gop_jeff said:You said: "Jesus had to be crucified to fulfill the scriptures." So obviously you were talking about some scripture.
So let me explain this again. God foreknew the choices that the Jewish leaders, Pilate, etc. etc., as free moral agents, were going to make. Yes, Christ's death and resurrection were God's chosen method of salvation, but nowhere did He force any of those people to make the choices they made; all of them acted out of their own free will to make the choices they made.
And I'm saying, as the Bible says, that people have free will, as free moral agents. I don't know how I'm going to beat that into you.
OK this is just sillyness. Now it's no longer predestination, it's just a matter of God being a great foreseer of things to come. That's ironic. If I didn't know any better I would think that God had a little trouble foreseeing some things.
How do you explain the whole Great Flood story? The whole premise of the story is God didn't have the foresight to know that his own creation would fail. After reflection he decided to spare the human race but he certainly wouldn't create an entire race only to kill everyone now would he?