What Does God Know, and When Does He Know It?
Here are some notes I put together on the issue of God's foreknowledge. I am sorry that the outline format does not work well in the blog style, but hopefully you can make sense of the points.
I. The Basic Issues
A. This study raises many difficult questions:
1. What is God’s relationship to time?
2. Does the future truly exist?
3. Can free will and exhaustive divine foreknowledge (EDF) be reconciled?
B. Three positions
1. God has exhaustive foreknowledge of the future because he has predetermined everything that will happen.
a. This is the Calvinistic position.
b. “God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.” The Westminster Confession of Faith Chapter 3.
c. “If God merely foresaw human events, and did not also arrange and dispose of them at his pleasure, there might be room for agitating the question, how far his foreknowledge amounts to necessity; but since he foresees the things which are to happen, simply because he has decreed that they are so to happen, it is vain to debate about prescience, while it is clear that all events take place by his sovereign appointment.” John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion Book 3 Chapter 26 Section 6.
d. The Calvinistic position says that free will and EDF cannot be reconciled, and that man is not truly free.
2. God only knows that which he plans to do.
a. This is sometimes called the “Open View” (OV), meaning that the future is partly open to God.
b. According to the OV, if God knew our choices before we made them, then we could not choose otherwise, and therefore do not have free will.
c. Some advocates of the OV state that God chooses not to know certain things; others say that he knows all that can be known but that the future does not exist.
d. Defenders of the OV would argue that God knows all possible choices man may make, and like a master chess player knows how to respond to each move so that his purposes will be achieved.
e. The OV says that free will and EDF cannot be reconciled, and that God does not possess EDF.
3. God has exhaustive foreknowledge of the future, including our free will choices.
a. This is sometimes called the “Simple Foreknowledge View” (SF).
b. According to this view, the fact that God foreknows our choices does not mean they are predetermined.
c. The SF view says that free will and EDF can be reconciled.
d. This is the view that I believe best reflects the teaching of Scripture.
C. The history of the issue.
1. Brethren have rightly rejected Calvinism, but have differed as to whether the OV or the SF view is correct.
a. The most famous advocate of the OV is T.W. Brents in The Gospel Plan of Salvation, pp. 74-87.
b. Other brethren have forcefully argued for the SF view (Roy H. Lanier, Sr. in The Timeless Trinity for the Ceaseless Centuries, pp. 1451-148).
c. Debate between Allen Turner (SF) and Ken Green (OV) in Gospel Anchor.
2. Among evangelicals this issue is extremely contentious.
a. There is a growing interest in the OV among philosophers and theologians (best example: Greg Boyd, God of the Possible).
b. There have been efforts to purge adherents of the OV from seminaries, societies, and churches.
c. Much of this is triggered by the reaction of Calvinists.
D. Some disclaimers before we get started.
1. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9).
2. While I believe the SF view best explains the biblical data, there are problems with the view, and many valid points to be considered in the OV.
3. While this subject ultimately overwhelms finite creature, there is value in trying to know God more deeply.
II. The Case for Simple Foreknowledge
A. The Bible teaches that God is all-knowing (omniscient).
1. This means that he knows all that can be known.
2. The biblical teaching:
a. He is a God of knowledge (1 Sam. 2:3).
b. His understanding is infinite (Ps. 147:5).
c. He knows all things (1 John 3:20).
B. The Bible teaches that God knows what is going to happen before it happens.
1. The verb proginosko is used five times in the New Testament (Romans 8:29, 11:2; Acts 26:5; 1 Peter 1:20; 2 Peter 3:17), while the noun prognosis is attested twice (Acts 2:23; 1 Peter 1:2).
2. The concept of foreknowledge is the featured characteristic of the prophet Isaiah’s description of God (41:21-26; 42:8-9; 44:6-8).
C. The OV critique and response.
1. Critique 1: God only foreknows what he has determined to do.
a. God does indeed know what he intends to do (Isa. 46:8-11; 48:3-7).
b. However, God also knows the free will choices of others before they happen:
(1) Judas’ betrayal (Matt. 26:21-25).
(2) Peter’s denial (Matt. 26:30-34).
(3) There were many in Corinth who would accept the gospel (Acts 18:9-10).
c. The only response of the OV is that God can “predict” our behavior since he knows us so well.
2. Critique 2: EDF denies free will.
a. This argument is made by a wide variety of thinkers.
