Do you believe someone can know God's will if they don't read the Bible?
453816
Yes.  God is not a book, nor is He confined to a book.\n\nThink about this:\n\nIn the time of Isaiah the prophet, the "Bible" as we know it had not been written fully.  But the Torah did exist, that is, the Books of the Law of Moses.  God spoke to Isaiah things which were not contradictory to the Torah, but yet were not in there either exactly.  \n\nAlso, most of history, most people have actually been illiterate.  And yet, God communicates with all of us, if we listen.
624602
you have to be blind to not look around and see that every freaking thing the bible says is going to happen is alr....oh wait:\n\nLuke 8:10\n\n"...so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled:\n\n   \n    `They see,\n       but they don't really see;\n    they hear,\n       but they don't understand."\n\nas in the days of Noah...
709438
God has given to us free will.  We can believe in Him or not.  It is not His Will that any of us should perish.  But He gives us that choice.  He says in the Bible that His people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.   May God Bless
158386
Yes, God IS all-knowing and sovereign. It's repeated in the Bible over and over again. \nIsaiah 25:1 O LORD, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name; For You have worked wonders, Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.\nPsalm 139:1-4   LORD, You have searched me and known me.\n    You know when I sit down and when I rise up;\n         You understand my thought from afar.\n    You scrutinize my path and my lying down,\n         And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.\n    Even before there is a word on my tongue,\n         Behold, O LORD, You know it all.\n\nHis plans are always fulfilled. (Prov 21:30; Romans 9)\n\nBut oy, that is a hard question you ask. I do believe we have free-will. We are responsible for our actions. But how are God's sovereignty and our free will compatible? I can't figure it out... BUT there are great Christian thinkers of the past who came to some conclusion. Why not read, "On the Freedom of the Will" by St. Augustine or \nread a brief bio. concerning "On the.." (scroll down a little more than half-way): http://www.desiringgod.org/library/biographies/98augustine.html\n\nI think I'll read it as well... ; )
695622
Nope. If you live in God's will you are willing to accept that some times what you want is not what God wills. You do not and can not buy God's blessings or bribe God into giving you what you want.
472132
It's one of those many paradoxes in the Bible.  I do believe in God knowing all things, but the act of love requires a wanting to choose rather than a forced allegiance.  How can one explain the mind of God in this?  Only that in his perfect plan, he chose to give us the opportunity to choose Him out of love.  I know that it seemingly appears to be double faced, but why do we as Christians demand that God make sense to our particular intellectual understanding?\n\nAlso, the English language is a detriment to scriptures.  You almost have to understand the original texts to understand what is being said in the different passages.\n\nAs I have stated on these blogs, I like the Hebrews passages that quote the Isaiah passages that say that the law will be written on our hearts and minds.  So in your prayer life start asking God to reveal His truth in your heart.  Ask, Seek and Knock...
1124143
You've just pointed out the biggest contradiction in a belief in god.  Religious people answer this (it isn't really an answer) by usually saying, "we can't understand god's will" or some such response.  But the truth is, it's contradictory and illogical.  Same thing for prayer -- if god's got a plan and it's already all laid out, why bother to pray to him for anything, since he's apparently already decided if you'll get it or not? \n\nAnd, apparently, if god has a plan, then me not believing in him is all part of his plan, and I'm just fulfilling his wishes by not believing in him -- so christians, stop trying to convert me!\n\n:)
1018526
I believe in God just not the bible, how dare anyone claim to know what God thinks, I have more respect for God, there are hundreds of archaeological finds proving that the bible that exists was put into place by church hierarchy that had ulterior motives for including and not including what THEY wanted in the bible, only someone who had ALL the original texts and could read them in the original language that they were written in would have a good understanding of what the ancient religious leaders had in mind, and who's to say they were God inspired, insane asylums are full of people who hear God
533689
Holy Bible is where the Word of God can be read. Bible can only be understand with the eyes of your heart and with your faith and with the understanding of your mind as well. You will never fully understand the Holy Bible if you only "think" with your mind. The Holy Bible can be understood with both your mind and heart. No matter what version it may be.
351280
To learn to think what God thinks and speak what His word says.. will improve your line up with Him. Think what God thinks....Your will need to be given to God, not yours. But its your free will for what you want to do  for your life...your own or give it to God.
840134
Yes I am what I am by predestination, But that did not take away my free will, God gave us all a free will, But since God Knows the beginnning to the end, & by his foreknowledge as to what decsions we will make, Then based upon him knowing all things, then God can predestinate anyone based upon his knowledge as to what path we will take.
496238
You will find your answer at 2 Peter 1:20,21 - "For you know this first, that no prophecy of Scripture springs from any private interpretation. For prophecy was at no time brought by man’s will, but men spoke from God as they were borne along by holy spirit."\n\nSo, the Almighty Creator of the Universe, Jehovah God, is the ultimate source of the Bible.
