Theological Discussion with new friends

    At the invite of my buddy Steve, I joined him tonight for a regular Wednesday night group for food, drink and discussion.  I met a group of about 5 other guys.  Good conversation was had.  I enjoyed the lighter discussions, as well as, the heavy stuff.  The group was a good fit for me.  They challenge one another's ideas and pull no punches.  In fact, I even told one of the guys that his justification for a theological position was a "cop out."  You wanna know his response?  Well, it did not involve raising his voice, verbally attacking me, storming out, or crying.   Good group, good discussion.
 
   I brought up the topic of God's timelessness vs. God's omnitemporality.  This was a good discussion, and one in which I was handed some good objections/challenges by the guys.  I appreciated this, as this is a topic I have been studying just over the past few days.  I had what I thought was a solid stance, but the challenges demonstrated that I still have some questions to ask and answer regarding my belief.  My thought was that perhaps God was timeless until the moment of creation but then became omnitemporal.  I should note that I have been doing the vast majority of my studying over the past few months within the philosophy of time.  Specifically, I have been studying the A theory of time, aka, the static or tensed theory of time.  I think some studying of how God interacts and/or exists in temporal time is needed.

    Since one of the guys was a strong Calvinist, I asked a question about predestination.  This was a thought that came to mind last week while driving home from work.  I try not to let myself drive too deep into other area outside of the one I am currently studying.  Since I am not too up on the free will vs. predestination topic, I was not seeking to offer argumentation but questions.  Those on the far side of determinism believe that all events in our life are determined by God.  It seems that if God's foreknowledge exist because He has already created the events, all free will is out the window, except God's.  This seems to contradict the A theory of time, since in this theory future events do not yet exist.  The gentleman did offer an explanation of God existing in other dimensions, which seems to bypass the time issue, but I think deeper scrutiny is needed to reveal this as an error. 
    Back to the point.  If God has already predetermined our lives, free will is abolished.  If free will is abolished, accountability seems unreasonable, if not cruel.  I do not know our God to be unreasonable or cruel.  Recognizing that God can use evil for the greater good, I offered the following argument.  If God has deteremined that I do certain bad things in my life, and never receive Christ, how can he hold me accountable for these things.  Someone may argue that it is still the person who chooses such a such.  However, if such a such is the only option because it was predetermined, I have not arrived at free will.  Free will = accountability, No free will = No accountability.  Even if God exist in extra dimensions and is too far beyond us to understand, it still holds that we exist within only 4 dimensions.  God created a being within 4 dimension that he predetermined to effect such a such.  Regardless of the possibility that God may exist in extra dimensions, it seems counter to the justice and love of God to create a being existing in less dimensions than Himself  that is designed to reject him and therefore suffer eternal damnation.  I understand that God does things that are difficult, if not impossible, to comprehend.  However, to simply say this is one of those imcomprehensible marvels of God seems weak.  Certainly this does not offer any counter-arguments against the objections, nor does it offer any plausible arguments for how this works itself out.  A lot of questions to think about.  Perhaps some day my studies will lead me into a deeper understanding of this free will vs. presdestination argument.  For now, at a quite superficial understanding, I would consider myself a molinist.  BTW, one of the gentleman who I spoke with tonight, may read this.  If he decides to offer his name and insights or objection, I welcome his input.

***As a side note, just because some of the men I spoke with are Calvinist and I am not, does not make us enemies.  I think some Christians can wage internal wars against one another to the detriment of the Gospel.  For me, it is great to talk with my Calvinist brothers.  I do not think someone's stance on determinism is going to get them into heaven or exclude them from such.  I would not be disheartened or angry if a person were brought to Christ by a Calvinist or Armenian, I would rejoice that a soul was redeemed.  Perhaps more of us should use our differences to challenge one another and to reach more of the lost for God's Kingdom.