"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart."
If God determines every event that ever occurs as most Calvinists believe, why would he do something that grieves him at his own heart?
I can't answer for Calvinist. The way I see it is that God knew before hand what would happen when He created man. He knew that His Law would have a by-product, called sin.
Yet the Law was necessary to give men an all important choice.
Adam had a choice but he Loved Eve more than God and ate the fruit anyway. Eve was tempted and deceived by Satan causing her to desire to be like God. When she ate the fruit she knew good and evil but it was to late. Adam knew it as well and because he loved her so much decided to eat of the fruit as well so he wouldn't loose Eve.
With out the choice they made God would never see any Love from either of them
The whole reason God created man IMHO is that men would love Him.
Love has a value to God and us, and it's measured by the willingness to love.
Paul wrote about a demonstration of love.
2Co 8:9 For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
2Co 8:10 And herein I give my advice: for this is expedient for you, who have begun before, not only to do, but also to be forward a year ago.
2Co 8:11 Now therefore perform the doing
of it; that as
there was a readiness to will, so
there may be a performance also out of that which ye have.
2Co 8:12 For if there be first a willing mind,
it is accepted according to that a man hath,
and not according to that he hath not.
And why would he ever repent of something he had determined?
I believe He repented of it because of what He had to do to get the effect He wanted from man. With out choice to do the opposite there is no will involved. With out willingness there is no demonstration of love. Christ was rich and became poor because He loves man so much. His demonstration of love to me is the most valuable thing in Salvation. There simply would have been no salvation with out His wonderful love and it being demonstrated more than once.
If he determined that sin would enter the world, then why would it grieve him, and why would he repent when his very will came to pass?
I will wait a bit before I respond to this, I want to see what Cals and DoGs have to say. Non-Cals are welcome to give their opinions as well.
We have to understand that doing something you know you're going to regret later to achieve your goal is most difficult. In order for God to have a demonstration of real love for Him. He had to give Adam that choice. We've all inherited Adam's sin nature and sin is necessary for there to be a choice. If there were only good there would be no choice. No demonstration of love towards God.
I read a poem once that really made me think. It was about love but in the poem the writer realized that if you love someone and you let them go free. They will come back to you if they really loved you in the first place. If not at least you'll know they never really cared. I wish I remembered the words to it but that was a long time ago.
MB
