The concept of the foreknowledge of God has been a focus of discussion among many people for a long time. We touched on this subject when we looked at the sovereignty of God and man’s free will, but in this chapter, we will focus on what the foreknowledge of God is and what impact His foreknowledge may or may not have on man’s destiny. This is such an explosive topic among people in the religious world because depending on how you view the foreknowledge of God, your entire worldview and understanding of God can be formed, reformed, or shaken to its core.
When we talk about the foreknowledge of God, we are talking about His ability to know events before they happen. This may seem pretty straightforward, especially in the light of passages that we have looked at many times, such as:
“remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’” (Isaiah 46:9-10 ESV).
We also spent time in the last chapter talking about how God’s sovereignty is seen in prophecy, or His “prewriting” of history. As I indicated, it seems pretty straightforward that, of course, a sovereign God can see into the future. He can do all things. And most of us would agree that this has to be true of a sovereign God. The debate usually comes when we discuss the ramifications of God’s foreknowledge for man. Let’s start with the premise that God can peer into the future and see events that will happen. Here are some conclusions or ramifications we need to consider, whether we decide to dismiss them outright or accept them. Our spiritual worldview will be altered depending on what we do with God’s foreknowledge. Let’s consider the following ramifications of God having foreknowledge, understanding that this will not be an exhaustive list, and many people may have nuanced versions of what we will discuss. This might be a good time to grab some water and an aspirin or two.
Does God’s foreknowledge simply mean that God can see into the future? Are events that will happen destined to happen, and God sees them before they happen? This may be the first impulse we have when discussing God’s foreknowledge. God knows all, even things that will come to pass. It is a powerful Being who can see into the future to know what will happen. But is that true sovereignty? Does knowing the future mean God is sovereign? If future events will happen and God can see what they are, which is sovereign? Is it God Who is sovereign, or is it time that is sovereign? Can God alter the things that will happen in the future? Yes? Well then, did God know that He would alter the future that He knew would happen?
And this begins the cosmic headache that has plagued man for eons. This will be a headache for us, but not God. I have no doubts that this is elementary to an infinite God. Unfortunately, we will be testing our limits of logic and understanding to keep up with the ramifications. An entire area of physics deals with the space-time realities that Albert Einstein made famous. Spend some time talking about the Theory of Relativity, and you will begin to see where this thinking can take us. But back to our issue. Does God simply know the future, or can He determine the future? Does that mean there is no future until God determines it, or does the future exist apart from God causing it to exist?
Let’s take this thinking down a little further (and prepare to get really uncomfortable). Does God know if I am going to heaven? Is that future set because God knows it will happen? If so, does that mean that no matter what I do from now until the day I die, my future will be what God knows it will be now? Is my life nothing more than a script to be played out as fate intends? I use the word fate because that is what we are talking about. If my future is going to happen the way God knows it will, then it becomes my fate. And if my fate is set, then my destiny (another term for fate) becomes fatalistic. Many who espouse a Calvinistic doctrine believe this is the path; only they take God’s sovereignty a step further. God is not subject to time but sovereign over time and determines the outcome of everything (determinism).
Perhaps you say, no, God does not determine the fate of men. He can see the choices we will make, but He gives man free will to do what he wants to do. God just knows the choices we will make. Sounds easy enough, but in this instance, you still end with a fatalistic viewpoint. What is going to happen will happen. My series of free will choices will unfold the way they will unfold for God to know how they will end up for me. Unlike Calvinists, we simply shift the responsibility onto ourselves rather than God for what God sees as our future. So, Jesus standing at the door knocking is something He must do so we can go through the motions of making the free will choices that time has destined us to make. (Hang on, I need that aspirin now).
Do you see the dilemma we might find ourselves in? Once we start down a path of trying to draw logical conclusions about what the foreknowledge of God means, we lock ourselves into only considering things that we are capable of considering. Can I suggest that God is so far above us that He can accomplish things that we might not know how to figure out? Just ask Albert Einstein. Seriously, can we agree that God can do all things, including seeing into the future, without having our lives subjected to fatalism or determinism? Is it possible that the free will which God has given to us is free will indeed and not part of a fatalistic script that we must play out to get to what God already knows will happen to us? And is it possible that what we think we know about how time works is not how time or God’s foreknowledge of events truly works? Could other possibilities exist that we may never be able to understand that demonstrate God’s sovereignty, man’s free will, and God’s foreknowledge? If so, that would bear witness to God being higher than us in the most amazing and incredible ways.
