Can God be surprised ?

Question

If somethings can surprise Him, it means he did not know they would happen. If nothing surprises him, then he can never be pleased or angry with us, because he always knew they would happen.

Answer 1

An excellent question/point. If God knows the future of every one of his creations, why did he have to 'test' one of his followers to see if he would obey Gods order to kill his only son?

If God knew in advance that Lucifer would fall and choose evil, why did he choose to create him? Wouldnt that mean it was deliberate and therefore that God created evil?

Answer 2

No, God cannot be surprised. You are correct in noting that God "always knew" things would happen. However, that is putting it in human terms...from the vantage point of space & time. God exists outside of time and space, therfore, He sees the "future" just as clearly as He sees the "past".

As far as being pleased or angry, look at it simply from a human perspective. For example, I know my kids and their differing personalities very well. Simply because I know how they will respond in certain situations does not negate my pleasure or anger when they follow through with predictable actions.

As humans, the element of surprise does seem to heighten our response of pleasure or anger. However, we can still experience those same emotions even without the element of surprise...

Answer 3

God knows all and where can you hide that He cannot see what you are doing. And no he does not get angry and yes He can be pleased but He allows us our free will. It is what you and I do with this free will that will either get Him "angry" or pleased. If you are a believer you have free will to do what you want---so think what you would really enjoy doing and then ask "what are the consequences if I do follow through with this thing that I would like to do" and go from there.
If you are young I know how difficult life can be (because there are certain things you would really like to do I have been there when I was around your age) but there are situations you do not want to get into---drugs will give you babies that will be mentally affected, risky sexual behavior can give you an STD---have you seen the images on these STDs---not a pretty sight or death due to AIDS, getting wasted---death due to DUI--not always but sometimes. God is a loving God but it is up to the individual.

Answer 4

God cannot be surprised. He knows what you are going to do before you do it. Remember he is the Alpha and the Omega, meaning the beginning and the end. Nothing has happened or will happen that he does already know about. Time is different for God.

Answer 5

God knows the end from the beginning.

God loves liberty. He's made His creatures with free will, and no one has the right to force it. Even God, who could force your will, has decided not to do it because He wants you to be free to choose --either for Him or even against Him.

I don't think God gets angry. He's slow for anger but great in mercy. He's pleased when we're happy. He's the fountain of real happiness. There's not anything that brings you more happiness than to know you're loved by One who knows you better than you do --your good and bad things--, and even so He loves you more than anything else. You can be honest before Him, without fearing for being rejected. Also, there's only true happiness when your life has a purpose, you're not here by accident. God gives you a purpose to live for, and an awesome future.

There's nothing like predestination. I've heard some people who say, "it had to happen that way because God had said so". No, it is not the way it works. God knows the end from the beginning, and He already knows what will happen before it happens. Bible prophecies are not predestination. They tell us what will happen as a consequence of the decisions of men. For example, somebody asked, why did God create Lucifer if He already knew he was going to rebel and be a danger for the universe? God took a risk by making Lucifer just as well as He did by making a universe filled with creatures with the power of free-will. Anybody was created free to love his Creator or not to love Him. That choice would be up to the creatures, not up to God. God's children were created free, and though He knew what would happen, He gave a chance and brought to the existence a being who eventually would decide by himself to rebel against his Creator. God did not create evil, but did prevent its existence.by planning a way to forgive the sinner without putting away the justice that the Law required for those who sin --He was willing to pay the price for the mistakes of the sinner.

Satan had no excuse to rebel against God. He had everything: the highest position for a created being, a home, friendship and respect from many other creatures --his brothers--, happiness, peace; and above all, love from everybody and from His Creator. Everybody was infinitely happy, including Lucifer, until the day he decided not to keep loving God, brake the happiness of Heaven, and long the position and worship that only God deserves, because He's the only One who's able to inspire love and respect from free-will creatures.

Lucifer was kept in Heaven for a certain time after he rebelled. He was given opportunity to repent and retake his initial position in Heaven, but he didn't do it. Though he knew he was wrong, and God was right, pride didn't let him to take it back. He made his final decision, and there was nothing else God could do for him.

God has given us the power to decide. It's up to us how we use this gift.

Answer 6

I don't think anything can surprise God. But it is a good question. I say that because I believe God is all knowing. So you got me thinking about the other part and your guess is as good as mine.......I would think God can be pleased with us but not angry because God is not angry, or vindictive like us humans can be.....God is pure love and perfection and knows we are going to make mistakes. From these mistakes we can learn and get closer to God.

Answer 7

Maybe he can't be surprised but there is "something" that exists that enables him to take delight in how we act when we please him. The element that exists when a mother tells a father that his son refused to lie when questioned about something. The ability to be angered when Moses struck the rock. These are human kinds of things. We are made in His image so we display the same kinds of reactions he does in the Bible sometimes. God would want to be able to react with delight, disgust, pleasure or anger, it SEEMS. So, there is a, heretofore, unnamed quality or concept that God has to be able to anticipate and be eager. One who knows all ALL, would be bored, no? (Another human thing)

Answer 8

He is not surprised...no sense of time for God. I am happy or sad about something I knew would happen--I am sad about death, for example. And death will happen. I am happy to be starting school, and school will happen.

Answer 9

God is all-knowing. There is nothing that you can do outside of His sight. There is nothing that humanity can do to surprise God. (There are things that can anger or sadden Him. But not surprise.)

Answer 10

I think its what course we as humans take is most surprising, not to him, but the way we fail to see how blessed we are to live in a world like ours. Failure is oh so common in humanity. And success is oh so eluding yet sweet when accomplished. Back to your question, I refuse to answer that.