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The foreknowledge of God, His knowledge of the future, presents some of the knottiest problems in theology. For centuries it has been the object of intense debate, a controversy that continues to this day in philosophical as well as theological circles. We have often said in our monthly articles, "We do not have the space to deal fully with this subject here." This is true of almost any subject-how could one cover anything fully in our fifteen or so pages? But it is especially true of God's foreknowledge, owing primarily to the complexity arising from all the various views. Nevertheless, we have reserved a separate issue to deal with some of the major facets of it in the hope of shedding some light on what is involved in the controversy and the difficulty.

Most Christians, if asked, "Does God know the future?" will answer quite simply, "Yes." Without ever having given it much thought, they assume that God knows everything about the future. This is partly owing to the fact that this is the traditional concept of God's foreknowledge, the one that has been dominant for many centuries, long before the Reformation. It is also due to the fact that "foreknowledge" is a word found in Scripture, as in our text, for God's knowledge of future events. It is also due to the many hundreds of prophecies or prediction of future events found in Scripture as well as to the teaching of God's providential care of the world and our lives, which we instinctively associate with His knowing what will happen in the future so that we trust Him to prepare us, provide for us, and guide us accordingly. The average Christian believes that God knows everything about the future. It is something he simply accepts without being aware of any problems associated with it.

That God has foreknowledge is established by our text as well as a few other verses in the New Testament. The Greek word for it in Acts 2:23 is prognosis, from the prefix pro-, which means "before," and gnosis, which means knowledge; thus we have "before-knowledge" or foreknowledge, knowledge of something in advance. (All of my discussion of the Greek words involved is taken from The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Colin Brown, General Editor.) We use the word "prognosis" in English to denote a physician's forecast concerning the course of a disease with our chances of recovery. The doctor's assessment, by examination and testing, of what is wrong with us is called his "diagnosis" (the prefix "dia-" means "through"; he "knows through" us to determine our condition). So these words in English are derived directly from the Greek word for knowledge, gnosis. The noun prognosis occurs only twice in the NT, in Acts 2:23 our text, and in 1 Peter 1:2-

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance. (1 Peter 1:1-2, all Scripture quotations are taken from The New International Version or NIV unless otherwise indicated)

The verb form of the word for foreknowledge, proginosko, to know beforehand or in advance, is used five times in some form in the NT-

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. (Romans 8:28-30).

God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don't you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah-how he appealed to God against Israel. (Romans 11:2)

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. (1 Peter 1:18-20)

In the other two occurrences, Acts 26:5 and 2 Peter 3:17, this word for foreknowledge is used of human knowledge. In the first, Paul's former acquaintances could testify of their knowledge of him before his conversion; and in the second, the believers had knowledge beforehand of the Lord's appearing even though it seemed slow in coming. As for the three occurrences cited in quotes above, the foreknowledge of God includes the salvation of believers, the nation of Israel, and the atoning death of Christ. In 1 Peter 1:20 above, a different form of the word for foreknowledge is used-proegnosmenou. It implies not only knowledge beforehand but destiny. The King James Version reads, "Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world;" the American Standard and the New American Standard Versions have "foreknown." In Romans 8:28-30 above, that God foreknew the believers, is linked with His plan (v.28) and predestination (vv. 29,30). The word for "plan" is prothesis (literally, setting or placing before), and the word for "predestination" is prohorizo (literally, decide upon beforehand), used also in 1 Corinthians 2:7; Ephesians 1:5,11; and Acts 4:27. So, both the form of the word in 1 Peter 1:20 and the use of "foreknowledge" in connection with predestination in Romans 8:28-30 suggest that there is some relation between God's foreknowledge and His plans, purposes, and decrees.

This leads us to the greatest problem concerning foreknowledge: does God's foreknowledge determine the future, including human choices, or is it merely knowledge of what the future will be, including what men will choose? We seem naturally to think that if God knows everything that will happen in the future, the future is predetermined because how could He be wrong about what He knows? In the same way, every choice we make must already be determined also, since how could we choose anything that would prove God wrong? And if He already knows what sins we will commit and it is impossible that we should do otherwise than what He knows we will do, how could we be blamed for our sins? The seeming incompatibility of these things-God's foreknowledge and an "open" future instead of determinism or fatalism, or God's foreknowledge and man's free will-is at the root of most of the controversy about foreknowledge. It is also the source of all the various positions that have been devised to try to harmonize the two, either adjusting God's foreknowledge downward so as to retain free will and an open future or preserving absolute foreknowledge and adjusting man's free will downward (or denying it altogether).

