I read a post sometime ago from someone I know who is an unbeliever. My family, like all families of the world, consists of believers and unbelievers, and I learn from both. In this particular instance, the post was about how Christians believe that man has genuine freedom and God foreknows all our choices — and, to this individual, the idea that both coexist is mythical and an illusion.

To this individual, divine foreknowledge (what God foreknows or knows in advance) and genuine human freedom (the idea that humans make voluntary choices with no compulsion except from within) cannot work peacefully together. Since, to this individual, both cannot peacefully coexist, only one or the other is true: if divine foreknowledge is true, and God is sovereign, this individual says, then there is no such thing as genuine human freedom or choice. Individuals in this view are simply doing what God has already predetermined (or decided beforehand) they would do.

There is another view: that is, that, if man has genuine human freedom and makes voluntary choices, then God cannot foreknow what humans will do because God would have to be the human in question to know what he or she will do. God may foreknow what choices the human can make, but which choice exactly is up to the individual in the moment they make it.

I would suggest that the Bible tells us that both divine foreknowledge and genuine human freedom exist, that neither drowns out nor eliminates the other, and that they work together without conflict. If there is any conflict in understanding how these two concepts work together, the lack of understanding is on the part of man.

Without further ado, let’s get to it.

Divine foreknowledge assumes time, space, and humanity as creation

When one discusses divine foreknowledge, which is a biblical concept by the way (see 1 Peter 1:1-2), one must first understand the word “foreknowledge.” What is divine foreknowledge? It is the fact that God knows everything that will happen before it happens. The word “fore” in “foreknowledge” refers to knowing something before it occurs. The word “before” is a word referring to time. For example, you may know of a surprise birthday party “before” the person celebrating the birthday knows. If you pay rent, for example, you know rent is due on a certain day each month. The rent can be due the 1st of the month, but you may foreknow you will make your rent payment on the 20th of the previous month, just days before the 1st of the new month.

When one refers to “before,” one also thinks about “after.” Before and after are words referring to time, the sequence of events. There is event A, then B, before, then after. In eternity, God was with Himself, the 3 personalities of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In eternity, God didn’t foreknow; He simply knew. He knew what He purposed to do. His knowledge of His actions was self-evident, apparent to Him.

It’s important to make this clear: God’s knowledge does not become foreknowledge when He creates the world. It is just that the word “foreknowledge” when used in Scripture is used in relation to His dealings with humanity. Because God is outside of time, He has always known what He would do. He has always had knowledge of creating man, time and space. He has always been aware of His decisions (eternal awareness). But the Bible shows us through its use of foreknowledge that not only is it theologically sound, but it is also philosophically sound: The God who is Creator is also the All-Knowing One who wasn’t taken by surprise at man’s actions in the Garden when Adam and Eve sin against Him; He already foreknew it would happen, and He responds with His Master Plan to redeem humanity through the seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent (see Genesis 3:15; Romans 16:20).

If God does not foreknow what free creatures will do, then His purposes cannot be carried out. The god of Openness Theology, to paraphrase what theologian Greg Boyd says in his work “The God of the Possible,” does not know what humans will do until they do it. His consolation to someone grieving the loss of their parents in a car accident was, to paraphrase, “God is not at fault because He didn’t know what would happen until it happened.” But if God only knows what will happen after it happens or in the moment it is happening and not prior, then human actions catch Him off guard. Openness Theology (the idea that God’s Foreknowledge is open and He doesn’t know for certain what we will do until we do it) reduces God to nothing more than being “one of us.” And God is not one of us; He is greater than us all (Job 33:12; 1 John 3:20; 1 John 4:4).

If God does not foreknow what will happen, then will there ever be an end to evil and suffering? God can only be sovereign if He has a plan to deal with sin, evil, and the Devil and his demonic agents. The God who does not foreknow what will happen and does not have a plan to “make things right” is like a firefighter who sees the fire in the house blazing and throws his hands up in defeat, saying, “I don’t know what to do, it’s utter chaos!”

But fortunately, this “I don’t know what to do” concept of God does not match the God of the Scriptures.

David Attests To Divine Foreknowledge (Psalm 139:1-4)

King David is an Old Testament witness to divine foreknowledge, as he writes the following in one of the Psalms that bears his name:

“You know when I sit down and when I get up; You understand my thought from far away. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, Lord, You know it all.” (Psalm 139:1-4, New American Standard Bible/NASB).