(1) Proponents of the OV (Brents, p. 74, 77).
(2) Atheists: “If God really knows beforehand everything that one will do (and think, believe, etc.), then one really hasn’t any volition whatever, for one could not possibly do (or think, believe, etc.) anything contrary to what God foreknows. Hence, if God indeed possesses foreknowledge, then none of us possesses free will, and therefore none of us can be considered culpable for any of our beliefs or actions.” (http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/steven_conifer/ACritiqueofFundamentalism.shtml)
b. Response:
(1) In a sense the future is certain in that what will happen will happen.
(2) But the issue is why is what is going to happen going to happen, foreordination or free will.
(3) What God knows is our free choice. We could have made other choices (which he also knows – 1 Sam. 23:10-13).
III. A Critique of the Open View
A. Some basic observations.
1. Since God has given us free will, then when he interacts with us he will do so in a way that respects our free will.
2. The Bible sometimes uses anthropomorphic language (describing God in human terms).
3. God knows more than he sometimes reveals to us (Gen. 3:8-9).
B. A look at the passages used by Brents.
1. Genesis 6:5-7.
a. Brents: Why would God grieve over results he foreknew (p. 76)?
b. Response: This does not prove that God did not foreknow; God experiences emotion even of what he foreknows.
2. Genesis 22:11-12.
a. Brents: if EDF were true, how could God only then “know” Abraham feared him?
b. Response:
(1) Similar language in Gen. 18:20-21. Did God not know what was going on (in the present) in Sodom before “going down”? (Brents says YES! – p. 78).
(2) According to the OV, could God truly “know” even then that Abraham feared him since he had not actually carried out the free will choice to kill Isaac?
(3) Sometimes in the OT “to know” means “to know by experience.” I believe that is the sense of this passage.
3. Jeremiah 7:31.
a. Brents: Did God know from eternity that which never entered his heart (p. 81)?
b. Response: the point is not that God never thought the Israelites would commit such idolatry (he would be a poor chess player given Israel’s history). Rather, it never entered his mind to command Israel to practice such idolatry (Jer. 19:5; 32:35).
4. Exodus 32:10-14.
a. Brents: He repented of the evil he thought to do to his people, and did not do that which he thought he would do (p. 83).
b. Response:
(1) This raises a tough question: can God change his mind? Some passages seem to suggest he does; others that he does not (Num. 23:19; 1 Sam. 15:29).
(2) Different translations of Ex. 32:14: God “repented” (KJV); “changed his mind” (NASB); “relented” (ESV, NKJV, NIV).
(3) This text does teach that God did not follow through with his offer to destroy Israel and make a great nation of Moses. This does not mean that God did not know that Moses would choose to intercede, or that he did not know his ultimate decision would be to spare the nation.
(4) God sometimes knows more than he reveals to us.
C. Problems with the OV.
1. One OV theorist allows that God may be “mistaken” (John Sanders, The God Who Risks, pp. 132-133).
2. The “advantages” of the OV are not really advantages.
a. Regarding the problem of evil.
(1) See Boyd’s comments about Hitler and the Holocaust (God of the Possible, pp. 98-99).
(2) What happened to the master chess player?
b. Regarding prayer.
(1) See Boyd’s comments (pp. 95).
(2) God’s foreknowledge gives me great confidence that he has already been at work through providence (which literally means “foresight”) to answer my prayers (Isa. 65:24; Matt. 6:8).
IV. Some Final Thoughts
A. Tolerance is needed.
1. While I disagree with the OV, I believe its adherents respect the Scriptures and God’s knowledge.
2. It is unfair to charge those who hold the OV with being “neo-theists.” “God does not under-know the future; he over-knows the future” (Boyd).
B. Humility is demanded.
1. It has been mind boggling to try to think God’s thoughts, but it has only deepened my sense of awe for him.
2. “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?’ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:33-36).
I. The Basic Issues
A. This study raises many difficult questions:
1. What is God’s relationship to time?
2. Does the future truly exist?
3. Can free will and exhaustive divine foreknowledge (EDF) be reconciled?
B. Three positions
1. God has exhaustive foreknowledge of the future because he has predetermined everything that will happen.
a. This is the Calvinistic position.
b. “God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.” The Westminster Confession of Faith Chapter 3.
c. “If God merely foresaw human events, and did not also arrange and dispose of them at his pleasure, there might be room for agitating the question, how far his foreknowledge amounts to necessity; but since he foresees the things which are to happen, simply because he has decreed that they are so to happen, it is vain to debate about prescience, while it is clear that all events take place by his sovereign appointment.” John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion Book 3 Chapter 26 Section 6.
d. The Calvinistic position says that free will and EDF cannot be reconciled, and that man is not truly free.
