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Originally Posted by Our House
Bunny, the problem with either of those is that the results were published! Anyone could look at the Bible and find out what is supposed to happen, and then go against it...but that would make the prophecy false.
I agree that this would be troubling for literalists/biblical prophecy followers/whatever - if the bible makes a prophecy and people freely choose actions which result in the prophecy not coming true then it implies that the bible is not an infallible guide to the future.
You're not saying that this is what has happened though - you're saying that the very existence of foreknowledge precludes free choice and that doesnt follow. The trouble is we are stuck in a newtonian way of thinking of time - a rigid space evolving as time passes, with ourselves (and every observer we can imagine) experiencing one moment at a time, sequentially.
Someone who knows the future and who sees time all-at-once (or for whom every instant is equally accessible), is not experiencing the universe like that.
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Let's say the OT accurately predicted Christ's crucifixion and Pilate got his hands on it and read it. Could he have ever decided not to crucify Jesus?
Yes - but he wouldnt have. If he did crucify jesus, the bible would be proved true, if he didnt the bible would be proved false. The existence of the prophecy doesnt mean he can't choose whether to fulfill it or not - if it's a true prophecy, then we wont know that prior to his choice (although god will) but when the time comes we'll see that it "came true" - someone looking at the universe as a whole isnt looking at one moment, then the next, then the one after that - they see all of time at once, as a static list of many events (some of them freely chosen).