As we dive deeper into the questions of God’s foreknowledge, I will ask you to consider some verses that may make you uncomfortable. You will have the option to ignore the verses, explain the verses away by saying that they mean something different from what they say, or you can accept them at face value. These will be verses that may challenge the way we view God’s sovereignty. And here’s the unfair part… I may not have any answers for you except to say that you should consider them when you form your opinions on God’s foreknowledge. I apologize ahead of time. But if we are going to tackle a subject like “Foreknowledge and the Sovereignty of God,” then we need to be ready to consider all the passages handed down by the Holy Spirit, even if we end up saying, “I believe it, but I can’t explain it.” This is not a failure on our part but a step of faith into believing the things that are not seen.
First, let’s start with something relatively simple. In 1 Samuel 23, the Philistines begin to raid the people of Keilah. David, still on the run from king Saul, seeks the Lord’s council, asking if he should attack the Philistines and deliver the people of Keilah. God replies, “Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah.” But his men are worried:
“But David’s men said to him, “Behold, we are afraid here in Judah; how much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?” Then David inquired of the LORD again. And the LORD answered him, “Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand.” (1 Samuel 23:3-4 ESV).
David asks God twice about this to ensure he is absolutely sure of what will happen, and God answers definitively that David will succeed. Was this God’s foreknowledge? Yes. Isn’t this the purpose of David’s prayer? Is this often the purpose of our prayers? How discouraging it would be to serve a God Who would answer, “You know, I really don’t know what will happen. David, it’s a 50/50 chance. Yeah, go ahead and try it and let’s see what will happen.” That doesn’t instill much confidence from a God we hold to be sovereign and in control of everything. Or what if, when we ask for healing of a loved one, God answers and says, “Wow, he is pretty sick. I’m not sure he will pull through, but let’s hope for the best.” No, we ask because we know that God not only sees the future, but we believe He can affect the future. This is why David always turned to God. He never lost battles when He sought God’s counsel because God ensured the future when He spoke it into existence.
But was God simply telling David what would happen, or was God telling David that He would make the victory happen? Your answer to this question will determine a lot about how you view the sovereignty of God. But this story gets more interesting, and the Spirit is about to throw us a curve ball, so you might want to have those aspirins ready. Things happen just as God says they will happen (no surprise, right), but then Saul hears that David is in Keilah and sets his eyes on destroying David once and for all:
“Now it was told Saul that David had come to Keilah. And Saul said, “God has given him into my hand, for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars.” And Saul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men.” (1 Samuel 23:7-8 ESV).
So, Saul is determined to rid himself of David once and for all. What does David do? He does what he always does- He seeks the Lord’s counsel.
“Then David said, “O LORD, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah, to destroy the city on my account. Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? O LORD, the God of Israel, please tell your servant.” And the LORD said, “He will come down.” (1 Samuel 23:10-11 ESV).
God says, “He will come down.” David then repeats his question about the people of Keilah, and God does answer that they will surrender him into Saul’s hand. Are we dealing with the foreknowledge of God here? Most certainly. David wanted to know what would happen in the future, and he turned to the one Who knew without fail what would happen. God’s answer: Saul will come to get you, and the people will betray you. Now, put yourself in David’s shoes. The almighty God whom you have total trust in, the One who has redeemed your soul out of every adversity (1 Kings 1:29), tells you that the man who has put a bullseye on your back will come after you. What do you do?
“Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah, and they went wherever they could go. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the expedition.” (1 Samuel 23:13 ESV).
He does what I guess we would do. He decided not to wait around for Saul. We can join in with David and praise the almighty, sovereign God who let David peer into the future to avoid death and defeat. But do you see a potential problem we might have to address in verse 13 about the foreknowledge of God? Go ahead and reread. I’ll wait for you.
