I’ve been told Satan didn’t want to give people a choice between being good and bad.
Can someone tell me where in the Bible to find the story of Satan’s fall?
That He knows what a person will do in each of the infinitely many possible ways that a person’s life might play out does not require that He collapse reality by “peeking”. If He is all powerful as well as all knowing, than He can easily suppress whatever knowledge He desires for the purpose of insuring that His will does not trump ours.
Are you saying that he chooses NOT to know everything, and as such is only potentially all knowing? Biblical cite, please?
A couple of New Testament verses which support the notion that God pre-ordained at least some people to be doomed to hell:
“For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you.”
– Jude 1:4
“But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
– Matthew 7:14
… and one passage that says He tricks people into going to hell:
“For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.”
– 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12
The above verses lead me to believe that, because he is incapable of making mistakes, he is deliberately making a large number of people who have no chance in hell of getting into Heaven, perhaps only to be used as stepping stones and object lessons for those few who have been pre-ordained to make the grade.
How does it feel to be a bit player?
Yes.
No.
Excuse me?
According to the the rest of the verse, they made their own moral choices: “They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.” — (The rest of) Jude 1:4
According to the verse before it, God pleads with people to choose the right gate: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.” Matthew 7:13
According to the verse before it, they chose delusion for themselves: “They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.” — 2 Thessalonians 2:10
The above observation leads me to believe that you haven’t checked the source for context.
Is that what you choose to be?
It might be that I haven’t checked the source for context.
It might be that I haven’t asked the right people to interpret the verses.
It might be that, if you look hard enough, you can find something in the Bible to support whatever you believe, no matter what you believe.
Libertarian, your first answer and your second answer obviously contradict each other. He either knows everything and is thus all-knowing, or he doesn’t know everything and s thus NOT all-knowing.
He doesn’t. Hell doesn’t exist. It makes no sense whatsoever to believe a loving God creates people and then gives them all kinds of hoops to jump through in order to return to Him. All return to God, unless they choose not to.
Besides, you are assuming that A happens before B, limited by our own understanding of how time works. The reason God could know an outcome without influencing an outcome is because all that will ever happen has already happened and continues to happen.
Czar, a question, please. If you don’t believe in God anyway, and you’ve decided for yourself that you prefer hell over heaven, why the relentless, passionate bullying of those who have chosen differently? I’ve never been able to understand this. I don’t go around telling people who eat seafood how disgusting it is and how crazy they are. I just eat what I like and let others do the same. What’s the dealio with you?
As to omniscience, I humbly submit that you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Calliope, on the other hand, seems to understand it just fine.
Libertarian, if don’t believe in God, how can I choose hell over Heaven? As far as my “bullying” goes, if you wish to have debates with people who already agree with you, just go ahead and ask. It isn’t going to happen, but go ahead and ask.
As to omniscience, I humbly submit that, as you have so loosely defined it, it cannot exist. No matter which way time runs, if your god knows everything, he knows everything. If he is all-powerful, then the mere direction of a timeline cannot cannot stop him from ceasing to create people that he already knows will never make it in the long run.
Why, Czar! 
That’s a remarkable thing for someone to say who just asked me for a Biblical cite for my opinion, and who just declared that partial and out of context Bible verses had led him to believe that God “is deliberately making a large number of people who have no chance in hell of getting into Heaven”.
Stop Him from ceasing? I had to read that a couple of times. He knows everything that can be known, and that would be things that He allows Himself (in His omnipotence) to know.
So he chooses not to be all-knowing, but he could be totally all-knowing anytime he wanted to be?
I asked for Biblical cites, and you provided them. Of course, the fact that your Biblical cites seem to contadict the previous Biblical verses are a problem.
Why should He not have choices?
Tracer provided the cites. I provided the completeness.
They don’t seem contradictory to me.
Looking back, I see that you asked for a cite that God “chooses NOT to know everything, and as such is only potentially (sic) all knowing”. I provided you no such cite. My response was “Excuse me?”. Therefore, your statement that you asked for Biblical cites, and I provided them is misleading at best.
So he knows everything, but deliberately blocks off some of his knowledge to be comfortable with what he does?
Would a psychiatrist kindly step in here and tell us what this is called?
Yeah, but that last sentence shows the hole in your logic. If someone chooses not to return to God, where do they end up after death? (Unless you’re speaking about reincarnation, in which case I’ll just slink over into the corner…)
If God REALLY wanted to punish people, he’d make them go to heaven.
Why shouldn’t He be comfortable with allowing people to make their own moral decisions?
I’m no psychiatrist, but I think it’s called an obsessive compulsion to be deliberately obtuse and offensive.