2. God only knows that which he plans to do.
a. This is sometimes called the “Open View” (OV), meaning that the future is partly open to God.
b. According to the OV, if God knew our choices before we made them, then we could not choose otherwise, and therefore do not have free will.
c. Some advocates of the OV state that God chooses not to know certain things; others say that he knows all that can be known but that the future does not exist.
d. Defenders of the OV would argue that God knows all possible choices man may make, and like a master chess player knows how to respond to each move so that his purposes will be achieved.
e. The OV says that free will and EDF cannot be reconciled, and that God does not possess EDF.
3. God has exhaustive foreknowledge of the future, including our free will choices.
a. This is sometimes called the “Simple Foreknowledge View” (SF).
b. According to this view, the fact that God foreknows our choices does not mean they are predetermined.
c. The SF view says that free will and EDF can be reconciled.
d. This is the view that I believe best reflects the teaching of Scripture.
C. The history of the issue.
1. Brethren have rightly rejected Calvinism, but have differed as to whether the OV or the SF view is correct.
a. The most famous advocate of the OV is T.W. Brents in The Gospel Plan of Salvation, pp. 74-87.
b. Other brethren have forcefully argued for the SF view (Roy H. Lanier, Sr. in The Timeless Trinity for the Ceaseless Centuries, pp. 1451-148).
c. Debate between Allen Turner (SF) and Ken Green (OV) in Gospel Anchor.
2. Among evangelicals this issue is extremely contentious.
a. There is a growing interest in the OV among philosophers and theologians (best example: Greg Boyd, God of the Possible).
b. There have been efforts to purge adherents of the OV from seminaries, societies, and churches.
c. Much of this is triggered by the reaction of Calvinists.
D. Some disclaimers before we get started.
1. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9).
2. While I believe the SF view best explains the biblical data, there are problems with the view, and many valid points to be considered in the OV.
3. While this subject ultimately overwhelms finite creature, there is value in trying to know God more deeply.
II. The Case for Simple Foreknowledge
A. The Bible teaches that God is all-knowing (omniscient).
1. This means that he knows all that can be known.
2. The biblical teaching:
a. He is a God of knowledge (1 Sam. 2:3).
b. His understanding is infinite (Ps. 147:5).
c. He knows all things (1 John 3:20).
B. The Bible teaches that God knows what is going to happen before it happens.
1. The verb proginosko is used five times in the New Testament (Romans 8:29, 11:2; Acts 26:5; 1 Peter 1:20; 2 Peter 3:17), while the noun prognosis is attested twice (Acts 2:23; 1 Peter 1:2).
2. The concept of foreknowledge is the featured characteristic of the prophet Isaiah’s description of God (41:21-26; 42:8-9; 44:6-8).
C. The OV critique and response.
1. Critique 1: God only foreknows what he has determined to do.
a. God does indeed know what he intends to do (Isa. 46:8-11; 48:3-7).
b. However, God also knows the free will choices of others before they happen:
(1) Judas’ betrayal (Matt. 26:21-25).
(2) Peter’s denial (Matt. 26:30-34).
(3) There were many in Corinth who would accept the gospel (Acts 18:9-10).
c. The only response of the OV is that God can “predict” our behavior since he knows us so well.
2. Critique 2: EDF denies free will.
a. This argument is made by a wide variety of thinkers.
(1) Proponents of the OV (Brents, p. 74, 77).
(2) Atheists: “If God really knows beforehand everything that one will do (and think, believe, etc.), then one really hasn’t any volition whatever, for one could not possibly do (or think, believe, etc.) anything contrary to what God foreknows. Hence, if God indeed possesses foreknowledge, then none of us possesses free will, and therefore none of us can be considered culpable for any of our beliefs or actions.” (http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/steven_conifer/ACritiqueofFundamentalism.shtml)
b. Response:
(1) In a sense the future is certain in that what will happen will happen.
(2) But the issue is why is what is going to happen going to happen, foreordination or free will.
(3) What God knows is our free choice. We could have made other choices (which he also knows – 1 Sam. 23:10-13).