Did you see something that stood out to you? I did. Let me share my observations with you. In verse 11, God said (speaking of Saul), “He will come down.” Did God’s foreknowledge allow Him to see this? But in verse 13, we read that Saul learned that David had left Keilah, and “he gave up the expedition.” Interesting. What God said would happen did not happen. Saul did not come down even though God said He would. By now, I can feel the collective defenses of everyone rising. Hang in there with me. As I said, how you view God’s foreknowledge will shape how you interpret passages like these. This is where we as humans begin to discuss ramifications based on what we believe.
Some may say God got this one wrong. That is something I assume that most of my readers will not entertain, but perhaps we have some atheists or agnostics reading, so this is a valid point to consider. After all, we cannot close our eyes and pretend the Bible didn’t say what it said. The truth is, God said something would happen, and it didn’t happen. What does this tell us about God’s foreknowledge? Others may say that God meant that if David stayed in the city, Saul would come, and that’s why God gave David the heads-up about Saul. But this interpretation relies on us adding context to the reading to get to the conclusion we want to make. What we know: 1. God said Saul would come, and 2. Saul did not come. What we do to harmonize this is from us and our inferences. We may or may not get it right. Our harmonization is not from God but from our human reasoning. But this isn’t much different from what we do in other parts of the Scripture to harmonize and interpret God’s Word based on context and reasoning. However, when we do this, whether in this case with Saul or in any case, we must always be vigilant in understanding that employing reasoning sometimes leaves out the “thus saith the Lord” and moves into the realm of our understanding. This is often a necessary way to approach the Scriptures, but we must always be ready to change as we find a better way to interpret Scripture and not elevate our human reasoning to what we read in Scriptures. So, do we interpret God’s foreknowledge with Saul to mean that God knew that IF David stayed, Saul WOULD come down, but IF David left, Saul would NOT come down? Perhaps. But this interpretation requires us to add conditions beyond what the Scriptures overtly say in order to make it work.
The two ways we understand God’s foreknowledge that we looked at above have a lot to do with how we believe God’s foreknowledge operates. In one way we understand foreknowledge, we dismiss God’s foreknowledge altogether because we see that God said something would happen that did not happen. In the other way we understand foreknowledge, we conclude by adding context and reasoning apart from what the Scriptures have said to harmonize what we believe. This may or may not be correct, which is where we must be careful. But are there other possible ways to consider this passage that may still harmonize with Scripture? Let me put forth another way to consider our text with Saul. As I do, keep in mind that I am not definitively proposing this is the way to interpret this passage, but rather to have us all slow down and consider our conclusions once we move beyond what is written to add our reasoning in order to come to an understanding on what a verse is saying.
The one element we have not focused on in shaping a way to interpret this passage is the role that David’s free will played in God’s foreknowledge. Could David’s free will play a part in how we should come to understand God’s foreknowledge? Our second scenario hinted at this as a way to supply context, but could the nature of God’s foreknowledge be strongly linked to the gift of limited free will that God has given man? Is it possible that our free will affects the foreknowledge of God? If this is so, we must remember that God has created this to be so. Man did not develop free will apart from God determining that man was to have free will. This was what the Creator purposed to accomplish for man. Applying this thought to our situation with Saul, could the foreknowledge of God be such that God saw what would happen, but when David exercised his free will and left, God’s foreknowledge then saw something different, namely that Saul would not come? This way of interpreting God’s foreknowledge may be hard even to consider, depending on how you already view God’s foreknowledge. I understand this and only propose that you consider this as you stretch your mind to dive into how you believe God’s foreknowledge is manifested.
Viewing God’s foreknowledge this way doesn’t necessarily take away God’s sovereignty. It simply means that man’s free will may interact with the way God’s foreknowledge is manifested. And it does chop the doctrine of determinism off at the knees. For people who say God has given free will to man, it is a way to show what influence man’s free will has on how God has determined to interact with man. This way of interpreting the text relies on us understanding that God created man with free will that can affect his own future. We must let go of our idea that future events are fated to happen and cannot be altered. Once God sees an event, then nothing can change it. Our question should be, can an almighty, sovereign God create a world where His foreknowledge and man’s gifted free will can coexist? If so, He created it to work this way.