The questions and controversies surrounding the discussion of foreknowledge may be gathered under these three heads: 1) the nature of God's foreknowledge, 2) the extent of it, and 3) the implications that either can or must be drawn from it.

1) What is the nature of God's foreknowledge? As we have already shown, that God has foreknowledge or knowledge of the future is obvious from, among other things, the texts which use the word. But what does it mean that He has it? Of what does it consist? Is it an absolute, infallible knowledge, or only knowledge of all the possible things that could happen? How does God know the future? Is it like watching a movie, or only a general knowledge of what will be? Or is it only a projection of trends and tendencies in the present?

2) What is the extent of His foreknowledge? Is it comprehensive, including everything, or is it limited? Does it consist only of things knowable or likely? Does it include men's free choices? Is it limited to what God Himself will do? Is it only of "the big picture" or does it include all details, no matter how small?

3) What are the implications that either can or must be drawn from God's foreknowledge, especially if it is absolute, that is, comprehensive and infallible? Would it not then mean that the future is already determined or fixed? Would it not then mean that human free choices were not free, since it would be impossible to do anything other than what God knew we would do? If it would not rule out free will, why would it not? If foreknowledge is not absolute but limited in some way, would this mean we could not say that God is omniscient?

Each of the questions, posed in these three areas represent elements, combined in divers ways, of the various positions held concerning foreknowledge. I will try to list these positions, at least the major ones, as I understand them. First, we may divide them into two main groups: those who affirm and those who deny that God's foreknowledge is absolute. To clarify, not, I hope, to further complicate these positions, I will place them in outline form:

I. Those who affirm that God's foreknowledge is absolute, that is, it is infallible and includes everything great and small, including human free choices.

A. Some (certain Calvinists) also affirm that it infallibly determines the future, including men's choices, in effect denying that man has free will.

B. Some (other Calvinists) affirm that it determines only who will be saved, not everything that happens.

C. Some (other Calvinists) maintain that God's absolute foreknowledge in no way impairs man's free will.

D. Some maintain that while God's foreknowledge is comprehensive, it consists of all the possible choices free agents would make given any of an infinite number of possible situations they might be placed in, and that this knowledge would not impair free will. (This is my understanding, at least, of what is known as God's "middle knowledge.")

II. Those who deny that God has absolute foreknowledge.

A. Some say that knowledge of the future is logically impossible because the future does not exist. God knows only all things that are knowable. This is drawn from the limitations on omnipotence, that He can do all things that are logically possible.

B. Some affirm that God has foreknowledge, but it is limited to what He Himself will do and that He does everything necessary to make things work out the way He plans. Prophecy is no more than the announcement of what He will do; He does not know what free choices men will make. This is, in effect, a denial of knowledge of the future in the ordinary sense.

C. God knows everything in the future except what choices free agents will make.

D. God's foreknowledge includes everything except what moral choices free agents will make, those choices which involve moral right or wrong.

There is no doubt that the ancient Greeks and Romans believed the future was determined or fixed. Three goddesses called Fates ruled the destinies of all men. Concerning the word for foreknowledge in classical Greek, The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology says:

..proginosko...means to know or perceive in advance, to see the future....The corresponding noun prognosis...denotes the foreknowledge which makes it possible to predict the future. The early Greeks understood this as non-verbal knowledge of a dream-like kind which can however be apprehended and communicated by those who were clever enough. It belongs to the realm of destiny. It is often both hidden from men and open to them. It is capricious [evil] like the gods themselves. Both gods and men are subject to it. Its power controls the rise and fall of gods and nations. (Colin Brown, Gen.Ed.; Zondervan:Grand Rapids,MI; 1971, Vol.1, p.692)

Of course this does not mean that these heathen ideas should be attributed to the God of the Bible. The nature and extent of God's foreknowledge should be determined by the Scriptures alone. One problem here is that each side of the issue, both those who affirm and those who deny absolute foreknowledge, can cite a number of texts in support their respective positions. The following passages are by no means all of those pertinent to the subject in the Bible, but at least we may refer to the major ones.

