Thursday, November 22, 2007

God's Regrets

Ben over at Arminian Perspectives has an interesting post on struggling with regrets.

Regretting is part of the human experience. However, it's interesting to note that God also has regrets. For example in Gen 6:6 God regrets creating man, and in 1 Samuel 15:10,35 he regrets that he made Saul king.

I am curious how the Calvinist would address the issue of God's regrets? The Calvinist believes that everything that takes place is exactly how God intended it. How could God possibly regret anything under that system?

This idea of God regretting also presents an interesting dilemma for the Arminian view of God. Open Theists point to regret as evidence that God does not have exhaustive foreknowledge.

I think that God's regrets are not due to a limitation of foreknowledge, but instead are a natural result of his consistent character. For God, the ends do not justify the means. He does not turn stones into bread for his convenience. He does what is most consistent with his character, even if it's not easy, and even if he knows it that it will not work out down the road. This is particularly evident in the case of King Saul.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pizzaman,

I wish you had more time to blog. I enjoy reading your comments (especially when you comment on other blogs).

God bless and Merry Christmas.

Billy

Kevin Jackson said...

Thanks for the kind comments Billy. :) I enjoy your blog as well, I particularly have appreciated your work earlier this month on Romans 9. That has been a focus of my study lately. God bless and happy new year. -Kevin

Dawn said...

I wonder how the Calvinists have twisted this one.