one god , page-75

Akgo01,

you ask.

Thank you for your reply. But it still doesn't resolve the contradiction between free will and omniscience. That is because if God can ever know (if He so chooses - very conveniently!) what I will do in the future, that means what I will do in the future is already predestined, and not based on free will at all

i say

Maybe it would help if you read the story of Jonah,

God can see the wickedness of the people of Nineveh,

God knows what the people will do but gives them a choice to repent or not,

God sends Jonah to Nineveh,

Jonah initially refuses but God persuades him,

The people listen to Jonah and repent and God does not punish them.

Here God is giving them a free will choice, repent or be punished, they repent of their own free will and are spared the punishment.

Jonah then complains that he had to go in the first place.

does that make it clear?

the people of Nineveh could have carried on and ignored Jonah and been punished by God, but THEY CHOSE to repent.

akgo01,

God knows if you will repent or not, but even if He can see that outcome, He is determined to get you to come to Him, but you have to do it willingly, He will not drag you kicking and screaming (yet)


Jonah

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”

3 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

6 When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7 This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:


“By the decree of the king and his nobles:

Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.