We get it right when we say what God says without taking from nor adding to His Word. Thus, sometimes we are left in a human illogical tension. I say human because the logical tension God gives is not necessarily what we like to hear, but that is what we have and so we must leave it as He gives it.
One such struggle we have as humans is understanding God’s foreknowledge. God’s foreknowledge is that He knows things even before they happen. God has this foreknowledge because He does not live in time as you and I do. As a matter of fact, God created time for us and He did that on day one. You may have noticed that it was not until the fourth day that He created the Sun, moon and stars and set them in the time frame He created on day one.
God lives in the eternal present meaning that for God there is no yesterday and no tomorrow but only the eternal present. Thus, since God lives in the eternal present all things are happening at the same time and so He knows all things that have and will happen.
That God has such foreknowledge does not mean that God makes things happen in a certain way nor does He necessarily prevent things from happening. To know what is going to happen does not mean determining that it is going to happen. Not the best example, but just because the weatherman can predict (know) what the weather is going to be does not mean he determines what it will be. Likewise with God, just because He know what is going to happen does not mean He determines that it will happen.
God knew Adam and Eve would sin. He knew He would have to take on flesh, life, suffer and die to save humanity and yet in His foreknowledge He decided to create us anyway. His foreknowledge did not cause Adam and Eve to sin. They sinned because of their own free will, which was perfect at the time.
When talking about God’s foreknowledge we would do well not to confuse what God knows with what God determines will happen. Foreknowledge is not predestination as we will discuss next.
38 of 52 © Rev. Dr. Ronald A. Bogs (2018)
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