One solution is to see the patriarchal stories as resulting from God's decision not to remain alienated from mankind: God creates the world and mankind, mankind rebels, and God " elects " ( chooses ) Abraham.

:" If Chief Justice Warren and his associates had known God's word and had desired to do the Lord's will, I am quite confident that the 1954 decision would never had been made.

Nevertheless, these belief systems may retain an idea of God's decision eternally determining the present or future, in the sense of God's decision being logically prior, or " transcendentally necessary " to all existence.

In terms of ultimates, with God's decision to create as the ultimate beginning, and the ultimate outcome, a belief system has a doctrine of predestination if it teaches:

* God's decision, assignment or declaration concerning the lot of people is conceived as occurring in some sense prior to the outcome, and

* Is God's predetermining decision based solely on a knowledge of His own will, or does it also include a knowledge of whatever will happen?

* How particular is God's prior decision: is it concerned with particular persons and events, or is it limited to broad categories of people and things?

The decision to do good along with God's aid pictured a synergism of the human will and God's will.

It teaches that God's predestining decision is based on the knowledge of His own will rather than foreknowledge, concerning every particular person and event ; and, God continually acts with entire freedom, in order to bring about his will in completeness, but in such a way that the freedom of the creature is not violated, " but rather, established "

In Stephen's words of mourning: By God's secret decision death took him, so that wickedness would not change his soul and false imaginations would not deceive his mind – as the Book of Wisdom teaches about early death.

" Whereas the earlier Jewish philosophers extended the omniscience of God to include the free acts of man, and had argued that human freedom of decision was not affected by God's foreknowledge of its results, Ibn Daud, evidently following Alexander of Aphrodisias, excludes human action from divine foreknowledge.

Maimonides concludes that God's decision to allow sacrifices was a concession to human psychological limitations.

Though they do not know it, if the two were to return to heaven this way, they would overturn God's decision, thus " proving God wrong " and unmaking all of existence.

The difference between elect and reprobate is not in themselves, all being equally unworthy, but in God's sovereign decision to show mercy to some, to save some and not to save others.

Rabbi Eliezer Berkovits ( 1908 – 1992 ) holds that man's free will depends on God's decision to remain hidden.

This passage indicates that the acceptable fast is not merely abstinence from food or water, but a decision to fully obey God's commands to care for the poor and oppressed.

Christians cannot claim such autonomy ; Christians acknowledge that they belong to God ... Christians yield their personal autonomy and accept a special obligation, as the first answer of the Heidelberg Catechism invites people to confess: ' I am not my own, but belong — body and soul, in life and in death — to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ ' ( Heidelberg Catechism, Q & A 1 )... A decision to take one's own life thus appears to be a denial that one belongs to God ./ A second conviction is that God does not abandon people in times of suffering ... Christians express their faith in God's love by trusting in God's care for them.

Reacting on 29 August 2005 to a decision of High Court Justice Gerald Winter to free a Fijian citizen and an Australian who had been convicted of sodomy, on the grounds that it was illegal only if committed in a public place, Qarase said he was of the opinion that any law which conflicted with God's laws should be amended, and he would study ways to ensure that homosexual acts remained illegal.

The BHA disagreed with the complaint and wondered how the ASA would be able to make a decision as to the " probability of God's existence ".

From that time to this my religious concern is that I might give effective help to the bringing in of God's kingdom on earth.

`` God's name, what are you to rob the dead with the fight going on ''!!

This conclusion is based on two propositions: that man by the use of his reason can ascertain God's purpose in the universe and that God makes known His purpose by certain `` given '' physical arrangements.

( page 33 ) On the other hand, a little later on he says: `` Since 1692 a great but superficial change has wiped out God's beard and the Devil's horns, but the world is still gripped between two diametrically opposed absolutes.

In it, he deemed the high casualties on both sides to be God's will.

: That, in the opinion of this Conference, the following Articles supply a basis on which approach may be by God's blessing made towards Home Reunion:

Since then God's Naam and Will have become expressed and creative functioning in the universe goes on.

* Jesus's death satisfies God's justice: The penalty for the sins of the elect is paid in full through Jesus's work on the cross.

* God's foreknowledge of the future is exhaustive and complete, and therefore the future is certain and not contingent on human action.

The majority Arminian view is that election is individual and based on God's foreknowledge of faith, but a second perspective deserves mention.

The fourth encounter is with Micaiah, the prophet who, when asked for advice on a military campaign, first assures Ahab he will be successful and ultimately gives Ahab a glimpse into God's plan for Ahab to die in battle ( 1 Kings 22 ).

* Visions pertaining to God's judgment on Israel

Many arguments from morality are based on morality normativity, which suggest that objective moral truths exist and require God's existence to give them authority.

In his Critique of Practical Reason he went on to argue that, despite the failure of these arguments, morality requires that God's existence is assumed, owing to practical reason.

Rashi comments on this verse that " The entire people will be so imbued with the spirit of sanctity that God's Presence will rest upon them collectively, as if the congregation itself was the Ark of the Covenant.

These realities form a " composite faithfulness " and are ( i ) " perseverance in the apostolic doctrine "; ( ii ) " the will to proclaim God's word "; ( iii ) " communion in the fundamental continuity of the Church, the Body of Christ, the faithful celebration of Baptism and the Eucharist "; ( iv ) " succession in the laying on of hands, the sign of ministerial continuity ".

The question eventually became the focal point for a philosophical issue ( the theory of possible worlds ) and a theological topic on the distinction between God's absolute power ( potentia absoluta ) and His ordained power ( potentia ordinata ).

If the candidate relies on sponsors, the celebrant asks them if they will raise the child in " the Christian faith and life " ( ECUSA BCP ), and will raise the child through " prayers and witness to grow into the full stature of Christ " to which the parents will state to each, " I will, with God's help.

" The divine call for massacre at Jericho and elsewhere can be explained in terms of cultural norms ( Israel wasn't the only Iron Age state to practice herem ) and theology ( a measure to ensure Israel's purity as well as the fulfillment of God's promise ), but Patrick D. Miller in his commentary on Deuteronomy remarks, " there is no real way to make such reports palatable to the hearts and minds of contemporary readers and believers.

God's commission to Joshua in chapter 1 is framed as a royal installation, the people's pledge of loyalty to Joshua as successor Moses recalls royal practices, the covenant-renewal ceremony led by Joshua was the prerogative of the kings of Judah, and God's command to Joshua to meditate on the " book of the law " day and night parallels the description of Josiah in 2 Kings 23: 25 as a king uniquely concerned with the study of the law — not to mention their identical territorial goals ( Josiah died in 609 BCE while attempting to annex the former Israel to his own kingdom of Judah ).

The major themes of Kings are God's promise, the recurrent apostasy of the kings, and the judgement this brings on Israel:

Zion ( meaning the Temple ) will be rebuilt, but by God, and based not on violence and corruption but on the desire to learn God's laws and live in peace.

* Torah Liturgy ( 6: 6 – 8 ): Micah speaks on behalf of the community asking what they should do in order to get back on God's good side.