As we have said, there are hundreds of instances of prophecy in the Bible, all of which imply that God has knowledge of the future in some sense at least. It is part and parcel of the Biblical office of prophet that he foretell future events with unfailing accuracy:

You may say to yourselves, "How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?" If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. (Deuteronomy 18:21,22)

In the passages from Isaiah we quoted last month, God sets Himself apart from everyone else, including those who are falsely called gods, by this very criterion-only He can tell what will happen in the future:

"Bring in to tell us what is going to happen. Tell us what the former things were, so that we may consider them and know their final outcome. Or declare to us the things to come, tell us what the future holds, so we may know that you are gods....I have stirred up one from the north, and he comes-one from the rising sun who calls on my name. He treads on rulers as if they were mortar, as if he were a potter treading the clay. Who told of this from the beginning, so we could know, or beforehand, so we could say, 'He was right?' No one told of this, no one foretold it, no one heard any words from you. I was the first to tell Zion, 'Look, here they are!'" (Isaiah 41:21-27)

"I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols. See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you." (Isaiah 42:8,9)

"Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established by ancient people, and what is yet to come-yes, let him foretell what will come. Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one." (Isaiah 44:7-9)

"I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do." (Isaiah 46:9-11)

These are bold and straightforward claims of knowledge of the future, but it is interesting to note that they all fall within the range of things God actively plans to bring about. He knows the future in the sense that He knows what He Himself plans to do, and He has the power to bring it about without anyone being able to thwart it:

"I foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass." (Isaiah 48:3)

In the passage from Isaiah 41, following His claim that He tells the future, He says, "I have stirred up one from the north, and he comes, one from the rising sun [the East] who calls on my name." And in chapter 46 He says, "I summon from the east a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose." Throughout these chapters He is referring to Cyrus, king of Persia, whom He calls by name in 44:28; 45:1,13. Cyrus would conquer Babylon and release captive Israel. The remarkable thing here is that it was written 150 years before Cyrus was born! Despite the fact that all this is spoken of the future in terms of what God Himself plans to carry out, it must involve many acts of many human wills in order to come to pass. God didn't form Cyrus out of clay like He did Adam-he was born of parents at a certain time and given his name. Were all these acts and choices brought to pass by God's working? If so, is there anything that is not brought about by His working? Or should we understand in this case that God truly knows the future in the ordinary sense, and that all of it is generally subject to His overall will and plan just as the present is? The fact that it says He brought these things to pass does not automatically exclude the possibility that He also actually saw, approvingly, these things in advance.

To be sure, there are a number of prophecies in Scripture that fit the pattern of God announcing in advance what it was His will and plan to do, and this in itself would not be certain proof of what is generally understood as foreknowledge, a simple knowledge of the future, a foreseeing of it in some way. When Pharaoh had his dreams of seven good and seven poor cows, and seven good and seven poor heads of grain, Joseph interpreted them by saying, "God has revealed to Pharaoh what he [God] is about to do" (Genesis 41:25-31). Surely God has power over the weather to bring about famine and abundance.

When God sent Moses to Pharaoh to tell him to let the Israelites go sacrifice to Him in the desert, He said, "But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go" (Exodus 3:19,20). This, then, again, would not be a case of God foreseeing future events so much as His announcing what He planned to do to make things happen the way He wanted them to. Instead of a simple prediction that Pharaoh would eventually let them go, it is a pronouncement that He will see to it that Pharaoh does just that. But what then happens to "free will"? In what sense was Pharaohs will really free, seeing that God by His mighty hand compels him? What is the difference between this and Calvinistic irresistible grace? (although instead of grace it was irresistible compulsion). If God could do this, why couldn't He compel men to do whatever He willed them to do? What happens to the principle that God gave man a free will and will not violate it?

God prophesied of the "spoiling" of the Egyptians by the Israelites at the same time He commissioned Moses: "I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed....you will plunder the Egyptians" (Exodus 3:21,22). Again, this is not pure foreknowledge of what the Egyptians will do but what God will motivate them do; but, again, what of free will? Announcing this in advance surely meant, since God could not be wrong, that the Egyptians would without fail do what He would motivate them to do even though they would not ordinarily be inclined to do so. It may very well be that God's mere knowledge of what free choices will be made would mean those choices are not truly free; but that is not the question here. We have here a plain statement of fact that God will make the Egyptians willing.

