does GOD have the script?

Originally posted on August 13, 2009 – by Andre Piet

In a discussion on the daily weblog (highly recommended!) of my good friend Simon van Groningen I read a response to my blog of yesterday. Simon:

Therefore it is also wrong to state (as for example today on goedbericht) that the script of everything has been written. It is not biblical at all. I cannot find that anywhere…

Nevertheless I had included the text to which I referred (Psalm 139:16):

“Your eyes saw my unformed substance; IN YOUR BOOK THEY WERE ALL WRITTEN, THE DAYS, that were formed, WHEN AS YET THERE WERE NONE OF THEM.”

All my days were already recorded in GOD’S book before I was even conceived, David says. That is to say that GOD beforehand knew the script of David’s entire life. Even though the terms ‘book’ and ‘script’ are metaphors in this context, it still at least means that David’s course of life was known in detail to GOD in advance. If it were otherwise, then GOD would not be omniscient.
Simon:

… it is also not good news.

For David it certainly was! After David wrote that all his days, “when as yet there were none of them,” were already written in GOD’S book, he added: “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O GOD! How vast is the sum of them.” It may be completely incomprehensible that GOD has the script of every creature in His hand, but it is a precious thought! GOD’S omniscience is the great comfort of Psalm 139 (see also the NBG heading). GOD understands my thoughts from afar (verse 2). “From afar” does not mean: at a distance of miles, for GOD surrounds me from behind and from before (verse 5). No, “from afar” means: far in advance.
Simon:

You can of course say, as is done there, that you can be so certain, but it is only an apparent certainty because virtually everything from the so-called script is unknown, including – for example – the falling away of the one who is so certain.

Here two things are being confused. GOD has the script, so that HE, beforehand, is acquainted with every detail of my life and therefore nothing can ever go wrong. That is a precious thought! A no less great blessing is that I do not know the script. I would not want to know everything that will happen, for example, in the coming year. Even if in theory I could become very rich on the stock market with it, I would probably have no life left… Omniscience is, thankfully, reserved for GOD alone.
Simon:

Absolute determination is both theologically, logically, and physically (recombinant DNA) incorrect and assumes that we can understand God in His plans.

From the fact that God is GOD it logically follows (thus literally theo-logically) that NOTHING is hidden from Him (=omniscient) and that He has EVERYTHING under control (=omnipotent). This logic is moreover confirmed in black and white in Scripture. It is precisely the denial of this logic that assumes that one can understand GOD. GOD’S omnipotence and omniscience are both biblical and logical, but cannot be comprehended or understood. We only affirm it in faith.

See also:
does God regret?

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In THIS LINK (Friday 14 Aug. 08:58) the response of Simon van Groningen to the above. Let the reader judge.

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