And Other Popular Calvinist Scriptures Concerning The Attributes of Deity
A working model
At this point in the discussion, it’s time to present an alternative model to Calvinism that works and outlines how a righteous God interacts with His creation.
In a nutshell, God has given man a free will with which to choose, and man will be held accountable for the choices he makes. In doing so, God has chosen to limit His knowledge of what man will do. This is not to say that God is incapable of making an educated guess based on past performance as to what a person will likely do in a given situation, but this is not the same as knowing what a man will do. God, if He deems it necessary, does have the power and right to override a man’s will and cause him to do something that he would not otherwise have done. God has in fact done so on occasion, but this is the exception to the rule and far from His standard method of operation, because it defeats the very purpose for having given man a free will. In these rare instances, God does not, indeed He cannot justifiably hold a person accountable for the things he does simply because it was not the person doing it. This goes for doing what is right as well as doing what appears to be in disobedience to Him. In such cases, righteousness demands that there be no reward for doing what is right and no condemnation for doing what is wrong. Examples of this are very clear in Scripture. Two instances where God has caused someone to do good apart from their own will are John the Baptist, and Cyrus king of Persia.
John the Baptist: The least in the kingdom is greater than he
Of John the Baptist, Yeshua said;
“Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. “
Matthew 11:11 NKJV
How is it possible that one can be so “great” and also be the “least”? The only way this works is if we understand that John the Baptist, the person, had little to nothing to say about his ministry. In verse 14 of the same chapter, Yeshua said that John was Elijah who was to come. John was one of the exceptions who was destined, as it were, to fulfill prophecy and there was nothing he could do of his own will to stop it if he wanted to. The Holy Spirit so filled John that John the person was eclipsed by the Holy Spirit. Even while in the womb of his mother Elizabeth, his mission was under the influence of the Spirit.
And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. ….For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.”
Luke 1:41,42,44 NKJV
When John was in his ministry, there was no question in his mind what his mission was, or who Yeshua was. He said:
“There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I indeed baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
…John saw Yeshua coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for he was before me.”
Mark 1:7,8 NKJV, and John 1:28,30 NKJV respectively
Yet near the end of John’s life, after his mission had been completed, the Holy Spirit was letting him go and we begin to see John the Baptist the man, all by himself. While in Herod’s prison, shortly before he was murdered, we hear him speak these words;
When John had heard in prison about the works of the Messiah, he sent two of his disciples and said to him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”
Matthew 11:2,3 NKJV
All of a sudden, for the first time since his conception, John isn’t sure who Yeshua is anymore! This makes it clear that John, the man, had no control over the matter of his great ministry. It was prophesied by God that Elijah would come to prepare the way for the Messiah and this prophecy was going to be fulfilled whether John liked it or not. This is why Yeshua said he was both the greatest and the least. John the Baptist was a rare exception of a man who had little to no free will. There was little reward for the man himself because he had no say or choice in the matter. God, by His Spirit, did the job in John.
King Cyrus: will do right without reward
There is also the prophecy of how God would use King Cyrus to let His people Israel go from Babylon. This prophecy came long before Cyrus was even born …where God even called him by name. In Isaiah, God speaks of how He has destined Cyrus for this specific job. Here are some highlights.
“Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held to subdue nations before him…” “I will go before you and make the crooked places straight….” “That you may know that I, the Lord Who called you by your name, Am the God of Israel. For Jacob My servant’s sake, and Israel My elect, I have even called you by your name, I have named you , though you have not known Me…” “I have raised him (Cyrus) up in righteousness and I will direct all his ways; He shall build My city and let My exiles go free, not for price nor reward.” Says the Lord of hosts.
Isaiah 45:1,3-4,13 NKJV
Notice how someone who has no will of their own or any say in the matter, but is destined by God to do good things, ends up having “no reward”?! Conversely, a person who is controlled by God to act against Him can not be righteously held accountable for that which was not their will either. A classic example of this is when God hardened Pharaoh’s heart to not let His people go from Egypt. To the degree that Pharaoh hardened his own heart without any help from God will be the degree to which he will be held accountable for his actions. But God hardening Pharaoh’s heart is by far the exception to His standard MO. This cannot be stressed enough… that God overriding a man’s will is the exception to the rule. One does not want to be destined by God to do good works because there is no reward in it! Man instinctively knows this is righteousness. But his instincts also know the flip side is true as well. When it comes to dealing with guilt, people intuitively understand that if a person has no real choice in doing what is evil, they are not truly guilty! That’s why we have the “not guilty by reason of insanity” plea. Such a person supposedly didn’t know what they were doing. It takes a conscious choice to do what is wrong to be truly guilty. It is this very fact, instinctively understood by all, that is responsible for the subliminal attraction to the concept of predestination. Guilty men, like Calvin the murderer, find relief from the pain of guilt when they convince themselves they had no real say in the matter!
