Today I will begin a discussion regarding a biblical worldview and what it looks like to live with eternity in view. We will look at various aspects of God’s character and nature, as well as a few proposed challenges and problems for Christianity and biblical authority. Where this discussion goes will be based on a combination of my leading and direction and responses and reflection on any comments and feedback I receive.
First of all, as taken from my recent book Eternity in View, “…I am convinced that God is real and in control of all things. I do not believe that there is any such thing as coincidence. At the time God created the universe and everything in it, including the nature of time itself, He providentially knew each living thing intimately enough to know how it would respond to every imaginable combination of stimuli. Although interacting with and at times entering into His creation throughout history, God exists outside of time and space and can instantaneously see the entirety of His creation, including every event that has occurred in every place throughout all time. He can see the past, present, and future more clearly than we can see our current reality. He knows the thoughts and intentions of every heart and mind that He created, and understands how every possible decision and action would affect the world. At the moment of creation, He knew every possible combination of the number of created beings, the place and time where each of these beings would exist, the natural phenomena that would exist at the time each would live, and the effect that the actions of each would have upon others. At that moment, He created the world according to His ultimate plan and purpose, intentionally choosing the place and time that each person would live. God granted individuals the freedom of choice to act according to each one’s volition, but knowing the outcome of all decisions and actions in advance and using those results according to His plan.
Nothing happens that God does not explicitly and purposely allow. I believe that He allows suffering and pain in the lives of individuals to make Himself known and reveal Himself to the world. The very presence of suffering is a consequence of sin, which God allowed to manifest itself as a result of giving people the freedom of choice. I believe that this world that we live in is only the beginning, that our present circumstances are only temporary, and that a greater eternal reality is yet to come that will render all that we are living through as trivial.1”
Eternity in View 