Number one I'm not a good proponent to keep within the fundamentalist sets of dogma within the Christian sphere. So if you want to battle this out with a purely Bible thumping believer that would be your Brother D.
I'm not the one to play these games with. However, I have a really good grasp on these scriptures because I have been studying them and applying them for a long time.
Having said that I could play the role of a fundamentalist because I see some holes in your conclusions.
To start with I don't think the first passage you quoted means God knows everything. It says His understanding is infinite, that's not the same thing IMO. There's a difference in the ability to understand something as opposed to having complete foreknowledge of everything that will happen.
One way I can show that God doesn't know everything using the Bible is the accounts of the OT. There's a passage that says God was grieved when Israel rebelled and forgot His covenant and actually this is the entire theme of the OT that His people continually grieved God's spirit.... in other words did the OPPOSITE of what God WANTED.
How could God be grieved if God had already known or planned for that to happen? how could they have done the opposite of what God wanted?
Psalm 78
When He slew them, then they sought Him;
And they returned and sought earnestly for God.
35 Then they remembered that God was their rock,
And the Most High God their Redeemer.
36 Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouth,
And they lied to Him with their tongue;
37 For their heart was not steadfast with Him,
Nor were they faithful in His covenant.
38 But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity,
And did not destroy them.
Yes, many a time He turned His anger away,
And did not stir up all His wrath;
39 For He remembered that they were but flesh,
A breath that passes away and does not come again.
40 How often they provoked[
h] Him in the wilderness,
And grieved Him in the desert!
41 Yes, again and again they tempted God,
How could any of the above mean that God was omniscient? how could God get angry or disappointed knowing everything?
During the Noah's Ark account it is written that God was sorrowful (regretted) that he created man and that it grieved God's heart.
Genesis 6
"5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
So if you're assuming predestination how is it that God could be grieved at mans wrong doings and make a decision to wipe them out?
In James the first chapter it says this....
James 1
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.
14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.
15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
Again, this passage reveals Gods creation has their own will to choose.
So I'm going with God is NOT omniscient, and it's simply due to the way man is created. The nature of the creative imagination of man and the development of his perceptions are far too complex for even God to predict. This has no bearing on what God is of course, God doesn't need to control man like a Puppet Master to be God, or know everything man will choose, or predestinate mans choices to be God. It's a misconception, man becomes his own agent within creation and is subject to the laws and consequences of creation.
I don't care about whether or not God is omniscient it makes no real difference other than people get the wrong ideas about God. Now everything I said here all falls perfectly inline with mans salvation, there is no dilemma.
Having said all that we could also discuss God without using the Bible because the Bible isn't perfect either. It has errors and contains information that isn't useful.
A good way to perceive the God of the Bible anyways is to view His creation like having pets lol, He's in control of mans environment, mans world, mans provisions, mans surroundings but not mans decisions or destinies.
Kind of like when you have a pet, a dog or say a fish tank. You as the master (God) are in control of their environment completely, their housing, their food sources, temperature controls and all the little things they need to survive. So you take that pet and you place it within that environment and you can even predict what it might do in given circumstances, you know it might fight with certain other pets, you may know all these little things about them but the one thing you aren't in control over is their decisions, you might be able to predict some of the things they do but you didn't predestinate it. Once you place them in their environment they are free to act as they will, choose when and where they go therein and what they want when they want it. Your pet might even have bad or good predispositions but you didn't make it so.
All in all that pet views you as their God or Master despite the fact you have no real omniscience it doesn't negate the fact you are still their Master. God's creation is the same way, He can control everything within their environments but God doesn't predestinate what mans choices will be. And that's because God gifted man with his own mind, imagination and creative nature. Those are factors too complex to predict or foreknow.
God can predict certain things, but that's not the same as predestinate, two entirely different concepts. One is an understanding of something, the other means to control.