Enough philosophizing; how does this way of interpreting Saul’s situation play out? Well, is it possible that God sees events happen but cedes man the ability to alter events through the free will He gives man? If so, we may conclude that free will can alter God’s foreknowledge only because God created it to be this way. His free will gift to man may truly be more wonderful than many give it credit for. Let’s do this. Let’s look to see if there are other situations in the Bible where God’s foreknowledge sees one event, but the exercise of man’s free will alters what God’s foreknowledge sees. If we conclude that there is a pattern where man’s free will can affect what God sees in the future, then we will have to do something with this. But we will deal with that as we wrap up this chapter. Spoiler alert… I will caution us to stick to what we know and be careful to go beyond that. I hope to fortify our understanding that God’s ways are above ours, which means there is no shame in saying, “I just don’t know.”
In Exodus 32, God becomes furious with the people of Israel because they created a golden calf to worship while Moses was on the mountain getting the Ten Commandments. God was so furious that He told Moses that He would destroy the nation and start over to make a great nation from him to accomplish His purposes:
“And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.” (Exodus 32:9-10 ESV).
Here is a question we must address as we consider the foreknowledge of God… Did God mean what He said? Do we believe the text as written, or must we add context to make it fit into our beliefs of how the foreknowledge of God works? Did God intend to destroy the Israelites? If so, this must have been the future He saw for them once He decided to destroy them. Or do we start to add context to make the text mean something it doesn’t say? For example, do we say that in God’s foreknowledge, He knew that He would not destroy the people, or perhaps He knew that Moses would intercede for them and He would relent? Maybe this is a valid interpretation, but it requires us to add many conditions and assumptions beyond what the text says. And to what purpose? We do it to reinforce our understanding of what we think the foreknowledge of God means. This becomes even more difficult to do when we see how passionately Moses intercedes for the people, begging God not to destroy them for the sake of His own glory. This is the exercise of Moses’ free will. Did it alter the future that God intended for Israel?
“And the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.” (Exodus 32:14 ESV).
“The Lord relented.” This tells us that God did intend one thing to happen, but He changed His mind. The way I read this passage, Israel was as good as dead until Moses interceded for them. Yet, in some way, the exercise of Moses’ free will influenced the direction that God was going. If we hold to the belief that God must have known that He would change His mind, then we have to deal with the fact that He never meant what He said. He knew all along that He wasn’t going to destroy the people. The only way around this is by adding many assumptions not found in the text. I am not saying this is absolutely the wrong way to interpret this passage. It may very well be the correct way, but like it or not, it does move us toward a deterministic view of God’s foreknowledge- What will happen, will happen because this is what God sees that will happen. The future is what it is. And if we hold the position that God knew He would change His mind, then of what was He repenting or relenting? Is there truly a change if the future was set?
So, now that we have spent some time detailing the issues we must address, let’s briefly look at other examples when God intended to do one thing and, instead, did another. When we are done, we will bring everything together and discuss how we might want to consider how these things affect our view of God’s foreknowledge and His sovereignty. What do we do with passages like the one in Jonah where God intends to bring judgment but relents instead?
“When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.” (Jonah 3:10 ESV).
Did God know that He would relent? Perhaps. Or did God intend to carry out His plans until their free will altered what He decided to do? Again, how we interpret this passage depends on how we understand the foreknowledge of God. Did God give man free will that could change His intentions, or does the foreknowledge of God mean that He knew what man would choose and God followed the path that He foresaw? How much does the doctrine of determinism trump God’s gift of free will to man? I must admit that I am not 100% sure about this. Perhaps this is going beyond what we are capable of understanding about an infinite God whose ways are higher than our ways. But I hope we are all starting to see that we must be very careful before adopting a dogmatic approach that entrenches us into a position that may be beyond our ability to understand. Perhaps the answer is, “I believe the text. I believe in God’s sovereignty and foreknowledge. I believe in man’s free will. But I do not know how a perfect God, smarter and greater than I can ever be, works all of this in perfect harmony.”
Let’s turn to another passage. In 2 Kings 20, we read that king Hezekiah becomes sick and is about to die. God sends his prophet, Isaiah, to the king with a dire pronouncement:
“In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.’” (2 Kings 20:1 ESV).
