I'm currently contemplating about being a christian and therefore i have started reading into the Bible.(i'm quite skeptical to be honest) However, there are some parts in the bible that i don't quite understand and also find it quite incoherent.

I was told that God is Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and Omniscient.
However, if God is really Omniscient, why did the Bible shows that God did not know until that moment whether Abraham would choose to obey when he gave Abraham the supreme test of sacrificing his son Isaac? Upon seeing his choice, He told Abraham: “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me” (Genesis 22:12). This clearly shows that God did not know what choice Abraham would make. This contradicts with the fact that God is omniscient, isn't it?

I implore some wise guys out there to enlighten me.

Just don't worry about it. There are contradictions everywhere. Just worry about what makes sense and you agree with.

The bible has a few examples of this, but it is usually for the sake of the person God is speaking to, not that God is not omnipotent (that is, all seeing/all knowing).

Here is a good write-up on this:
http://carm.org/genesis-2212-now-i-know-you-fear-god

Just curious, if you are contemplating on becoming a Christian, what are you currently and why are you deciding to convert?

I interpret that as God giving confirmation to Abram.

It's kind of like a teacher asking a student, what's 1+1 and the students answer "2."

It's not that the teacher didn't know the answer, the teacher gave the confirmation to the student that he or she was right.

Hope that makes sense.

The implication is that God knew he would do it, but still waited for Abraham to make the choice anyway.

God tests people's faith all the time. Abraham probably didn't know how far he would go to put his trust in God.

Anyway that story is a mini-story of the ultimate saving story. Abraham's son was about to die as he deserves just like we do. Just before the final strike God steps in and says that he'd rather lamb instead. Do you know the significance of sheep in the bible?

It wasn't so much about whether God knew it or not, God sees different branches for the choices we make. There does not have to be 1 specific future.

So basically the LORD was testing whether or not Abraham had given it all up to him.

And so likewise, we must give our lives fully to the LORD, becoming humble and giving up the self (the luciferian nature of the self & pride) throw it all away, and serve God.



And likewise, we deserve to die, but instead God sent the unblemished Lamb Jesus Christ down for us instead.

This post was edited by Torm1 on Jan 5 2012 02:11pm

Like what has already been said, God knows what we will do, but he wants US to make the choice. He loves us and wants us to choose.