What about prophecy?
Whenever the subject of God, not knowing the future or what man will do comes up, the question of how prophecy fits in this picture also comes up. How can God prophesy that something will occur in the future if He doesn’t know what will happen? The fact that God foretells of many things that will happen in the future appears to prove that He does know the future. But this is not the case. When God says something is going to happen, it does not mean that He has foreseen it from the perspective of being outside of time, (there is no such thing in the first place) nor does it mean that everything that transpires on earth was foreordained in exhaustive detail from the beginning of creation. When God says that something is going to happen He is telling man what He will do in the future. It is His will, and what He will do. It is more like His plan or blueprint for the future. We do the same thing many times a day when we tell someone we are going to do something. God’s speaking of things He will do in the future can also be seen as His itinerary. It is a simple concept that even a child can grasp. The problem is that adults generally have a motive for making it more difficult than it really is.
God generally chooses to first work with those who are willing to go along with His plan, but if no one can be found, He will then make an exception and cause someone to carry out His plan, as in the examples of Pharaoh and Cyrus.
God: “Declaring the end from the beginning”?
There is a passage in Isaiah that is often quoted as proof that God knows everything from start to finish. It is; “I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning.” As usual, you will virtually never hear this passage quoted with its surrounding context, because if you do, a very different picture emerges. It is easy to see in this passage’s context that prophecy is God’s plan that He will bring about… one way or another.
“Remember this and show yourselves men; Recall to mind, O you transgressors. Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure,; Calling a bird of prey from the east, the man who executes My counsel, from a far country. Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it.”
Isaiah 46:8-11 NKJV
Notice that God does not speak using timeless terminology of any kind. He clearly speaks as though He is going through time as well! This could hardly be more obvious when He says things like, “not yet done”, “shall stand”, “I will do”, “I will bring it to pass”, and so on. It should be apparent that what God has “purposed” should be considered a plan that He will bring to pass by whatever means necessary. Notice also how He prefers to use a man who willfully executes His counsel. Nowhere in this passage can there be found the idea that God has foreseen future events. He exerts Himself in time as the Most High… to bring to pass what He has purposed.
What about prophesied evil?
First, a distinction must be made between two types of prophecies of evil. There are prophecies of God’s judgment that are often referred to as “evil” that I will address later. But there are a number of times where God speaks of evil that men will do in the future. Just one example is the following:
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? And a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.
Revelation 6:9-11 NKJV
This sounds like there is a known specific number of people who will be murdered for being faithful to God. It is true that there is a predetermined number, and murdering innocent people is an evil thing that men will do. So the question is, if this is part of God’s plan and He must forcefully bring it to pass, doesn’t that make Him the author of evil? The answer would be yes if the presupposition that He must forcefully bring evil to pass were true. But it isn’t. We need to understand that God knows man’s propensity for evil and that given the chance, man will quickly work the will of his father the devil. We also need to understand that the majority of God’s controlling influence in the world is mercifully directed at restraining evil. This is accomplished largely through the deployment of His angels. Scriptural support for this is found in passages like Psalm 91:9-13 Revelation 7:1-3. For evil to occur, all God has to do is remove His angelic forces for good and allow man to become as evil as his father the devil. God’s restraining influence in the world keeps evil from happening much sooner than it does. He does not have to cause it to happen. In the case of the above prophecy, God will eventually allow evil men to have their way in the world. And when the number of martyrs reaches a certain point at which God has determined His patience will come to an end, judgment will come on evil men to repay them for their deeds.
Other popular Calvinist passages:
There are many passages that could be quoted in support of the fact that God is indeed sovereign. In spite of the fact that there is no single Hebrew word that has the equivalent meaning of the English word “sovereign”, Scripture clearly teaches that God is sovereign in the sense that He answers to no other being. This picture does not conflict with the working model I am presenting. In the minds of Calvinists though, “sovereign” means absolute total control. That is what I am coming against. It is the ultra-sovereign or total-hands-on micromanaging picture of God …one where He controls even the wills and destinies of men that is so terribly wrong. Contrary to man’s philosophical ideas of what is required of God if He wants to be considered “God” by such men, God is not any less sovereign by limiting His knowledge of, and personal involvement in, His creation. He still answers to no other being …especially man and his definition of Him!