Jeremiah's prophecy of the seventy-year captivity of Judah in Babylon and their subsequent release and return to their own land (Jeremiah 25:11,12; 29:10; Daniel 9:1,2) is no doubt another example of a revelation of God's plan and not pure foreknowledge. Still, it too, involved making somebody in Babylon willing to let them go at the end of the very time prescribed.

In Galatians three Paul, in citing Abraham's being justified by faith in Genesis 15:6 as a pattern for New Testament believers, says, "The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: 'All nations will be blessed through you'" (Galatians 3:6-8). Surely we may understand this as nothing more than God announcing what it was His will and plan to do, not purely knowledge of the future.

But there are many cases of prophecy that are not so easily categorized as instances of God announcing in advance what He will do. In Genesis 15 after Abram believed God and was justified, he fell into a deep sleep and God told him,

"Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure." (Genesis 15:12-16)

That God would get the Israelites down to Egypt where they would be made slaves may easily be viewed as God carrying out His will, but what about the being "mistreated"? Surely the evil treatment they received was not the work of God upon the wills of the Egyptian masters, yet it was foreknown by God also. Slaves of any kind may be mistreated, but it seems the Egyptians treated the Israelites especially harshly. Abram's death in old age is no problem; God would simply preserve him. It is the same with delivering the Israelites in the fourth generation-it was something God desired, willed, and brought to pass (with a little coercion on old Pharaoh's will). But what of the "sin of the Amorites" that God says will reach full measure by then? Does this not mean the Amorites' continued course in and improvement of sin was predestined? And what of the method by which God got the Israelites down into Egypt, through the wickedness of his brothers selling him and lying about it? God could have accomplished it another way, you say? But Joseph told his brothers later that it was God that sent him to Egypt: "Do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you....God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance" (Genesis 45:5,7).

While Joseph was in prison in Egypt on a false charge, he interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh's cupbearer and chief baker (Genesis 40:9-13). Joseph said the cupbearer would be restored to his position in three days, but the baker would be hanged. This seems to be a case of pure foreknowledge, for what interest could God have had in bringing to pass the baker's hanging? Would he do it just to get Joseph a reputation for interpreting dreams?

Against the idolatrous altar at Bethel in Israel, a man of God prophesied, "A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who now make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you" (1 Kings 13:1-3). This was fulfilled in every detail some 300 years later (2 Kings 23:15-17). The unusual elements in this prophecy, including the naming of Josiah, seem to make this not simply a case of God carrying out His will but true foreknowledge.

When Jesus told His disciples to make preparation for the Passover before His death, He told them, "As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, and say to the owner of the house, 'The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?' He will show you a large upper room, all furnished. Make preparations there" (Luke 22:8-12). Now, of course, Jesus could have told this man in advance, "At such and such a time, be near a certain gate with a pitcher of water, because I'm going to tell my disciples to be looking for you," etc.; but that doesn't seem likely. This seems to be a case of God not only knowing what everyone is doing at this present moment, but what they will be doing at a given time in the future. And it is surely evidence that it is not just the "big picture" of world events, etc., that are foreknown but the minutest details. What could be more insignificant than bearing a pitcher of water? Of course God could have compelled the man like He did Pharaoh to, in this case, go carry a pitcher of water at just this moment, but does this seem plausible?

Then there are other cases of foreknowledge that even more certainly defy the definition of God willing and carrying out His plans or making a prediction by projecting present tendencies and conditions. He told Moses of the Israelites' future idolatry and irreparable apostasy:

"These people will forsake me and break the covenant I made with them. On that day I will become angry with them and forsake them; I will hide my face from them, and they will be destroyed. Many disasters and difficulties will come upon them...And I will certainly hide my face on that day because of all their wickedness in turning to other gods." (Deuteronomy 31:16-18)

Certainly God would not influence their wills to bring about their idolatry, because this is something He hates, not desires. But hadn't it been their tendency to worship idols? True, but how could He be sure this would lead to irreparable apostasy? Besides, this came to pass not in the next generation but many generations later.

