Jesus died on the cross for everyone to be forgiven. However, forgiveness is not effective until it is accepted. God knows in advance who will accept that forgiveness but he allows us to make the choice. His pre-knowledge of our choice doesn't decide the game, our choice does! *Contemporary English Version