Before moving on to Paul, it would be good to first deal with the Scriptures that Calvinists commonly quote in support of their doctrine.
Psalm 139:16 – Days of life ordained before birth?
One of the most common passages you will hear a Calvinist quote is a portion of Psalm 139. When a Calvinist uses this passage as a proof text for the concept of an ultra-sovereign God, he will almost always use the NIV translation. When the NIV translation first came out years ago, it didn’t take much reading for me to quickly come to the conclusion it had a very profound pro-Calvinist slant to it. There is no Hebrew or Greek word for the English word “sovereign”, nor is the word “sovereign” used even once in the KJV or NKJV. In spite of this fact, the NIV translators saw fit to use the English word sovereign 303 times! In nearly all cases, the Hebrew word that the NIV translated “sovereign” was “Adoni” which means “my Lord”. This is way out of legitimate lines. Not surprisingly, the executive secretary of the NIV translation was Edwin H. Palmer… Calvinist extraordinaire, and author of other pro-Calvinist books like The Five Points of Calvinism! The contributing editors of the NIV read like a list of whos-who in the halls of Calvinist academia! Some of the editors were known homosexuals! Seriously! It fits that many Calvinist churches, like the Presbyterian Church, have embraced homosexuality even in their clergy. And why not? After all, in their minds, they aren’t under the Law anymore and homosexuals are just being what God created and destined them to be!
The NIV quote that one will hear from Psalm 139 is:
“All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”
Psalm 139:16 NIV
There’s the proof in all its hideous glory! How can anyone argue with this? David clearly said that every day of his life on earth was written out in a book before it even began! Or did he? In the context in which this passage is found, David was describing the wonderful design of his body when it was formed in his mother’s womb. Let’s look at the context leading up to this passage in the NKJV version.
“For You have formed my inward parts; You have covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You When I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.”
Psalm 139:13-16 NKJV
The very next sentence is the one we are concerning ourselves with. The one that supposedly speaks of the days ordained for David before he was born. That very same sentence in the KJV reads like this;
“And in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.”
Psalm 139:16b KJV
The NIV translators want us to believe David was talking about the days of his life being written out in advance. In the KJV version, David is clearly speaking of his body parts being written in a book before they were formed. This is a huge difference! So which is it? They both can’t be right. The context leading up to this passage is clearly speaking of the wonder and beauty of God’s design and engineering while David’s body parts were being formed in his mother’s womb. Is it not obvious that the context demands that we understand David was referring to his body parts and not his future? Nowhere in this entire Psalm can there be found the subject matter of David’s future. That subject matter is way out of place.
The really sad thing about the NIV version is that not only is it intentionally misleading people toward a pro-Calvinist picture, it is also blinding people to the incredible beauty of the truth that David was speaking of. So how can all of David’s body parts be written out in a book before any of them came into existence? Modern science has proven that this is exactly the case in the DNA of a person’s genetic code! At the moment of conception, when the recombination process of all genetic information is completed, every detail of a person’s body is written out and established long before any of the body parts actually begin to form. This is what David was speaking of. Please read it again if you need to. Under the influence of the Holy Spirit, David spoke of this incredibly fascinating feat of God’s engineering over four thousand years ago! Only recently has science known about this!
In this Psalm, there is not even a hint of the concept of destiny or of God knowing everything about David and his future. In fact, quite the contrary is true. The last two verses of the same Psalm clearly indicate that David desires for God to gain new information about him!
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Psalm 139:23-24 NKJV
Isaiah 54:16 – God created the destroyer for the purpose of destroying?
Another popular passage used as a proof text for the ultra-sovereign picture of God from Isaiah. This is one that is used to prove that God created evil!
“…I have created the destroyer to destroy.”
Isaiah 54:16 NKJV
Again, one will generally only hear this short snippet of Scripture quoted by itself. And again, when read in its context, a very different picture emerges.
“All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children. In righteousness you shall be established; You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near you. Indeed they shall surely assemble, but not because of Me. Whoever assembles against you shall fall for your sake. Behold, I have created the blacksmith who blows the coals in the fire, who brings forth a weapon for his work; and I have created the destroyer (who is ready) to destroy. No weapon formed against you shall prosper… ”
Isaiah 54:13-17 NKJV
Again, as always, context is the most important factor to consider when interpreting this passage. There is this issue of the little word “to” as in, “to destroy”. On the surface, it sounds like God is saying that He created the destroyer for the very purpose of destroying. The word “to” is translated from the single Hebrew letter, Lamed, which is prefixed to the word which is translated destroy. This letter as a prefix has a very broad range of possible meanings. The context of its usage is the best indicator of its intended meaning. One meaning is; “to be ready or disposed for doing anything.” (Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon. Lamed, def. B2) In Isaiah 38:20 the very same is translated “ready to...”. From the context of this passage, it is evident that God is telling His people not to fear the destroyer because He has made all people, including the people who make and use weapons of destruction. Therefore He has the power to stop both them and their weapons. To say that God has created the destroyer for the purpose of destroying, based on this short phrase, is an interpretation that just does not work in the context in which it is found. Why would God create someone to serve a purpose, and then purpose to stop him from doing what He purposed? That’s oxymoronic. It is the destroyer himself who has purposed to destroy. God is comforting His people by telling them He can easily stop the destroyer because He created him too.