Elisha went to Damascus in Syria where king Ben-Hadad was sick. Hazael was sent by the king to inquire of the Lord through Elisha whether he would recover. Elisha told him the king would die, then after staring at Hazael a long time, he began to weep. When Hazael asked him why he was weeping, Elisha answered,

"Because I know the harm you will do to the Israelites....You will set fire to their fortified places, kill their young men with the sword, dash their little children to the ground, and rip open their pregnant women." Hazael said, "How could your servant, a mere dog, accomplish such a feat?" "The Lord has shown me that you will become king of Aram," answered Elisha. (2 Kings 8:7-13)

Surely this involved a lot of "free" choices, and moral ones at that, on the part of a number of people.

Job said, "Man's days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed" (Job 14:5). David wrote, "Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be" (Psalms 139:16). These verses seem to imply predestination as well as foreknowledge. God told Jeremiah, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations" (Jeremiah 1:5). One commentator rather lamely offers, "God might have had a special part in the conception and early hereditary formation of Jeremiah....he was formed after the unrealized plan of God....if he had a very godly home [his father was Hilkiah who may have been a godly priest], the probabilities are very high that he too would respond and obey God....This may be all that is meant by the verse." Perhaps; it may. But it doesn't seem so. To think so requires a reduction of rather remarkable language.

Then there are the prophecies concerning Christ's suffering and death at the hands of wicked men. Our text says He was handed over to them "by God's set purpose and foreknowledge." Citing Psalms 2:1,2, believers in prayer said of the heathen's conspiracy to put Christ to death, "They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen" (Acts 4:28). And in Acts 13 Paul said,

"The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath. Though they found no proper ground for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him executed. When they had carried out all that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead." (Acts 13:27-30)

This is certainly a case of moral choices foreknown and foreordained-Christ was unjustly tortured and put to death at the insistence of a mob. A man can't be beaten and crucified without the instrumentality of free moral agents. And considering the quotes above, especially the portions in italics, it is useless to say that only His death was preordained and not the means by which wicked men accomplished it. Moreover, Christ is called in Revelation 13:8, "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Obviously this implies that God foreknew the fall, because the foundation of the world preceded it. Or as Peter says, "Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect...chosen before the creation of the world." Not an afterthought when man sinned or only a possible provision should man sin but, flatly, "slain from the foundation of the world" (not the fall) and "foreordained" (NIV, chosen) before the creation of the world" (not after the creation of the world or after the fall). God foresaw and foreordained Christ's death by the hands of wicked men, yet condemned them for their crime and called on them to repent of it in Acts 2:23,38; and Acts 3-

"You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate...You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead....Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer. Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out...." (Acts 3:13-19)

Acts 15:18 in the King James Version reads, "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world." This is in context of citing the words of the prophet Amos (9:11,12) concerning the salvation of the Gentiles which was fulfilled in the spread of the Gospel. But there is uncertainty in the original text. There is good manuscript support for the reading, "Known to the Lord from eternity is his work," as in the KJV, NKJV. Another reading, from the Byzantine text, reads, very similarly, "Known from eternity to God are all his works." But there is good evidence also for yet another reading, simply, "that have been known for ages," which is followed by the NIV, RSV, NEB.

Finally, there is a case which I see as a clencher: Jesus' prediction of the disciples' desertion and Peter's denial. Surely He didn't will these things nor influence them to do so, and surely these acts were morally wrong; nevertheless He said,

"This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written: 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.'"...Peter replied, "Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will." "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times." (Matthew 26:31-35)

Undoubtedly this is a case of foreknowledge of future "free" moral choices. Denial of Christ is an act for which one is supremely culpable (Matthew 10:32,33). A projection of present tendencies in the weak in faith disciples, someone may say? No doubt. But Christ says they will desert Him, not because He knows this is their tendency, but "for (because) it is written." He may have known that Peter's tendency due to the weakness of his faith was to deny Him, but how would this alone account for what He added, "thrice...before the rooster crows"?

There are a number of texts, on the other hand, that those who deny absolute foreknowledge can marshall to substantiate their claims. In many places in Scripture God is represented as apparently not knowing what choices people will make, and that the future is open-that what will happen depends upon what the people involved choose. In still others, it seems God changes His mind about what He will or will not do or changes something that He foreknew would take place.

