The Foreknowledge Debate

He knows everything. God is faithful. As followers of Jesus this faithfulness gives ushope of eternal life in heaven. God will honor his promise that our sins will be forgiven and wewill live forever with him. God is Love, not the emotion but the action of love. God is allpowerful. God has no beginning or end he just exists. Nothing else in all the universe is thisway, only God. God is just and his character is the definition of what just is. God is merciful.He shows his mercy to all who follow him. God is good and kind toward men. God is gracious,this grace came through Jesus Christ. God is always with us in all we do. We learn about theseattributes in the bible so we can understand who God is and how he loves us. God kept his promises in the bible as he keeps them today. He promises to love us,accept us, and forgive us. He promises to help and protect his people. This kind of promise is acovenant. A covenant is a legally binding obligation or promise. In the bible and throughouthistory God made covenants with his people. History shows us that he would keep his side ofthe covenant if they would keep theirs. A few of the first covenants were found in the book

If humans are truly free, and God does not know the future with absolute certainty, then what does God know? Christians over the years have taken comfort in God knowing what will happen to them, what their future is. So should they just throw that all out the window and say God does not know the future with certainty

So god is all knowing , all powerful and all good. If god knows that X is going

Even though through the definition of eternity God already has knowledge of what is to come and what decisions

He is an entity outside of time. Subsequently, He doesn't have the same view as time as we do. We as humans only see past and present, rather he sees all of time as one big movie. In order words, God sees our entire timeline of our lives before Him in one sitting so he knows what will happen however to Him it has already happened. God sees use doing things in the future as He sees us doing things in the present. Furthermore God has given each of us a purpose and a plan. He has a plan for what we will do in our lives and the outcome of our future. However I strongly believe that God give us the opportunity and the responsibility to make our own choice it just that He knows whether we will make the wrong or correct decision. God is completely in control of the outcome of our live this doesn’t mean we don’t have freedom but he just knows the result and outcome of our decisions before they are made. Professor Embree discusses the idea that many philosopher don’t believe we have free will because of our previous wrong doing” (Embree, 10/21). This could be true however why would God put us on this earth if he knows the outcome of everything and we don’t have some what of a choice in life? To further this thought Palmer states “freedom is relative to its context... one is both free and not at the same time” (Palmer, 231) Palmer just concludes that we have semi freedom and we do make out choice freely we just are influenced to make some and God already knows what will happen.

As a young believer who enjoyed the seemingly deterministic study of science, yet also greatly wanted to have free will, the issue of determinism often preoccupied me. While God’s sovereignty is assuredly a good thing, I hated the thought of not having control over my immediate actions, yet I also wanted God to be the guide. The argument told to me was the in God having created, he by necessity set things in motion in a certain way and now controls everything. In the Bible the relationship between creation and God is often established on the basis of the majesty of creation, such as in Psalms 19 where it is said that “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge” (Psalm 19 1-2 ESV).

There are many subjects in Christendom that are heavily debated. One in particular, is the providence debate. The theological definition of providence is, “God’s governing of the universe. “God’s support, care, and supervision of all creation, from its beginning to all eternity. The terms comes from Latin providentia, which in turn derives from the verb provideo, “to foresee,” but far more is meant than foresight or foreknowledge.” Some evangelicals hold that God’s providence is meticulous: He governs each and every detail. Others hold that it is more general: He controls the “big picture”, but gives humans freedom to make their own choices.” There are many scriptures in the Bible to back up God’s providence in the world. However, the word providence is not actually written in the Bible, but it represents a biblical doctrine. Not only that, “there is no Hebrew equivalent for “providence,” used only of human foresight.” Many other issues have to be considered when speaking on the providence of God. The doctrine of salvation, and the doctrine of God are theological issues that has to be incorporated in this debate. Will an omniscience, omnipresent, and omnipotent God create the universe and don’t have control over it? According to the book of Genesis God created everything in six days, and rested on the seventh. Would God create all of creations, and not care about it? “God’s works of providence are his most holy, wise and powerful preserving and governing

Gods knowledge is not predictive but is intelligible; what is known is known with absolute certainty. Predictions involve the weighing of what is likely and what

God tells us of the creation of the whole universe, the creation of the earth and everything on the earth. How he created man, the history of Israel and how he took the people as his own. He tells us everything up to the end of the age. We use theology to help understand God's word, to much of theology is speculation on what God really means in some of his wording. There are somethings God has keep to himself, like when Jesus Christ will return in all of his glory. (Deu 4:2 KJV) Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you. (Prov 30:5 KJV) Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. (Isa 40:8 KJV) The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever. (Mat 4:4 KJV) But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. These are just a few chapters and verses of the Bible that prove the words that God speaks are true as true can

If God does “elect” and reserves a spot for those who get to receive salvation or condemnation before time, then there is no such thing as free will amongst human beings. There is no free will because God already chose who gets what, so there is no point in worshipping a God that might condemn you. The primary source of this essay is Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapters, 21-23 by Jean Calvin. In this essay I am going to prove that predestination is not an ethically acceptable doctrine to justify God’s actions.

In Romans 1, Paul states that the wrath of God is revealed against the ungodliness of mankind, “for what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse” (Rom 1:19-20). The concept of general revelation, which stems from this text, describes God’s self-disclosure to rational beings through natural creation and human nature. Christians throughout time have debated “what can be known about God” outside of the Bible, and this raises many existential

There are two fundamental beliefs that are common in all the major religions in the world. One of them is that God is all knowing, or omniscient. This means that God knows everything that is currently occurring, everything that has ever happened, and everything that will ever happen. The knowledge about the future is captured in a familiar statement: “He knows the end from the beginning.” In other words, nothing ever happens without God ever knowing about it. Nothing is ever a surprise, since he already knew it would happen.

He has ordained all things from the foundation of the world to all eternity. He is the Most High, Lord over heaven and earth. He is absolutely independent, influenced by no one, and does whatever He pleases (The Sovereignty of God 19). One might think of God’s sovereignty different from a human form of sovereignty simply because when someone says that God is sovereign, they are implying that He knows all thing, past, present, and future. But humans do not have the ability to know all things because they are imperfect and are not in control over everything that comes to be. God does know all things, is completely perfect, and has the ability to have supreme authority and power over heaven and earth (Chosen by God). An example of God's sovereignty can be his attribute of immutability. Immutability is referred to as God’s unchanging nature and will. All that God is today, He has ever been, and will ever be. “Because God has no beginning and no ending, He can know no change” (The Attributes of God 37). Christ’s immutability defines all of his other attributes. He is unchanging in his wisdom, knowledge and purpose. Malachi 3:6 states, “For I, the Lord, do not change” (English Standard Version Bible). Christ is never changing in his plans from the very beginning of creation to eternity. Sovereignty claims that God, the Creator of the world, is continually sustaining, and renewing it (Bruce Milne

Foreknowledge seems to be the hinge upon which these questions swing. Paul told the Romans in Romans 8:27-30, “…and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined , He also called; and these whom He called, he also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” Paul follows these statements with the basic questions being explored in this paper in Romans 8:31, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?”

This is the best description I could find after researching the issue. “The word "foreknowledge" has two meanings. It is a term used in theology to denote the prescience or foresight of God, that is, His knowledge of the entire course of events which are future from the human point of view; and it is also used in the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) to translate the Greek words proginoskein and prognosis in the New Testament, in which instances the word "fore-knowledge" approaches closely the idea of fore- ordination.