1038932
We do have free will, but all in all God knows everything. We have free will because he's not trying to change us (Or is he?)...
586305
You mean is it wrong for Christians to read?  No....they are not bound to what they can/cannot read.  Better we read and talk about it then say so without reading.  I have not read it, but my SIL has and she is a Christian.\nGod judges us by His Law not man made laws.  His law is the Ten Commandments.\nWhat unsaved people do not realize is we have no boundaries of what we can/cannot do.  We have convictions that warn us of the consequences of doing what would be sinful in God's eyes.
1067573
I am not exactly sure if the Bible says " you do or do not have freewill" specifically. But I believe that we do not have freewill, and the definition of freewill is "lack of internal compulsions". it talks in Romans nine how every intentional act is predestined to happen by God, and how even the evil doers, are used to accomplish his plan. this is why we "End up doing what God wants anyway." I believe that bad things happen for a reason as well and that they are Gods plan for our life. We may not be able to see the reason and we may never be able to, but that does not mean it was not his plan. And any suffering we endure is Gods will, and it may not seem fair or just to us, but Paul says in Romans who is the clay to question the potter, I fully agree with this, who are you and I to question the creator of the universe, and our heavenly father? I encourage you to read, "The Christian view of Man",  I cant remember the authors first name but his last name is Machen. Also Romans Chapter Nine, and parts of Hebrews.
632244
A belief in God allows you the privilege of believing the book. It is not the other way around as your Question would seem. Once god allows you to believe you will understand why the bible is soooooooo special. Here is part of an article I wrote for my local paper maybe it will help!?\n\nIt’s hard to see when your blind!\nScriptures for thought 1 Corn 2:14 & 2 Corn 4:4\n\nNeither myself nor any other human being has the ability to pursued, convince or other wise manipulate any other human being into a saving knowledge of Christ. There simply is nothing I can say, no act I can perform, that will fully allow you to understand what I KNOW to be true. I may be able to help you understand some things about God but I can’t make you KNOW him. This knowledge is a gift given by God, on his on accord, for his purpose and by his prerogative. Please understand that my saving knowledge or unquestionable trust in the bible is not a thought or an idea I decided or convinced myself into believing. The only reason I can believe what I KNOW is because God lets me KNOW. Period.  Water is wet, fire is hot and God is God.\n\nTry this analogy out.\nHypothetically imagine being born completely physically blind. You have never seen a single color, not a one. Nothing but total, empty, blackness. Now you ask me "what color is pink"? What could I possibly say to make you completely and accurately understand what color pink is? You can’t physically touch or feel color. You would be forced to either allow your imagination to take my descriptive words that you have no basis of context to compare them to and create and imaginary idea of what color pink is or you will concede that it is impossible to know what color pink is having never seen a single color of any kind in your whole life. Or…. Take little 2yr old Johnny and a hot stove as an example. Don’t you touch that stove little Johnny, it’s very hot and it’s going to burn you. But little Johnny doesn’t yet know hot or burn. I can futility try to explain to him what hot and burn are but until he experiences the realities of hot and burn he has no real context to understand them. Ah but after he grabs that hot stove…If eyesight were given to the blind. Now they would KNOW. Now they can understand the things we tried to explain with words. They now have first hand experiential knowledge that completely changes their perspective. This is kind of how a saving knowledge of Christ works. We are all totally blind and absolutely cannot know saving grace until he allows us to see him. He is the only physician in existence that can heal our spiritual blindness. There are no glasses to help, no magic word I can tell you. No, the faith to believe is a merciful gift of god. Now certainty we can and must teach each other things about God, which we can choose to, accept or reject, but teachings about god alone cannot make you completely and savingly, know God. When and to whom God allows himself to be seen is one of the beautiful mysteries that belongs exclusively to God. It is knowledge that only he posses.\nI understand this probably sounds a little weird and if deep thought is applied it may even sound terribly scary. Let me encourage you friends, don’t despair. There is hope. I know first hand. I wandered though this world blind as a bat for the first 29 of the 33 years I was alive. In the infamous song Amazing Grace “I once was blind but now can see”. Now, if you find yourself saying this is all a bunch of bullarkey….. then maybe next time my friend. But to all of you who are struck with deep curiosity and find yourself thinking; could this be true? I must know more. I want to see.  Knock and the door will be opened, Ask and you will receive. Call on the name of the Lord and you will be saved. Pick up a bible and read it with the desire to understand the words, instead of looking for ways to ridicule them. Enjoy they peace and comfort that only Jesus can give your soul.\n\n\nLes
1050808
I believe that God does know the future. As for why He does things, we may not understand them. But, they are all within His plan.