Hi largely, Yes this has been ask before, and it is a valid question. These things are complicated, it takes time to work it out in our mind where we can begin to understand, but when put together with enough Scripture then it starts to make more sense.
Here are places where Ray spoke on this subject.
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,8711.0.html ---------------------------
Your questions regarding whether God "predetermined" all things is basically true. And yes, God did "make us" as He made us. However, it is not true that God "MADE" us do anything. People have trouble understanding that just because we don't have a "free will" does not mean that we do not have a "will" at all. Of course we have a will, it's just that it isn't free to operate WITHOUT A CAUSE. It is the "cause" that takes away the "freedom" of our wills. And God does not "MAKE OR CAUSE" us to sin, for example. We volunteer to sin according to our OWN WILL. And our will, of course, operates on the many thousands and millions of circumstances we confront daily which are totally outside of our control.
God plain tells us that He does NOT "tempt--try or test" any man with evil (James 1:13). Well what does "tempt" man then if not God? Answer: "his OWN LUST/DESIRES." God is, however, responsible for His entire creation, and therefore in Judgment, God will right all apparent wrongs of the past.
As for computer making choices, I will still differ with you, as there is nothing in the definition of "choose" or "choice" that necessitates consciousness.
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php?topic=3709.0 ------------------------
People accuse me day and night on my site; they say, 'you say God makes people rape little children, is that what you are saying Ray?' They know I’m not, but they like to gleam from my teachings and that’s the bottom line of what your saying.
“God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts…” God doesn’t have to make people sin, they volunteer, they’re sinning machines. I’ve said so many times mankind is SINNING MACHINES!
I think it was Hosea Ballou, Pastor of the Universalist Church and society of Rockberry, and a writer back in 1700s or some time ago. But I think it was Hosea Ballou who came up with the analogy and it’s a very fine analogy. He said God is Like the rays of the sun and Jesus is, like I mentioned yesterday, that Jesus is the Son of God. But not only the S-o-n, but the S-u-n of God, the brightness of the sun, you see. So we liken God to the rays of the sun, this bright radiant warmth that gives light and heat and causes things to grow and all these wonderful things from the rays of the sun.
But ironically in the evening, when the sun goes down it gets colder and towards morning it gets damp. There’s often times dew on the grass, wet, damp and cold. Aha, I think I have God figured out now. When the sun is up, it’s not damp, it’s not wet, it’s not cold, it’s not dark. When the sun goes down it’s cold, damp and dark. Therefore the sun is the cause of dampness, cold and darkness. How do you like that? Because when the sun’s up you don’t have those things, and when the sun goes down you have them. Therefore this darkness is caused by the sun. No, that’s wrong. That’s the way some people understand theology.
It’s when the sun is gone the automatic results is, it’s dark, cold and damp. The sun didn’t cause it. It’s when the sun comes up that the sun takes it away. It’s not when the sun goes down it causes it to come. It always been there, it’s the sun that takes it away, it’s not the sun causes it to come and that’s the way God is.
When God removes His beams of light from mankind they become cold and damp and dark. Is that hard to understand? It's automatic, God does not have to supernaturally make it dark on one side of the earth when the sun is on the other side. God doesn’t have to do that it’s automatic.
God doesn’t have to force anybody to sin, it’s automatic. Yes God brings about the circumstances, “Wherefore God gave them up…” (Rom. 1:26). Yes He did, He’s behind it. But He did it through the lusts of their own hearts. He didn’t force anybody to do anything.
He did not have to force Hansan to torture these little children, to kill them or to rape them or whatever all he did with them. All He had to do was let him have the opportunity and he would do it. This man had that mentality, okay.
http://www.forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,2354.0.html ---------------
You are not understanding this subject and the principle behind it. You ask: "Is it man making the choices or is it God's predestination of things?" It is BOTH. Listen: God is SOVEREIGN! Man therefore has NO FREE WILL OR NO FREE CHOICE. That's it. That's all there is to it. That IS the principle. That IS the Truth. That IS what the Bible teaches. It is not a contradiction to say that "Man makes his own choices." You and millions of other just think it is a contradiction to say man makes his own choices if indeed God is sovereign and God is behind all in His creation. It is not a contradiction. It only sounds like a contradiction for those who do not believe that "God is Sovereign, and Man has no free will."
I hardly know what else to tell you. God made man's heart. Man did not make his own heart, or his body, or his mind, or his brain, or his will, or his hopes and dreams. They are all PREDESTINATED by the foreknowledge of God. So then we don't make choices, right? NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO....WE DO MAKE CHOICES. It's just that they are CAUSED by things we can't always see. Sometimes we can see what makes our choices and some times we can't, but either way THEY ARE CAUSED. And God, not us, already knows in advance the outcome of all of those caused choices. How does He do that? He is very smart (has over a 150 IQ), plus HE IS SOVEREIGN, ALL WISE, AND ALL POWERFUL.....and don't forget LOVE.
http://www.forums.bible-truths.com/index.php?topic=253.msg2134#msg2134 ----
Until we come to realize that we are all just as evil as John Calvin or Adolph Hitler, we will never ever understand evil in the world. I thank God that I have never slowly burned another man or woman at the stake over a low heat fire, but I also know that under the same circumstances, I could have done such a thing. It is within the carnal mind to do ALL the evils of the universe, and that is why carnal-minded people do such things.
Ask yourself what kinda of a God would allow YOU to be led to these same crimes of eating your own children? PEOPLE rape little girls, not God! Some people WANT to rape little girls. Others just want to DECEIVE their fellow brothers and sisters into thinking that they are powerful, or great, or spiritual, or wise, or loving, etc., but are just as evil inside as Adolph Hitler. Given the opportunity we would have all been Calvin and Hitler. But is it necessary? Yes, it is necessary. Do we think that God is playing a game?
I once placed a board across a little stream that I crossed going to school in the first grade. However, laying a board accross San Francisco Bay is a bit more involved. Creating a cat that will sit and purr on your lap is one thing, but creating creatures into the very IMAGE OF GOD HIMSELF, is quite another. Even the miracle of the Golden Gate Bridge compared to a wooden board cannot compare to what we see now and what we will be when God is through with us.
It takes incredible powers of good and evil to accomplish this. Christians cannot justify God's use of evil, and hence attribute it to what they preceive to be a greater force than God--SATAN. Supposedly God doesn't want evil, but He just can't stop Satan. Nonsense. Read my site. I told you it is a large subject.
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mercy, peace and love
Kat