Interaction with perfect foreknowledge Pt. 2

(you may want to read part 1 before you read part 2 - consider that a prophetic statement) :)

God's TWO FOLD purpose for dispensing foreknowledge.

Why does God dispense His foreknowledge to us? I assert there is a two fold reason, with a single overlying reason. The single overlying reason I explained in Interaction with perfect foreknowledge Pt. 1, is that God wants to effect our will in an attempt to influence our will to more closely conform to His will.

But now lets dig a little deeper.
I assert that there is a two fold purpose in making foreknowledge known to others.

EXAMPLE:

When we say to our son who just got a new BB gun for Christmas....

"You are going to shoot your eye out with that thing!"

Our foreknowledge (educated guess) tells us that our child is too inexperienced to understand the safest way to handle the BB gun so he is most likely going to shoot a BB and have it ricochet hitting him in the eye.

But why do we dispense our foreknowledge to him? Why do we tell him what we think is going to happen?

I assert we do this for TWO REASONS:

1. We want to effect a possible future event. We want our son to think about safety. We DO NOT want him to shoot his eye out!!!

But it doesn't stop there. There is yet another reason we dispensed our foreknowledge to our son.

2. We realize he may not heed our warning and he might STILL carelessly shoot his eye out! And when that unfortunate event happens we want him to realize we were right in our foreknowledge and therefore give our advice credibility and possibly restore our sons faith in our enlightened foreknowledge (this will help us the next time we give him advice).

I assert that this TWO FOLD tactic is the very reason why God INTERACTS with us and dispenses His foreknowledge to us!

CASE IN POINT:
God wanted Peter to be a powerful witness for the gospel, a leader of the church. But God knew Peter's heart. God knew Peter's faith was weak. Therefore God interacted with Peter using this TWO FOLD use of foreknowledge.

God told Peter that Peter would deny Christ three times before the rooster crowed.

What was the point of this foreknowledge being given to Peter? Why didn't God just keep it to Himself? Why did He bother to tell Peter?

PURPOSE NUMBER ONE:
God wanted Peter to NOT deny Him! He wanted Peter to NOT shoot his eye out with the BB gun (so to speak). Yet God knew that Peter was likely going to deny Him regardless and then reason for prophecy number two kicked in . . .

PURPOSE NUMBER TWO:
God wanted Peter to have renewed faith in God's foreknowledge and therefore renewed faith in God because God was able to accurately predict Peter's future actions. Peter could then say to himself "WOW God must be the real God because He knew I was gonna shoot me eye with the BB gun." (so to speak).

And therefore the overall purpose of the foreknowledge is manifested.... EFFECTING Peter's will in a manner which persuaded Peter's will to more more closely conform to God's will for Peter. God created a "win win" prophecy tailored specifically for Peter to effect Peters will no matter what Peter chose to do.

The dispensing of foreknowledge has NO purpose unless the future is unsettled. Dispensing foreknowledge is a lever to effect future actions.


More to come in pt. 3.