God's Knowledge of the Future.

In my previous post I gave an example, at least to my mind, of God foreknowing something without ordaining it. But this doesn't answer how this is possible for God to do. And nor does it demonstrate it to someone who won't trust the Bible.  So how does God know the future?

I've heard agnostics and atheists say something along the lines of: “If God knows what my choices are how can He judge me?” Their argument seems to be: if God knows my choices, then my choices must be determined, so I only have an illusion of choice. Thus, how is it fair for God to judge me for an action when I could do no other?

I think the problem with this view, and with Calvinist statements such as

God foreknows what will be because He has decreed what shall be. From here.

No event can be foreknown unless, in some sense, it has been predetermined... Foreknowledge demands certainty, and certainty demands foreordination. From here.

is that they think of God as stuck in time like us. They picture God in the present peering into the future. Because He knows the present perfectly He can run the universe forwards in His mind to see the future. This view only works if we live in a deterministic universe. If indeterminate things are possible then this view of God's foreknowledge can't work or else God can't know the future. But I think that this is a mistaken view of God. Time is part of the universe. Time came into being when the universe began. In fact, according to General Relativity, time flows at different rates at different parts of the universe. This necessitates that God is timeless. He sees the whole of time at once. He knows the outcome of an indeterminate event in the future because He is there, observing it occurring. Just as me observing a coin spinning and twisting through the air and finally landing – didn't determine whether it was a head or a tail – so God observing me in the future doesn't imply that my actions, desires or decisions were predetermined.

It's hard for us temporal beings to picture God knowing all of time at once. So maybe this will help.  Imagine a one dimensional object moving randomly along a line between two points A and B. Because the object is moving randomly we can't predict, from its initial position, where it will be at time t1. But if we are outside of time (see the picture) we can see that at t1 it will be at point B. So because we can see the whole of time we can know with certainty where the being will be at a given time without its position being the result of some deterministic law.

 

I hope this post shows how it is possible for God to know the future exhaustively and allow the possibility that not all our choices are predetermined. However it doesn't answer why God chose to make this particular universe containing you and me and the choices we make.  And I'm not sure if we'll ever be able that question. But we can rejoice that God knows all things.

Remember the former things, those of long ago;
   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.’

Isaiah 46:9-10 

A Question for Calvinists.

I go to a Grace Baptist church and we've just started a two part series on the Ordo Salutis (the Order of Salvation) which is essentially a series on Calvinism. The first of these sessions was on Foreknowledge and Election. Therefore I think this might be a good time to do a couple of posts... or more... on the age old debate about Calvinism. As last night's sermon was on foreknowledge I think I'll start there.

Ignoring what exactly foreknowledge means in some of the hotly disputed passages (context determines the meaning of a word in any given passage), I'll just limit myself to the question:

Can God foreknow something unless He ordains it?

Or, to put it another way: Can people have genuine freedom if God knows what decisions we will make?

Here's a quote from a Calvinistic website:

Simply put, what God foreknows, must, of necessity, be as fixed as that which He has decreed. Therefore, to argue for foreknowledge over against predestination by appealing to the freedom of the will is to argue in a self-contradictory fashion. No event can be foreknown unless, in some sense, it has been predetermined... Foreknowledge demands certainty, and certainty demands foreordination. [Emphasis in Original]

Clearly, he along with others, believes the answer is no. But rather than getting into long philosophical debates I think I'll just raise a question for Calvinists:

Did Adam and Eve have genuine free will at the Fall? Could they have resisted the temptation and not eaten the forbidden fruit?

This is a yes or no question and whatever you answer it has important implications.

If you answer yes, then we have an example of genuine free will and of God knowing what the result of that free will would be. This demonstrates that human freedom can coexist with God's omniscience. It doesn't tell us how it's possible, nor even if we currently have free will, but it does show us that it's possible. God can foreknow a decision without determining it.

If you answer no. Then you claim that God ordained the fall. And to my mind, this makes God the author of sin and evil. And that's not something I'm happy to believe.

The Important Things in Life

How can you know what's important in life?
How can you tell what really matters?

It's easy really.

Remember you're going to die.

Then ask yourself: what would I regret if I died tomorrow?

So what comes to mind?  Money, job, career, holiday, qualifications, car, education, sporting achievements?

For me it's none of these.  What matters are people. It's the friends I've lost contact with, the relationships that have broken down and  the people I haven't told how much they mean to me.  I don't think this is just me. I'd guess most people will say others are the most important things in life.  But why is this?  Is it just because I want to be remembered as a nice bloke or is there some deeper reason? Why are humans so important?

If there is no God, then this life is it. There's nothing else. When I die, what's in my bank account won't matter, but then neither will my relationships.  The best I can hope for is that people remember me as someone who was great – but that won't bother me either, if all I am is worm food.  Moreover, unless I'm someone like Alexander the Great, in a hundred years I'll be forgotten.  It will be as if I'd never existed.  So why is it that my heart tells me that relationships are more important than all else?  Maybe it's because this life isn't all there is, that when I die it's not all over, and that how I relate to people has eternal consequences.

The Bible teaches that people are made in God's image.  That death is not the end.  Therefore relationships matter.  Money, career etc. don't matter – they won't enter eternity - but people do.  And people matter.  God cares about how we treat those who bear His image.  He made us for relationships – with each other, but most importantly with Him.  And this is the relationship we tend to forget most about.  But it's the one that matters the most. It's the one that determines our eternal fate. And if I'm reconciled to my creator then I'll start to put my other relationships right.

So in light of your mortality: how will you live tomorrow?