Why does God test people if he already knows the result of the test?

Question

According to Chapter 5 of Rick Warren's "The Purpose Driven Life" God tests people to find out what is really in our hearts just as he tested Hezekiah by withdrawing from him. If God is omniscient why does he need to test us to learn what is in our hearts?

Answer 1

Top Ten Signs You're a Fundamentalist Christian
10 - You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours.
9 - You feel insulted and "dehumanized" when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt
8 - You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Triune God
7 - Your face turns purple when you hear of the "atrocities" attributed to Allah, but you don't even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in "Exodus" and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in "Joshua" including women, children, and trees!

6 - You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky.

5 - You are willing to spend your life looking for little loopholes in the scientifically established age of Earth (few billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that Earth is a few generations old.

4 - You believe that the entire population of this planet with the exception of those who share your beliefs -- though excluding those in all rival sects - will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering. And yet consider your religion the most "tolerant" and "loving."

3 - While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in "tongues" may be all the evidence you need to "prove" Christianity.

2 - You define 0.01% as a "high success rate" when it comes to answered prayers. You consider that to be evidence that prayer works. And you think that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God.

1 - You actually know a lot less than many atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history - but still call yourself a Christian

Answer 2

It is a mistaken notion that "God tests Man". God Created the Creation and established the Law of Karma, which is a perfect process by which we Souls eventually process from ignorance to Knowledge, by incarnating as many times as is required to fulfill the the Purpose of Life... which is for each Soul to personally discover who and what it is? The "results" are slightly changing all the time, and this will continue for a long as the Creation continues. Cruel? The Law of Karma insures that only those who "deserve" harsh treatment experiences harsh treatment. If one studies the Law of Karma, one will find that it is the finest example of genius known to Man. It is perfection in action.

Answer 3

This is the classic free will vs. destiny question - If God knows what you will do, then do you really have a choice, or were you destined to make the choice you made?

I believe that God gave us free will because he loves us, and he wants us to love him of our own choice - not because he made us so that we had to love him. But he cannot give us free will without giving us choices, or "tests," if you will, because that would defeat the purpose of free will, and he has to respect our choices, good or bad, even if he knows what they will be beforehand. Some will be good and some will be bad - I guess he thinks that the good choices are worth the mistakes.

Answer 4

Remember the Free will? so you are tested and he knew already your choice, but will you not be glad to know that because of your Free Will, He is still giving you the chance to change your mind? His omniscience has nothing to do with that. It only only means that in any of your choice a consequence is set to happen.

Answer 5

God does know what is in our hearts, but sometimes we need to go through trials so that we will have to dig deep and discover what we are truly made of. WE are the ones who learn from this test.

Answer 6

You have a big chip on your shoulder. Are you Moses or something? Do you know how lucky Moses was for not being burned alive by God?! I think your testing is being done by nasty Satan. God does not need us and you would have to be very special for him to "test" you. He loves us and I think it is the devil who has the time to sit around and test people, not the Almighty.

Answer 7

To claim such is a method to avoid the FACT that what ever is happening is the result of either, their own actions or of bad LUCK. In other words it is denial of the truth plain and simple.

Answer 8

Hmm. I never thought of that. Come to think of Abraham and his son Isaac. If Abraham would sacrifice, did he have to go through the phase of coming to sacrifice his son willingly? I guess it is about exercising your free will. So God wants to see what we will do.

Answer 9

Its like the guy above said - he knows but wants to show us. Frankly, I think we can think we know what we will do in a given situation, but act completely out of character when it actually happens to us. So the real question becomes, what does "showing us to ourselves" really accomplish?

perhaps it gives us reason to work against what we now know are our impulses.

Answer 10

Rick Warren's God is am ego-centric maniac who doles out suffering and small gifts so that people will love him.