Then the Lord said to Moses, "I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions." (Exodus 16:4)

Now, would this make any sense if He, according to the traditional view of foreknowledge, already knew what they were going to do? No, if He already knew, this in fact would be a lie-"I will test them and see whether...." We read of the same thing in Deuteronomy 8:2, "Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands." And in Deuteronomy 13:1-3 God says about the presence of false prophets who would seek to lead Israel astray, "The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul." It seems these verses pose a problem for omniscience as well foreknowledge.

Sometimes God says, "Perhaps," concerning what a people will or will not do; He doesn't appear to know:

"This is what the Lord says: Stand in the courtyard of the Lord's house and speak to all the people of the towns of Judah who come to worship in the house of the Lord. Tell them everything I command you; do not omit a word. Perhaps they will listen and each will turn from his evil way. Then I will relent and not bring on them the disaster I was planning because of the evil they have done." (Jeremiah 26:2,3)

The word of the Lord came to me: "Son of man, you are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people. Therefore, son of man, pack your belongings for exile and in the daytime, as they watch, set out and go from where you are to another place. Perhaps they will understand, though they are a rebellious house." (Ezekiel 12:1-3)

Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph. (Amos 5:15)

The future, in each of these cases, does not seem fixed by God's foreknowledge. In fact, God seems notto know for sure how things will turn out, whether the people will repent and He spare them or refuse to repent and He judge them. If He already knew by absolute foreknowledge that they wouldn't listen and would be judged, these statements would be lies or at best insincere offers through the prophets, mere charades. Jeremiah and Ezekiel come "late in the day" so to speak in Israel's history of disobedience and idolatry. The prophets have already made many pronouncements of judgment for their wickedness. Notwithstanding all this, God still holds out hope for Israel's repentance and salvation. The future is not fixed and determined, even in His own mind.

Then there are passages which express what may be called "the Divine if"-

"If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever." (Jeremiah 7:5-7)

"If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it." (Jeremiah 18:7-10)

"For if you are careful to carry out these commands, then kings who sit on David's throne will come through the gates of this palace, riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by their officials and their people. But if you do not obey these commands, declares the Lord, I swear by myself that this palace will become a ruin." (Jeremiah 22:4,5)

The future does not seem to be fixed and determined by God's foreknowledge, but open, depending upon what the people do-either repent and obey or continue in disobedience. God leaves open what He is going to do-it all depends upon what the people do. He may even change His mind and bring blessing instead of the judgment He has already announced or bring judgment instead of he blessing pronounced, all depending upon what the people decide to do.

God in fact did change His mind on several occasions:

"I have seen these people," the Lord said to Moses, "and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them....But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God....Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened. (Exodus 32:9-14)

The Lord said to Moses, "How long will these people treat me with contempt?...I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them....Moses said to the Lord,..."In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people."...The Lord replied, "I have forgiven them, as you asked." (Numbers 14:11-20)

"Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: 'I promised that your [Eli's] house and your father's house would minister before me forever.' But now the Lord declares: 'Far be it from me! Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained. The time is coming when I will cut short your strength and the strength of your father's house, so that there will not be an old man in your family line....I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in my heart and mind. (1 Samuel 2:30-35)

"You acted foolishly," Samuel said [to king Saul]. "You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord's command." (1 Samuel 13:13,14)

In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, "This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover." Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord....And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: "Go and tell Hezekiah, 'This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life.'" (Isaiah 38:1-5)

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you."...He proclaimed: "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned." The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth....When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened." (Jonah 3:1-10)

On one occasion, God talks as though He were "surprised" in a sense by the behavior of Israel:

[T]he Lord said to me, "Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every spreading tree and has committed adultery there. I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me but she did not....I myself said, 'How gladly would I treat you like sons and give you a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of any nation.' I thought you would call me 'Father' and not turn away from following me. But like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you have been unfaithful to me, O house of Israel," declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 3:6-20)