III. A Critique of the Open View
A. Some basic observations.
1. Since God has given us free will, then when he interacts with us he will do so in a way that respects our free will.
2. The Bible sometimes uses anthropomorphic language (describing God in human terms).
3. God knows more than he sometimes reveals to us (Gen. 3:8-9).
B. A look at the passages used by Brents.
1. Genesis 6:5-7.
a. Brents: Why would God grieve over results he foreknew (p. 76)?
b. Response: This does not prove that God did not foreknow; God experiences emotion even of what he foreknows.
2. Genesis 22:11-12.
a. Brents: if EDF were true, how could God only then “know” Abraham feared him?
b. Response:
(1) Similar language in Gen. 18:20-21. Did God not know what was going on (in the present) in Sodom before “going down”? (Brents says YES! – p. 78).
(2) According to the OV, could God truly “know” even then that Abraham feared him since he had not actually carried out the free will choice to kill Isaac?
(3) Sometimes in the OT “to know” means “to know by experience.” I believe that is the sense of this passage.
3. Jeremiah 7:31.
a. Brents: Did God know from eternity that which never entered his heart (p. 81)?
b. Response: the point is not that God never thought the Israelites would commit such idolatry (he would be a poor chess player given Israel’s history). Rather, it never entered his mind to command Israel to practice such idolatry (Jer. 19:5; 32:35).
4. Exodus 32:10-14.
a. Brents: He repented of the evil he thought to do to his people, and did not do that which he thought he would do (p. 83).
b. Response:
(1) This raises a tough question: can God change his mind? Some passages seem to suggest he does; others that he does not (Num. 23:19; 1 Sam. 15:29).
(2) Different translations of Ex. 32:14: God “repented” (KJV); “changed his mind” (NASB); “relented” (ESV, NKJV, NIV).
(3) This text does teach that God did not follow through with his offer to destroy Israel and make a great nation of Moses. This does not mean that God did not know that Moses would choose to intercede, or that he did not know his ultimate decision would be to spare the nation.
(4) God sometimes knows more than he reveals to us.
C. Problems with the OV.
1. One OV theorist allows that God may be “mistaken” (John Sanders, The God Who Risks, pp. 132-133).
2. The “advantages” of the OV are not really advantages.
a. Regarding the problem of evil.
(1) See Boyd’s comments about Hitler and the Holocaust (God of the Possible, pp. 98-99).
(2) What happened to the master chess player?
b. Regarding prayer.
(1) See Boyd’s comments (pp. 95).
(2) God’s foreknowledge gives me great confidence that he has already been at work through providence (which literally means “foresight”) to answer my prayers (Isa. 65:24; Matt. 6:8).
IV. Some Final Thoughts
A. Tolerance is needed.
1. While I disagree with the OV, I believe its adherents respect the Scriptures and God’s knowledge.
2. It is unfair to charge those who hold the OV with being “neo-theists.” “God does not under-know the future; he over-knows the future” (Boyd).
B. Humility is demanded.
1. It has been mind boggling to try to think God’s thoughts, but it has only deepened my sense of awe for him.
2. “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?’ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:33-36).
posted by Shane at 9:53 AM
3 Comments:
Looks like you have a good outline going! I'm a "reformed" Southern Baptist, just so you know my general position on the topic.
Anyway, I find this statement almost humorous:
"Some advocates of the OV state that God chooses not to know certain things"
My question on this: "If God chooses to not know something, then he has to know it in order to choose to not know it. If he truly didn't know it, then how could he choose to not know something he doesn't know about? Therefore, by choosing not to know something we can know that God already knows it in order to choose not to know it..."
Hey Chris
Thanks for dropping by. I think you are exactly right. I suppose an OV advocate could say that if Jesus could limit himself ("not even the Son of Man knows") that God could as well. But it seems to me that Jesus' self-limitation is directly connected to his incarnation, a qualifier that does not apply to the Father.
what happened in the garden ? to me God does not know how we are going to respond, he seemed surprised at Adam and Eve's choice, or was God playing along acting surprised. i believe God made a pack with the devil like he did with Job, remember God came up with the plan and told the devil about Job. to say God knew we were going to fail is saying that he had failure in him , because he created us in his image and likeness,i think the answer is before satin sinned, where did sin come from ? fore knowing before the tree and after seemed to change God's mind or did the devil pull a quick one on God. did God change his plains after adam &eve sinned i say yes
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