You left out the Portuguese.

But, I'm being picky. A very nice post.

Thomas, it sounds like you disapprove of using the SOP as a shortcut to arrive at truth. Why should I spend my entire life discovering truths God has already clearly confirmed through the SOP? I feel like it would be a waste of time to take the time to verify what God has already verified and validated. I believe it is better to believe the truth my entire life rather than wasting my entire life discovering what God has already revealed and stamped with the seal of His approval. No, I'm not implying there is no more truth to discover. Eternity isn't long enough to exhaust God's storehouse of treasures.

Brazil isnt in North America.. :P

The atheist doesn't understand why God hasn't fully explained to us why He chose to create {beings} even though He knew which ones would sin and rebel and die in the lake of fire. He mistakenly concludes such a God must be cruel and uncaring. I can't imagine what the atheist would conclude about a god who created {beings} knowing some of them might sin and rebel and die in the lake of fire but hoping they wouldn't. I know what I think about such a god.

The reasons why Jesus chooses to intervene or not to intervene have not been explained. The facts are, though, that He does indeed choose to intervene or not to intervene. He knows best, even if the atheist despises the whole concept.

I believe single-threaded, as it relates to the future, means it can play out only one way; whereas, multi-threaded means it can play out many different ways. Since God knows the future like history it means, from His supernatural perspective, He knows the facts before, during, and after the fact. God occupies the past, present, and future simultaneously without destroying the natural flow of time and space. I suspect time and space did not exist prior to Jesus creating free moral agents (as opposed to animals and inanimate nature).

The issue is, what is the nature of the future? Is it single-threaded or multi-threaded? Whatever it is, that is what God knows it to be, right? Or do you think God knows the future to be something that it is not? (Please answer).

Or maybe I disapprove of using shortcuts to arrive at truth?

Why you need to spend your time discovering truths despite God already having shown them to others? For the same reason as living on your parents faith will only take you so far. Sooner or later, probably sooner, you will need to replace their surrogate faith (surrogate for you, not for them) and get your own or you will likely leave. That something is true doesnt help you much until you know why it is true and it being true starts making a difference for you.

T:The issue is, what is the nature of the future? Is it single-threaded or multi-threaded? Whatever it is, that is what God knows it to be, right? Or do you think God knows the future to be something that it is not? (Please answer).

M:I believe God exists in the past, present, and future simultaneously. You don't.

M:I believe it has no effect whatsoever on how things unfold chronologically in time and space for FMAs. You don't.

M:I believe the future is as free and open as if God knew nothing about it. You don't.

You believe it is illogical. I don't.

M:You believe God has known for hundreds of years that the future will play out according to the multitude of details in the SOP. So do I.

So do you think if we basically told the atheist that he was ignorant of his ignorance he would go,
Praise the Lord! I had no idea. I will now be a Christian? Why the difference between the atheist and you? Is it only because you are aware of your ignorance and he isn't? Meaning the solution would be to tell the atheist he is ignorant. With the assumption many, if not most, atheists have reacted in a similar fashion, this could be an outreach tool.

Thanks for explaining that. So if multi-threaded means it can play out in different ways, would that mean God wouldn't know which way it will play out? Otherwise, if God knows the one way it will play out, how could it play out in different ways? Said another way, if God knows which way it will play out, it can, and only can, play out in that one way.

Th:That something is true doesnt help you much until you know why it is true and it being true starts making a difference for you.

M:As you know, I trust the SOP the same way I trust the NT. For me, experiencing the truth is more important than discovering it. I feel no need to verify what God has validated in the SOP.

O how little man can comprehend the perfection of God, His omnipresence united with His almighty power. {3SM 311.3}

He sees the end from the beginning. He knows all things. Past, present and future are all clear to Him. {MR926 34.1}

He that ruleth in the heavens is the one who sees the end from the beginning--the one before whom the mysteries of the past and the future are alike outspread, and who, beyond the woe and darkness and ruin that sin has wrought, beholds the accomplishment of His own purposes of love and blessing. {PP 43.1}

I Am means an eternal presence; the past, present, and future are alike to God. He sees the most remote events of past history, and the far distant future with as clear a vision as we do those things that are transpiring daily. We know not what is before us, and if we did, it would not contribute to our eternal welfare. God gives us an opportunity to exercise faith and trust in the great I AM (MS 5a, 1895). {1BC 1099.5}

God always has been. He is the great I AM. The psalmist declares, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." Psalm 90:2. He is the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity. "I am the Lord, I change not," He declares. With Him there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He is "the same yesterday, and to day and for ever." Hebrews 13:8. He is infinite and omnipresent. No words of ours can describe His greatness and majesty. {FLB 42.3}

Worry is blind and cannot discern the future. But Jesus sees the end from the beginning, and He has prepared His way to bring relief. {ChL 77.2}

God counts the things that are not as though they were. He sees the end from the beginning, and beholds the result of His work as though it were now accomplished. {DA 606.1}

The purpose and plan of grace existed from all eternity. Before the foundation of the world it was according to the determinate counsel of God that man should be created, endowed with power to do the divine will. But the defection of man, with all its consequences, was not hidden from the Omnipotent, and yet it did not deter him from carrying out his eternal purpose; for the Lord would establish his throne in righteousness. God knows the end from the beginning; "known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world." Therefore redemption was not an afterthought--a plan formulated after the fall of Adam--but an eternal purpose to be wrought out for the blessing not only of this atom of a world but for the good of all the worlds which God has created. {ST, April 25, 1892 par. 1}

“Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?” “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” “I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done.” [Job 11:7; Isaiah 55:8, 9; 46:9, 10.] {GC88 343.3}

God in his providence does not permit us to know the end from the beginning; but he gives us the light of his word to guide us as we pass along, and bids us to keep our minds stayed upon Jesus. {HS 144.1}

If you have given yourself to God, to do His work, you have no need to be anxious for tomorrow. He whose servant you are, knows the end from the beginning. The events of tomorrow, which are hidden from your view, are open to the eyes of Him who is omnipotent. {Pr 226.5}

God knows the end from the beginning. He knew, before the birth of Jacob and Esau, just what characters they would both develop. He knew that Esau would not have a heart to obey him. He answered the troubled prayer of Rebekah, and informed her that she would have two children, and the elder should serve the younger. He presented the future history of her two sons before her, that they would be two nations, the one greater than the other, and the elder should serve the younger. The first-born was entitled to peculiar advantages and special privileges, which belonged to no other members of the family. {1SP 105.2}

He who knows the end from the beginning, and who inspired prophets and apostles to write the future history of churches and of nations, was about to accomplish another reform similar to that of the days of Luther. {4SP 196.1}

He saw the end from the beginning. He saw that men in high places would commit grievous sins, hiding their iniquity under a cloak of godliness. God's throne is clear from reproach. {ST, October 7, 1880 par. 9}