Isaiah 45:7 – Did God say he created evil?
Another classic that Calvinists like to quote as proof that God has created evil also comes from Isaiah.
“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.”
Isaiah 45:7 KJV
These words do seem to paint a gut-wrenching picture of God actually admitting to being responsible for creating evil in general. But no picture could be further from the truth or more blasphemous. What God is speaking of is obviously the opposite of “peace” in the same way that He contrasted “light” and “darkness”. This peace means tranquility of life, and the word translated “evil” more literally means “calamity”. Some translations, including the NKJV, actually use the word “calamity” in this verse. This calamity that God is speaking of His judgment on man. Many examples of this type of picture could be cited. The great flood was a major calamity and judgment on man. There was judgment in the form of calamity on Sodom and Gomorrah, Pharaoh in Egypt, Israel in the wilderness, and so on. Many times this judgment is called “evil”. Here are a couple of examples where the same Hebrew word is used.
And the Lord repented of the evil (“harm” NKJV)which he thought to do unto his people.
Exodus 32:14 KJV
“Thus says the Lord: ‘Stand in the court of the Lord’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the Lord’s house, all the words that I command you to speak to them. Do not diminish a word. Perhaps everyone will listen and turn from his evil way, that I may relent concerning the evil (“calamity” NKJV) which I purpose to bring on them because of the evil of their doings.”
Jeremiah 26:2-3 KJV
Note: By using the word “perhaps”, it should be apparent that God wasn’t even sure if the people would repent! Again, so much for Calvinism’s concept of an all-knowing God.
Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will bring on Judah and on all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil (“doom” NKJV) that I have pronounced against them; because I have spoken to them but they have not heard, and I have called to them but they have not answered.'”
Jeremiah 35:17 NKJV
These are examples of the same “evil” God was speaking of in Isaiah 45:7. God most certainly did not bring evil into existence as though it would not exist had He not created it.
Doesn’t the song of Moses prove that God knows what people will do?
In Deuteronomy God speaks to Moses and tells him that in the future, Israel will turn from Him. Doesn’t this prove that God knows what people are going to do? Let’s take a look.
And the Lord said to Moses: “Behold, you will rest with your fathers; and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. Then My anger shall be aroused against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured. And many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?'”
Deuteronomy 31:16-17 NKJV
God goes on to command Moses to write a song about this prediction and teach it to the people so they would remember it. Calvinists like to point to this passage and say, “See! God does know the future.” But let’s look at it closer and in view of the rest of the context. In verse 21 God tells Moses how He knows the people will turn from Him.
“…For I know the inclination of their behavior today, even before I have brought them to the land of which I swore to give them.”
Deuteronomy 31:21 NKJV
Nowhere does God say anything close to the idea that He just knows because He is God. No, He predicts Israel will turn from Him because of His experience with them. He knew what their tendencies were. Moses told Israel earlier that God kept them in the wilderness for the very purpose of finding out what they were made of.
“And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.”
Deuteronomy 8:2 NKJV
Apparently He didn’t know for sure at first! But obviously, by the time God told Moses to write the song, He had come to clearly understand the inclination of Israel’s heart. No doubt, God’s disappointment began with the golden calf incident. It should also be apparent that the purpose God had in mind for making the children of Israel memorize the song was in the hope they would remember it and not turn from Him, or at least put it off for as many generations as possible.
Also in the song that God gave Moses are these interesting words.
“For they are a nation void of counsel, nor is there any understanding in them. Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!”
Deuteronomy 32:28-29 NKJV
If God is in total control and just knows everything that will happen, why is His heart yearning and hoping for Israel to behave differently?
There is one other interesting fact about God’s prediction concerning Israel turning from Him. God predicts the extent to which Israel will break His covenant. He says they will turn and worship other gods and serve them. He knows they have that propensity because of the golden calf incident. But this prediction is rather broad and doesn’t go into any more detail. But then, many generations down the road when they did turn from Him to worship other gods, God says these interesting words.
