How Do You Explain the Foreknowledge of God?
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How do you explain the foreknowledge of God?
Here is an area where many people have difficulties in understanding God and his characteristics. The Bible teaches us that God knows all things and that nothing is beyond his grasp of knowledge. Jesus said in Matthew 10:29,30 “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” We read in Hebrews 4:13, “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” And Proverbs 15:3 states, “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” There is not one object of knowledge that God does not know. God even knows all of the contingencies of knowledge—all the possibilities and what set of circumstances would bring them about. So we shouldn’t be surprised that God knows what is going to happen in the future before it happens. God isn’t limited by time as we are, so he can move up and down and back and forth along the continuum of time at His will. We, however, can only go forward in time and thereby are limited in how we understand things. So to talk about the foreknowledge of God is, first of all, a subject that our minds can’t fully grasp.
Having said that, the Bible definitely teaches the concept of the foreknowledge of God. In 1 Peter 1:2, Peter writes to the saints who he says are “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father….” Paul writes in Romans 8:29, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” God foreknew those who would be obedient to His word. God knows beforehand who is going to do His will and who is not.
The question that is often asked at this point is this: since God knows what I am going to do before I do it, then how is it that I can make free choices? To ask the same question another way, how am I free to choose a particular course of action when God already knows what I am going to choose? If I chose otherwise, wouldn’t that be invalidating God’s knowledge? This is a good question and one to which I don’t believe we have the complete answer. However, consider this: we don’t act because God knows we are going to act in such a way, but rather, God knows we are going to act in such a way because we freely choose to act that way. We understand this principle in our own limited way as well. Consider the child who is looking at the cookie jar and desiring to climb on the counter to get a cookie. From past behavior, we may be able to tell that he is about to do such. We may offer him a stern warning and tell him not to get into the cookie jar. We may say, “Now, I know what you are thinking; don’t get into that cookie jar.” When we finally turn our back and he gets into the jar we say, “I knew he was going to do that.” Does that mean we don’t hold the child responsible for his actions because we knew how he was going to behave? No, of course not. So it is also with God but on an infinitely more sure level.
There is a measure of comfort to the foreknowledge of God. It’s nice to know that God knows what is happening to me and what is going to happen to me. I can trust that he will take care of every situation in my life. He has the knowledge and the power to so act so as to provide for my entire life. Were such not the case, then what kind of god would we have? One who is unsure of himself and his future. That’s not the kind of god that I would desire to worship and serve, would you?