Adam's choice?

[Brian]

My boss and I were discussing Adam and how God said it wasn't good for man to be alone so He made him a helper/commpanion. (my boss is my wifes cousin I've know for 16 years)
Anyway,...Mark believes that God may have the ability to know the future but chooses not to. I dissagree. I believe God know all things at all times. No limitations whatsoever.

He said in Gen. 2:18-22 It says that God seen that man was lonely so he created the animals in the hopes to find a helper for Adam. Mark believes that if Adam would have chosen a goat/dog/bear/fish/bird (take your pick), basically any choice Adam would have made then God would have allowed THAT ANIMAL to be Adams helper. And that God didn't know what Adam would choose, thats why He brought all the animals to Adam to look for a helper.

That is completely ridiculous to me! I believe that God had a plan from the begining (always) and if man messed that up by disobidience that still
doesn't mean God didn't have a plan.

Is there anything I could do to to help aid in the proper understanding of this scripture?

[jessea]

I believe God had all things planned from the beginning. He is a God of Purpose and Destiny, He does all things to bring glory to His own name.

Isa 46:9-10 "Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come."
NIV

[A2JGirl]

I don't think that Adam would have appreciated Eve if he hadn't got a good look at what was available otherwise, and God knew that. (Maybe that's what's wrong with a lot of marriages, we're not around a barnyard enough!).

[dolfan]

What you're boss is describing is what's called "open theism", among other things. Very thoroughly covered on lots of websites.

Google it. Google the name Greg Boyd. And, look for responses by D.A. Carson and John Piper. Also, ask for Tracy to jump in this thread!!!

[Tracy]

Hi Brian,

Here are some scriptures that will help you talk to your friend.

Anyway,...Mark believes that God may have the ability to know the future but chooses not to. I dissagree. I believe God know all things at all times. No limitations whatsoever.

God does know the future exhaustively, both what He intends to do as well as the future choices of human beings. This attribute is so much a part of who God is that He tell us that it is that attribute by which we can know He is God.

In John 13:19 Jesus tells His disciples, "From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He."


In other words, Jesus tells them, 'Here is how you can know I am God: I am going to tell you what is going to happen before it happens."

Foreknowledge of the future is that attribute on which Jesus bases His deity on in this case.

If your friend dismisses this attribute of God, then he is rejecting that very attribute by which Jesus insists that he can know who God is.

Mark believes that if Adam would have chosen a goat/dog/bear/fish/bird (take your pick), basically any choice Adam would have made then God would have allowed THAT ANIMAL to be Adams helper. And that God didn't know what Adam would choose, thats why He brought all the animals to Adam to look for a helper.

There are several problems with this view, three of which include:

1. There is absolutely no biblical reason to support this view. Nothing in scripture even comes close to teaching this.

2. It doesn't say that God brought the animals to Adam to pick a helper. It says that God brought the animals to Adam to see what he would call them. Big difference.

So, the text simply doesn't say what your friend is trying to make it say.

3. Leviticus 18:23-24 gives us God's view of sexual relations between human beings and animals, and God calls it perversion. This is God's heart on the matter--it is a moral abomination in His eyes. God had no intention of being content to let Adam procreate with an animal: the garden and its inhabitants began as a good thing. God would not have allowed or approved of moral perversion to set the standard for the sexual standard of His creation.

A better interpretation of the garden incident is that God let Adam see how unfit the animals were for his helper. None was suitable, and even Adam could see that. And then God, in His characterisic lavish, merciful posture, presented Adam with a suitable helper.

I believe that God had a plan from the begining (always) and if man messed that up by disobidience that still
doesn't mean God didn't have a plan.

Yes, you are right on one count. God had a plan from the beginning, but it did not get messed up. God even ordained the sin that came into the world.

One way to know this is because Rev 13:8 speaks of names being written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has beeen slain. You see, from the foundation of the world--from its very inception--there was a book belonging to a slain Lamb. And in the book were names of human beings found in the Lamb by virture of His being slain/killed/crucified. And the only reason the Lamb was slain was because of the sin of human beings. And the lamb is slain from the foundation of the world--the slaying was in place before human beings were in place.

From the foundation of the world, God knew sin would happen, it was in the plan, and He had a plan to remedy it even before that first sin came to pass. This is how we can speak of God 'ordaining' even the sin in the world. He knew it was coming, He allows it to come, and it is part of His permissive will. He is God; nothing happens outside of His perfect plan and foreknowledge. His plans do not get thwarted:

"I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted." Job 42:2

God's decretive purposes NEVER get thwarted, messed up, or fail to come to fruition. It takes your breath away, doesn't it!! I love it, and I love Him.

I hope this helps you,

Your sister in Christ,
Tracy