“But they set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to defile it. And they built the high places of Baal which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which I did not command them, nor did it come into My mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.”
Jeremiah 32:34-35 NKJV
When God told Moses to write the song, He predicted Israel would turn from Him. But after the fact, God admits that He never even imagined they would become so evil that they would actually sacrifice their children to pagan gods! The picture of Israel sacrificing their children to pagan gods can not be found in the song of Moses. So to put it bluntly and state the obvious, God didn’t even see that one coming …and He said so! So it is clear that God did not predict Israel’s falling away because He simply knows everything that will happen. His was a calculated prediction based on His past experience with them.
Doesn’t Peter’s denial prove that Yeshua knew what he would do?
Calvinists like to point to Yeshua’s prediction that Peter would choose to deny knowing him as proof that God knows what a person will do.
Then he said, “I tell you Peter, the rooster will not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know me”.
Luke 22:34 NKJV
The question again is, how did Yeshua know this? Was it really because the future was written in stone somewhere and he had seen the script? No. Yeshua’s prediction was similar to God’s prediction concerning Israel. It was based on His past experience with Peter. Yeshua knew what Peter was made of even better than Peter knew himself. Yeshua knew Peter was made of the stony soil that he mentioned in his parable in Mathew 13.
“But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself but endures only for a while. For when tribulation of persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.”
Matthew 13:20-21 NKJV
This could be the reason why Yeshua renamed Simon and called him Peter, which means stone. It was Peter’s character and Yeshua knew it. But there is also another story going on behind the scenes which no one seems to have put together. It’s right there in the context again, but we have not understood what was really going on that night when Peter denied Yeshua.
And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren.” But he said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you, both to prison and to death.” Then he said , “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know me.”
Luke 22:31-34 NKJV
Here is what was going on that night. Satan had asked for Peter to test him just as Yeshua said. Satan knew as well as Yeshua did that Peter was stony ground and would fail under pressure. After reading this passage, most people think that because Yeshua prayed for Peter, Satan could no longer get at him. But that is not what it says. Yeshua said he prayed that Peter’s faith would not fail. And then he said, “when you have returned…”. Question: Returned from what? Answer: Returned from being tested by Satan! Yeshua never said Satan wasn’t going to sift Peter. He actually indicated the opposite when he said, “when you have returned (from being sifted), strengthen your brethren.” Yeshua only indicated Peter’s faith would not fail and thus lose it all. Yeshua knew Peter wasn’t as strong as he thought he was, and that he would deny him under pressure… and Satan was given permission to test him only so far that night for Peter’s own good. Peter needed to see his own weaknesses so he could strengthen himself. Then Yeshua told him to strengthen his brethren with his new knowledge and strength afterward. Yeshua knew the testing that was coming to Peter that night, and it was on this basis that he predicted Peter’s denials.
So now the question is, did Peter still have the free will to make a false prophet out of Yeshua by choosing not to deny him? The answer is no. Yeshua knew it was extremely unlikely, but Peter still could have refused to deny him. Actually, he got off to a really good start in the garden of Gethsemane when he drew his sword and attacked those who came to arrest Yeshua! You have to know that this is exactly what was on Peter’s mind when he did it. He was going to prove to Yeshua he was wrong about him and was willing to go to the death for him. But when it comes to making a false prophet out of Yeshua, what people don’t realize is that Yeshua left himself a way out in the extremely unlikely event Peter surprised him. Peter did not have the power to make a false prophet out of Yeshua, but he did have the power to make sure no rooster ever crowed that day! Go back and read the story again in all the gospels and notice the timing of the rooster’s crows! I picture an angel standing alongside the rooster goosing him to crow at just the right moment! Peter could have surprised Yeshua and refused to deny him, in which case I picture angels everywhere keeping all rooster’s beaks shut for the rest of that day! Yeshua would have been thrilled with Peter and rewarded him for it much the way God was thrilled with Abraham and rewarded him when he was tested. But Yeshua knew Peter’s stony heart and knew it was a safe bet that he would deny him, thus it was not a prediction based on knowing the future.
Now think about this from Peter’s point of view. If I had been Peter and was told I was going to do something bad and I didn’t have any choice in the matter, I would have known better than to feel guilty about doing it! And if anyone had tried to make me feel guilty about it, I would have thrown it back in their face and said it wasn’t right for them to hold me accountable for something in which I had no choice. Anyone with half a mind would do the same! But it says that Peter went out and wept bitterly because of what he had done. He knew he had the choice and could have changed things, but he didn’t.
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