“Past, present & future” is a created entity. It did not always exist (even the word “always” is a time based word). Also, God does not learn something new so you are correct in saying that there never was a point where He thought of something new, such as our creation. All of everything, yo and I, the universe, every single event and thing has always been known to God at all times. I admit that this is extremely difficult and to be honest, while I can understand the concept, I really cannot grasp it. I accept it as truth but that doesn’t mean I can really grasp it. I think our minds are too limited to really fully comprehend it.

To try and answer your question — (“Has humanity, even our cosmos, alway been with God, did he simply change our form from thought to corporal existance”) — it has always been part of God’s mind and what was in His mind for all of eternity, He created at some point. Even though I occupy a teeny weeny little blip on the time spectrum, I have always been known by God for all of eternity. My existence began the moment I was conceived but God has always known about me and when I would come into existence.

I don’t know if I’m making any sense — hopefully I am.

Here is where I think the problem lies. There is no future outside of time. Future is time based just like present and past are time based. God created time, it does not just exist. Here is something interesting that demonstrates that science has accepted that time is a creation. Science teaches that is a created entity that did not always exist. Science says that the laws of causality demands that everything within our material universe has a cause and all events are dictated by a cause and effect. These laws are only valid if they exist within a time entity or framework, that is within a passage of time. Science likes to teach that the big bang is the cause of creation but as we Christians know, it was God that created. In any event Einstein and a few other scientists taught, and it is now accepted science, that there was no such thing as “before” prior to the moment of creation since time had not yet been created. This science is comes from the general theory of relativity which supports the Word of God. At creation, time was created. It did not exist before creation.

I’m only bringing up the above to demonstrate that the entity of time is something that God created, it didn’t just exist. God is not bound to any of His creation and that includes His creation, time. The laws of cause and effect which is bound by the creation of time, has no bearing on God. It can’t as it is something He created. Future does not have the same meaning to God as it does to you and I and in fact is irrelevant. We are bound to time and we cannot know something in the future. But there is no such thing as “future” outside of time. The future is unknowable only to us who are bound by time. We are created and live in a created world, a created universe and the created entity which is time.

It’s really a difficult concept because we can only think in terms of time. We should not think of God in terms of time. To say that God has always been there is incorrect for that suggests a passing of time. To think or speak of our “ETERNAL” God must be in terms that do not use time based words such as present, past, future. But as time bound creatures, we have no other way of speaking so we may say “always.” Before there was such a thing as “time,” God existed.
You ask where did we get the notion that God can’t experience anything ‘new” to Him and still be God. If God could experience ‘new’ (also time based word), then God is learns and does not possess all knowledge. If God were to experience something new, it would have to be at the hands of something He created. That would mean that something He created took Him by surprise and He experienced something unknown to Him. That simply is not possible. There are several scriptures that speak to His understanding as without limits (infinite).

Thanks for your comments. It made me search how to even articulate such a difficult concept.

I can only understand scripture if we make the future and unknowable item unless God should choose to determine all or part of that future (predetermine).

It seems, from the teachings on God’s omniscience, that we believers make more unnecessary trouble for ourselves by the way we define some of God’s attributes. For example, where did we get the notion that God can’t experience anything ‘new’ to him and still be God. Do we somehow think that he is like a liiving crystal ball who experiences nothing, or something like that??

The brilliant ones ‘outsmart’ themselves and then try to convince us to believe them. The same silliness I find when they say that ‘sovereignty’ means that God controls all things. Sovereignty is simply the ability to control all things.

Thanks for your interest in these important teachings
Ladd