Suzana wrote:God had thought by examining their minds and hearts, that they would NOT repent,...
- and that God got it wrong. That would not be my idea of an all-wise, all-knowing, omnipotent creator of the universe
That is because you think the future is knowable. Besides God didn't "get it wrong". He made no mistake. He based His prediction upon His perfect knowledge of the Ninevites. But since the Ninevites had free will, they happened to choose repentence, going against everything that the state of their hearts would lead one to believe that they would do.
The future is not knowable, because it doesn't exist. Can God know what doesn't exist? Can God (or anyone else) know that I am now in Winnipeg, Manitoba? No, because that is contrary to present reality. He can't know it , because I am not there. Can God (or anyone else) know that I will raise my hand in 15 minutes? No, because that is contrary to present reality. In 15 minutes
I can choose whether or not to raise my hand. That choice has not been made. Therefore, it cannot be known.
If we assume that future choices
can be known, we are faced with a contradiction:
1. If it is known that I will raise my hand in 15 minutes, then I cannot refrain from raising my hand at that time.
For if I do refrain from raising my hand in 15 minutes, then it was not known that I will raise it!
2. If it is known that I will
not raise my hand in 15 minutes, then I cannot raise my hand at that time.
For if I do raise my hand in 15 minutes, then it was not known that I will refrain from raising it!
3. Either I will raise my hand in 15 minutes or I will not raise it in 15 minutes.
4. Therefore either I cannot refrain form raising my hand in 15 minutes or I cannot raise my hand in 15 minutes.
5. In either case there is something I cannot do.
6. Therefore I do not have the power of choice to either raise my hand in 15 minutes or refrain from raising it at that time.
7. But I
do have the power of choice to either raise it in 15 minutes or refrain from raising it.
8. Conclusion: It cannot be known in advance whether or not I raise my hand in 15 minutes or refrain from raising it in 15 minutes.
To say that God does not know the unknowable in no way denies His omniscience. He knows everything that is logically possible to know.
Can God create a rock so large that He cannot lift it? The obvious answer is "no". For if He
could create such a rock, then there would be something He cannot do --- namely, lift the rock.
God is omnipotent. He can do anything He chooses to do. Denying that He can create such a rock in no way denies His omnipotence. Similarly, denying that He can know the unknowable in no way denies His omniscience.
There are a number of Biblical instances in which God seemingly did not know the future, since things didn't turn out as He expected. However, there are far more cases where things
did turn out as He expected. Perhaps the latter fact is the reason some people think God can know the future. But it's not because He knows the future that His expectations turn out to be true. Rather it because He is a perfect predictor. He knows all the thoughts and intents of the hearts of all people. To a much lesser degree, we too can predict what people will choose, and our predictions often turn out to be reality. For example, when my oldest son was 3 years old, I would be able to predict with confidence that if I had said to him, "Jamie, come here", that he would come immediately. But that doesn't mean that I
knew he would come. He may have chosen to go contrary to his usual behaviour and refuse to come. Now of course, I didn't know
everything about Jamie, as God does. So God would be in a
much better position to predict Jamie's behaviour.
We have free will because we have been created in God's image. Obviously we can come against God's will. Mankind has opposed God for millenniums. But God, who is both omniscient and omnipotent can still fulfill His ultimate purposes, working man's free will into the whole equation. This is the glorious thing about the mighty God.
A master chess player doesn't know what individual moves his opponent will make, but he will still win, because he knows how to respond no matter what moves his opponent chooses. So it is with God. He knows what to do no matter what moves individual people make, and no matter how contrary to His will these moves are --- and God, like the master chess player, will win out in the end!