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Chart #68 The Fore-Knowledge of God.1. Much of Calvinistic theology is based upon the assumption
that God, from all eternity, fore-knew everything that ever
has or ever will come to pass; therefore, He fore-knew just
who and how many would be saved, and who, if any, would be
lost.
2. In-as-much as the final destiny of every person must be
exactly as fore-seem by God, it follows that such fore-
knowledge amounted to an immutable decree.
3. The Calvinistic position asserts that as God fore-knew
everything; and as He fore-knew the destiny of every man, it
follows that he decreed the destiny which man had no power to
avert.
4. From this stems the Calvinistic theology of Predestination
and Unconditional Election.
5. The question that needs to be considered is whether or not
God eternally fore-knew everything that ever has or ever will
come to pass.
6. Man certainly cannot pretend to know the mind and/or the
purpose of God, except as God has revealed them to us.
a. Romans 11:33-34; 1 Corinthians 2:9-13
b. We may know God’s Will, and the extend of His knowledge
where He has revealed them to us, but beyond that we dare
not God!!
7. When God says He purposed to do a thing, we must accept it as
true, whether He did the thing or not; and when He says He
did not know a thing, it is unsafe to say to that He did know
it.
What Has God Spoken to Man on the Subject? I. Genesis 6:5-7 – “God saw that the wickedness of man was
great.”
1. Did He not always see?
2. Why did God grieve over a result which was as plain to
Him before He created man as when He saw the overt acts
of wickedness performed?
3. If the wickedness of man was such as to cause God to
destroy him, why would not this wickedness “foreseen”
have prevented his creation at first?
4. If seeing the wickedness of man caused God to repent
making him, and to determine to destroy him, does it
not follow that He did not know, prior to his creation,
how wicked he would be?
II. The person who says God could not avoid knowing everything
limits the power of Him who is Omnipotent.
1. God is as infinite in power as He is in understanding.
2. God is omnipotent as well as omniscient, yet there are
things God cannot do.
a. Example: God cannot lie. Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18
b. Example: God cannot deny himself. 2 Timothy 2:13
3. Infinite power does not require God to do everything,
but it implies the ability to do whatever is in harmony
with His attributes and purposes.
a. Jesus had power to command stones to become bread,
but he did not do so. Matthew 4:3-4
b. God could have raised up seed unto Abraham of the
stones, but He did not do so. Matthew 3:9
c. Jesus could have called down twelve legions of
angels to prevent the crucifixion, but did not do
so. Matthew 26:53
4. On the same basis, God’s Omniscience requires Him to
fore-know only what which is in harmony with His
attributes and purposes.
III. Genesis 18:20-21 “And the Lord said, Because the cry of
Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very
grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have
done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come
unto me; and if not, I will know.”
1. God could have known the extent of what was going on in
these cities without going down there to see about it,
but he declined to know until He employed His angels,
in the likeness of men, as means for the purpose of
obtaining the information.
2. God made use of means to acquire a knowledge of what
had already occurred.
3. Did God know, before time began, all about the
wickedness of these cities, and forget it, so as to
make it necessary to send His angels to acquire a
knowledge of that which He had previously known?
a. God exercises His attributes through means or
without them, as may best serve His purposes.
(1) Examples of this may be seen in:
(a) The creation.
(b) His bearing witness to His Son. Matthew
3:17; 17:5
(c) His bearing Balaam through the mouth of an
Ass. Numbers 22:28
(d) His rebuking Belshazzar. Daniel 5:5
(e) God’s giving of the law on Sinai – written
with finger of God.
4. Even so, He could know or not know whatever He desired
to know, with or without means.
5. He declined to know about the wickedness of Sodom and
Gomorrah until He sent His angels to determine the
condition.
IV. Genesis 22:11-12 – Of Abraham’s suffering Isaac God said,
“Now I know that thou fearest God.”
1. Did He always know it? No!!
2. How did He now know it.?
a. “Seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only
son, from me.”
3. Does not this language imply that god saw in Abraham a
degree of faithfulness unseen before?
4. Paul says God tried Abraham here. Hebrews 11:17
5. Why did God try him, if He knew perfectly well what
Abraham would do before He tried him?
V. Jeremiah 7:31 – “And they have built the high places of
Tophat, which is in the valley of Hinnom, to burn their
sons and their daughters in the fire, which I commanded
them not, neither came it into my heart.”
Jeremiah 19:5 – “They have built also the high places of
Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings
unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither
came it into my mind.”
1. Here were things done by men which the Lord said came
not into His heart or mind.
2. Did He know from eternity that which never came into
His heart or mind?
3. My opponent cannot say that this only means that it
never entered into God’s heart to command the
wickedness which they did, because then he would have a
two horned dilemma.
a. First it would mean that God had not fore-ordained
or Predestinated by immutable decree that they do
these things. So away goes his concept of
Predestination or fore-ordination.
b. God had already stated that He did not command it
before He used the words, “Neither came it into my
heart.”
VI. Jeremiah 32:35 – “Neither came it into my mind, that they
should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.”
1. My opponent assumes that God eternally fore-knew,
hence, immutably fore-ordained everything that comes to
pass.
2. It did come to pass that the Jews did these things; so
according to my opponent, it follows therefore that God
fore-ordain that Israel should do them.
3. But God says that it never came into His mind that they
should do them.
4. How did God fore-know and thus fore-ordain to come to
pass that which never entered into his mind.
VII. Exodus 32:10-14 – Moses prayed on behalf of Israel.
1. Was the Lord deceptive in His pretensions of anger to
Moses against people?
2. Were His threats of destruction all hypocrisy?
3. The earnest appeals of Moses on their behalf show that
he did not so understand them.
4. God repented of the evil which He thought to do unto
His people, and did not do that which He thought He
would do.
5. But if He eternally fore-knew everything that comes to
pass, it follows that He fore-knew He would not do this
evil to His people; hence, He knew He would not do that
which He thought and said that He would do.
6. Who can believe that God would thus lie and be a
hypocrite??
VIII. Mark 13:32 – The Son knows not the day of His return.
1. Here is one thing which it is certain that one person
of the Godhead did not fore-know.
IX. Though God can do all things, he does not do all things.
Infinite judgment directs the operation of His power, so
that though He can, yet he does not do all things, but
only such things as are proper to be done. It does not
follow that, because God can do all things, therefore He
must do all things.
God is Omniscient, and can know all things, but it does
not follow that He must know all things.
*** Some of the points used in the discussion of Predestination
and Fore-ordination have been put together through the years
from sources long since forgotten. For some points, I am
indebted to T. W. Brents, Gospel Plan of Salvation.
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