These are definitive statements from a God who sees and knows all. “You shall die; you shall not recover.” Did God, in His foreknowledge, know this? We would all have to conclude that yes, He did. This is what God was telling Hezekiah would happen in a very definitive way. God doesn’t say that it’s likely that Hezekiah would die, but that He shall die. But Hezekiah prays to the Lord, and the Lord hears his prayers.
“And before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him: “Turn back, and say to Hezekiah the leader of my people, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD, and I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake.” (2 Kings 20:4-6 ESV).
Based on the free will act of the king to pray for mercy, God relents and adds 15 years to his life. So, the question is the same… did God, in His foreknowledge, know that Hezekiah would pray and that He would answer his prayers? The text is clear that God said one thing would happen, but another thing actually took place. How we interpret this passage also depends on how we see the foreknowledge of God. Do we lean toward a deterministic view of God’s foreknowledge that the ultimate future is what it is and God knows what will happen, or do we understand that there is some connection with God’s foreknowledge and the gift of free will that God gives man which may in some way influence God’s foreknowledge? Perhaps this is another time when we have to acknowledge what we know and be careful with the assumptions we bring to the table. Maybe this is also a time when we must walk away and marvel over God’s preeminence over man, especially when it comes to understanding things that are too wonderful for us to understand.
Now let’s look at a passage where God Himself may be appealing to man to use His free will to alter what will happen. In Jeremiah, God sends His prophet to warn of imminent judgment upon the people for their sins. Jeremiah is the prophet who is prophesying during the time that God will bring the Babylonians against them. As a last-ditch effort to avoid what is about to come, Jeremiah says this:
“Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and all the people, saying, “The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the words you have heard. Now therefore mend your ways and your deeds, and obey the voice of the LORD your God, and the LORD will relent of the disaster that he has pronounced against you.” (Jeremiah 26:12-13 ESV).
There are many considerations of how we see the foreknowledge of God wrapped up in this verse. Did God foresee the disaster that was to come? Jeremiah said it was pronounced against them. Did that pronouncement come because God foreknew events? Did God know that the people would refuse to repent? If so, why go through the motion of asking the people to do something that He foresaw they would not do? Again, how we answer these questions depends on how we understand the foreknowledge of God. Do we lean toward a deterministic interpretation of God’s foreknowledge, or do we understand that somehow, man’s free will which God gifted him plays a role that may affect God’s foreknowledge?
Let’s go to the New Testament and look at Jesus and His foreknowledge. This will assume that you believe that Jesus is God and that even on earth, He had the attributes of deity, such as foreknowledge. We will leave the one item alone that Jesus says He doesn’t know, namely the time of His return. He said the Father alone knows that, which I presume even the Holy Spirit doesn’t know. This seems to be the prerogative of the Father of the Groom, as it was with Jewish wedding traditions. Let’s remind ourselves what we mean when we say foreknowledge. We are talking about knowledge of future events, whether they are destined to happen or events that God will make happen. I am going to list a couple of verses and see if they raise questions as to God’s foreknowledge:
“And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching.” (Mark 6:6 ESV).
“When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” (Luke 7:9 ESV).
So, what does it mean that Jesus “marveled?” When someone marvels, they are amazed at something revealed to them. But if God has foreknowledge, is it possible for Him to be amazed or to marvel? If He knew for certain how the people of His hometown would react or how great the Centurion’s faith would be, could He really marvel? Think about it this way… If I watched a movie 100 times, I would probably know every detail of how it ended. What may have been a surprise for me the first time would likely not elicit much more than a yawn from me the 100th time I saw it. Why? Because I know what is going to happen. If I know what will happen, I won’t be surprised, I won’t marvel, and I won’t be amazed. Yet Jesus marveled. Again, how you interpret these passages largely depends on how you view the foreknowledge of God. Both of these verses were predicated on the free will actions of men. Is God’s foreknowledge determinative, or does man’s free will somehow affect God’s foreknowledge?
In looking at passages like all of the ones we looked at in this chapter, I am hoping we see that it’s not easy to simply say, “Yeah, I believe that God can see everything before it happens; He can even see if I am going to sin or remain faithful.” We must be sure we know what we are saying and where we stand on how man’s free will intersects God’s foreknowledge. The reason is simply that many people have bought into a deterministic worldview that says God has determined when and where even the very molecules of dust will fall. Anything short of this would mean that there is a possibility that God could be wrong in His foreknowledge, so the only way God could be truly sovereign is if He is in absolute control of everything.