Augustine (354-430) was the first to formulate the traditional view of foreknowledge, that it is absolute. He also was the first to offer solutions to the problem this presents regarding free will. He argued that even though God did know everything in the future, including what sins individuals would commit, and that therefore the future was fixed and determined, this did not mean God caused the sinning but that man's will was still free. He drew this analogy: if you knew that a certain person was going to commit a certain sin, your prior knowledge would not mean that you compelled him to do it. Later Boethius (480-524) took another step toward resolution by adopting Augustine's view that God dwells in timeless eternity, not time. God, he reasoned, "sees" the future just as we do the present, for past, present, and future are all one and the same to Him. His foreknowledge, then, isn't really foreknowledge, and what He "sees" in the "future" is only simple observation as if it were in the present, so that no necessity was placed on any free-will action. Luis de Molina (1535-1600) offered what is called the "middle knowledge" solution. There was no incompatibility between God's absolute foreknowledge and free will because, he theorized, God knows "what each free will would do with its innate freedom were it to be placed in this or in that or, indeed, in infinitely many orders of things-even though it would really be able, if it so willed, to do the opposite" (On Divine Foreknowledge, Disputation 52, paragraph 9; Cornell U. Press, 1988; quoted in God, Time, and Knowledge by William Hasker; Cornell U. Press; 1989, p.8). In modern times Molina's middle knowledge has been modified and adopted by a number of philosophers and theologians. Others, in the attempt to protect free will, deny absolute foreknowledge, especially of moral choices.

Actually, the subject of God's foreknowledge has been something of a hot topic of debate among philosophers as well as theologians since the 1960's. Peter Geach holds that "the future" has no reality, and knowledge of the future is really only knowledge of the present tendencies of things:

"Future-land is a region of fairytale. 'The future' consists of certain actual trends and tendencies in the present that have not yet been fulfilled. What the Moving Finger has once writ cannot be erased....But ahead of where [it] has writ there is only blank paper; no X-ray vision can reveal what is going to stand there, any more than some scientific treatment of the paper on my desk can show what words I am going to inscribe on it." ( Providence and Evil, Cambridge:Cambridge U. Press; 1977, p.40, quoted in The Possibility of an All-Knowing God, Jonathan L. Kvanvig; St. Martin's Press:NY; 1986)

Richard Swinburne has adopted the view that

"a being cannot know all of the future and has also argued that this lack of knowledge does not undermine the claims of omnipotence. He argues that the future actions of free individuals are impossible to know....His point is that we need a better formulation of the doctrine, and he uses as precedent the way in which omnipotence has been understood in order to prevent requiring an omnipotent being to performlogically impossible tasks." (Kvanvig, op.cit., pp.13,15) Alan Plantinga in his God, Freedom, and Evil (1974) has advocated and popularized a form of Molina's middle knowledge theory. None of the views listed above or earlier in my outline are particularly attractive or convincing to me. Like the last answer of a multiple choice question, I mark, "none of the above." That's because I subscribe to the method of taking all that the Scriptures say on a subject, as represented in the passages we have cited, and do not force them into a harmony if it calls for too much effort. I just leave them as they are and go on. I might opt out for the middle knowledge view if I could understand it. I could probably understand it if I was motivated to think on it hard enough, but I must admit I am not. I am quite content to leave the whole matter unresolved. I haven't lost any sleep over it. I labored through Kvanvig's and Hasker's books cited above, but most of it is way over my head, at least in my present frame of mind. You are welcome to it if you are up to it. When you think about something until your head starts to swim, it is good to fall back on Paul's outburst of praise at the end of Romans 11: Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:33-36) Some of His ways or paths are simply "beyond tracing out." It is not that God's foreknowledge is beyond our knowing, for we have it attested to in Scripture. But the exact nature and extent of it or how to harmonize the apparently contrary elements of foreknowledge and free will may indeed be beyond our grasp. As the Lord says in Isaiah, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8,9) I want to close with the words of another old song by Ira Stanphill; its sentiments are more on my level!- I don't know about tomorrow, I just live from day to day, I don't borrow from its sunshine, For its skies may turn to gray. I don't worry o'er the future, For I know what Jesus said, And today I'll walk beside Him, For He knows what is ahead. Many things about tomorrow, I don't seem to understand; But I know who holds tomorrow, And I know who holds my hand. -"I Know Who Holds Tomorrow," Ira Stanphill,(c)1950 Until next month when we take up another of God's attributes, I pray God's blessings upon each of you!

Leon Stump, Pastor of Victory Christian Center

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