Thank you, Jesus, for saving my soul. Come quickly, Lord.
P.S. - all the trees, lights, gifts, festivities and especially SANTATAN only detract from the Good News. Oh well ... party on, world.
Calvinism doesn't discount the decision, and Arminianism overstates it, IMHO. God knows the end from the beginning, and he knows what decisions will be made, but we still have to walk them out. Predestination doesn't MAKE those decisions happen in the sense of CAUSING them, which is the idea that I think most people believe "to predestine" means.
For you and I to predestine something, we'd have to orchestrate it all very carefully, like a theatrical play, and we couldn't allow any deviation from the "script", or the play won't end up where we wanted it. God, on the other hand, being Omniscient, knows beforehand all the possible variations that CAN occur, all the possible variations that are LIKELY to occur, and therefore all the variations that WILL occur. BUT, we still have to walk in them, which means we still have to decide, to make choices, to walk it out. We are not constrained by anything but circumstances and our own preferences and desires in making the decisions, yet God knew beforehand exactly which decision we would make in any given circumstance, because He set the whole thing into motion in the beginning. None of us can escape the fact that everything that is has been the result of what was, and everything that will be, will be the result of what IS, now. Every one of our choices is affected by by previous choices we and others have made, and will affect future choices that we and others make.
Drop one pebble into a pond, and the ripples eventually touch the shore. Drop 6 billion pebbles into the pond, in sequence, and the ripples are much more complex, interacting with each other, some canceling others, some reinforcing others, and the ripples that reach the shore are much more numerous, complex, and powerful. God knows what each and every ripple will do. That's how He can Predestine His Plan, and know that it will end exactly as He has determined and foreseen. He set the time of your birth, the length of your life, and the time of your death, before you existed. You were not an accident, an unforeseen or unwanted occurrence, to God. You were born precisely where, when, and how you were, by His Foreseen and foreknown purpose, to produce the precise "ripples" that need to be produced to further His Plan. So it is with every person on the face of this earth. The Movie "It's A Wonderful Life" illustrates this in an imperfect, but still relevant way.
God's predestination takes into account every single decision of every single person, known beforehand, and incorporated into His Plan. Any sense of Him actually CAUSING those decisions could only be understood in the sense that, before He created anything, He knew perfectly all the possible decisions and actions of any and all persons that could be born, live, and die in any possible creation He would create, and in the actual creation of the creation He chose to create (this one), He set the choices and actions of every person that would be born, live, and die, in this creation, before any of those choices had yet to be made, based on the actions and choices of the very first people He created in this creation, Adam and Eve.
Our decisions are important, because we must walk them out. Even if we think to "fake God out" and choose contrary to what we would, He knew it beforehand, and it is part of His Plan. It's a matter of perspective. I find great comfort in knowing that no matter what I or anyone else decide to do, God has already incorporated them into His Plan, and nothing can happen that is not as He has foreseen and predestined it. God is not waiting to see what we will do, He has known from the beginning what we will do, and nothing can surprise or frustrate Him. Even His interventions are predestined, because He knew beforehand He would have to do so, and incorporated those inteventions into His Plan. They also have the benefit of encouraging faith, demonstrating His Power, and blessing mankind, even those who don't see or believe.
If my logic is "high school," your's hasn't made it out of Rob Reiner Pre-School.
"Decision" implies the outcome was in flux, unknown before that "decision" was made. Thus an outcome exists that is unknown before that choice is made.
You limit God to the script girl on the set -- she's read the script; she knows every word of dialogue and every stage prop. But she has no control over any of it. None.
You continue to speak double-talk. If God knows the end from the beginning, then even though it feels to our temporal, physical senses that it is all of us, it is still, only and always, all of God. I think God expects Christians to be able to grasp these seemingly contradictory, yet Scripturally-instructed concepts at the same time, much like the Trinity.
And Marlowe, read xzins' post 228. He does not agree with Nobdysfool. Apparently he does not believe God predestines our ends.
The inconsistencies and illogic will continue into the New Year...as God wills.
Merry Christmas morning! A babe is born in Bethlehem. Rejoice!