But is this worldview the only way to see God’s foreknowledge? Is it possible that our sovereign God can see one thing, and man’s free will causes something else to happen? Or does it mean that man has no free will? If God can determine everything that will happen, or at least see everything that will happen, can man do anything that will ever alter that foreknowledge?
This is where we need to take a step back and not get lost in our human reasoning so much that we forget that God’s ways are higher than our ways. Things may happen in ways I may never understand. But if we are not careful, we can build assumptions and follow logical paths that lead us to believe things that are not true. How I see God’s foreknowledge can cause me to adopt Calvinism, or it can cause me to make the free will of man supreme over all. When we read about the foreknowledge of God, I suggest that we anchor in areas that we are sure the Bible has spoken about and be willing to admit that we may not understand how it all works together. I can take by faith what I am confident God knows with ease. None of what we discussed in this chapter, or even in this book, is a mystery to God. It only perplexes us. So, what can we be confident that the Scriptures teach?
God, in His foreknowledge, can know all things. This is what makes Him supreme, sovereign, and omniscient. Nothing is hidden from Him.
God has given man free will. Man has been given the freedom to accept or reject God by his own free will, which God will never violate.
God’s foreknowledge in no way destines man to act along a prescribed path. Every choice man makes concerning accepting or rejecting God is man’s choice and man’s choice alone to make.
God can get sorry that He did something (like make man in the days of Noah), He can repent or change His mind, especially in light of our repentance or prayers.
We can amaze and make God marvel with our actions.
These are some of the things that I can believe because the Bible says them to be true. I don’t need to know how they work together or how God is affected by the interworking of these truths; I just need to believe them and have faith that God is greater than me. I don’t need to give God a crutch by making Him have to determine the destiny of every atom to make Him sovereign, nor do I have to make man’s free will neuter the sovereignty of God. Sometimes I just need to be able to walk away from God and say, “Wow! You are truly as far from me as the heavens are higher than the earth.”
God is sovereign and powerful enough to give me free will without His foreknowledge affecting my free will. At the end of time, I will give an answer for my words, my actions, and my choices. I will own them. I will not be judged based on what God made or prevented me from doing. Jesus says,
“I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:36-37 ESV).
Jesus does not say that we will be judged by the words that God makes us speak. We own them. We speak them of our own free will. Whether or not God knows what we will say or how we will be judged, our free will is intact. And regarding our deeds, Paul says,
“He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.” (Romans 2:6-8 ESV).
We will be judged based on the deeds we choose to do, not by the deeds God forces us to do or by deeds we are destined to do. We can have complete confidence that regardless of how God’s foreknowledge is manifested, it will not affect our ability to make the free will decisions God has endowed us to make. Our free will in no way prevents God’s foreknowledge, nor does God’s foreknowledge prevent our free will. Listening to men try to explain all of this with their assumptions and logic accentuates even more how great God is and how far beneath Him we are. Our sovereign God can do far above what we can even dream about.
I really do wish I could give you a more definitive answer as to how all of this works together, but I cannot. I simply do not know. Perhaps it’s because I am too dense or slow to get it. Or maybe I am too careful not to draw conclusions about things to which I don’t think we have been given the answers. If it is enough for me to make the five conclusions I listed earlier, it will suffice. But if you are looking for something more definitive, I am afraid I just don’t have the answers for you. Hopefully, that is enough for you. But if it isn’t, then let me leave you with these things to consider as you continue to study the foreknowledge of God and His sovereignty:
Be careful not to let your assumptions become your “thus saith the Lord.”
Be careful not to shift your responsibilities to God.
B careful not to neuter the sovereignty of God by elevating man’s free will over God’s ability to know the beginning from the end.
Hopefully, you are leaving this chapter with the purpose I intended when I wrote it. Know God’s sovereignty through His foreknowledge without following the masses who strip man of any free will and make God, and God alone, responsible for everything that happens. This is not the God of the Bible who created man in His image and endowed him with the precious gift of free will so we can choose to love Him, obey Him, hate Him, or reject Him.