The word in Psalm 139:4 for “before” does not come directly in verse 4, but rather, from verse 3 in the Septuagint (LXX) version of this Psalm. While Psalm 139 is familiar to many of us in English translations, in the Greek this passage is in Psalm 138. Verses 3, 4, and 5 run together in the Septuagint (LXX), the Greek translation of the Old Testament, but these words help us understand what David meant by what he wrote. He writes in verse 3 that “my sitting down and my rising up you have traced and all my ways you foresee,” the Greek word proeides meaning to foresee, to see before, to know before (or beforehand). “Eides” is to see and thus, to know (to mentally see or conceive). “Pro” is the prefix and it means “before.” For example, the English word “proactive” means “to take initiative,” to get ahead of something or be active before something happens (case in point: you want to be proactive and get flood insurance before your house floods; you want to have life insurance before death. By getting flood insurance and life insurance, you are being PROactive).

David goes on to say in the same Greek passage that even when there isn’t a word on his tongue, “Behold, Lord, you have known all things,” the Greek word “egnos” (eg-know-se) meaning “have known,” the word “panta” meaning “all” or “all things.” In short, when there isn’t even a word on David’s tongue, God still knows everything David is thinking, feeling, and ultimately will say. How someone can deny divine foreknowledge with these words (even a look at the Greek) is beyond me.

When David says there isn’t even a word on his tongue but the Lord knows all things, is he not saying that the Lord knows what he wants to say even when he doesn’t even know how to say it? That is, before he forms the words to say, the Lord already knows what he wants to say. This is what we mean by divine foreknowledge: the Lord foreknows what humans will do before we do anything. When you don’t know how to form the words, the Lord foreknows what you will say and the exact words you will use to say it. Is this not divine foreknowledge?

Does God grant genuine human freedom?

We’ve established the Good Lord knows what words we will say while we haven’t even formed the words (while the words are missing on our tongues). However, the next question in this discussion is, “Does God grant genuine human freedom?” That is, since God foreknows all things, even what free human creatures do, does divine foreknowledge negate genuine human freedom? Are we “less free” or not free at all because of divine foreknowledge?

Does divine foreknowledge deny genuine human freedom? No it doesn’t. In fact, divine foreknowledge highlights genuine human freedom rather than denies it.

Take a look at Adam and Eve and their sin in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). What does God say to Adam when He confronts the first couple about their sin?

¹¹ And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

¹² And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

¹³ And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

¹⁴ And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

¹⁵ And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

¹⁶ Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

¹⁷ And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

¹⁸ Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

¹⁹ In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. (Genesis 3:11-19, KJV).

Notice the statements in bold font in these 9 verses from Genesis 3. How can God be guilty of causing Adam and Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good And Evil when He told Adam not to eat of the tree? In Genesis 3:11, God refers to the tree as “whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat”; in Genesis 3:17, God again refers to the tree as that “which I commanded thee saying, Thou shalt not eat of it,” once again reiterating the point that the divine is innocent in this punishment and sentence because He told them not to eat of the Tree. All the other trees in the Garden were fair for the eating — except for the Tree in question. If God told them not to eat, and forewarned them of what would happen if they did eat, is He not absolved of any guilt in this situation?

God says that the prophet who forewarns the people of their sin is absolved of guilt: “thou hast delivered thy soul,” God says to Ezekiel in Ezekiel 3:17-21. If God would save the prophet Ezekiel (or any prophet) who forewarns the people of their sin, is God not even more deserving of His righteousness by forewarning Adam and Eve not to eat of the forbidden tree, or they would die? Is He any less righteous than the prophets He would save in His forewarning Adam and Eve to do what is right and to obey?

I have taught at length about King David and his sin and God’s righteous judgment upon him. You can view the rest of the series here and here.

Divine Sovereignty: The Foundation for Genuine Human Freedom

This article has gone into some discussion of divine foreknowledge and genuine human freedom, and the use of foreknowledge in relation to actions humans make within time and space. God foreknew what free creatures would do because He was pleased to create humanity along with the rest of creation.

But this article cannot end without a word or two (or three) as an extension of what has been said here.

First, to reiterate what was said earlier, divine foreknowledge pertains to human decisions and God’s knowledge of them before they happen in time (before humans commit these actions). God does not “foreknow” what He will do; because He is God, He simply knows it. His knowledge of His actions is simple divine foreknowledge (not that it is simple in nature, but that it doesn’t pertain to time and space, as God is timelessly eternal). To say that God does not foreknow what creatures will do is tantamount to saying that divine Sovereignty doesn’t exist. If God knows slightly more than what humans know (we know what creatures can do, but God knows an exhaustive array of “possible” options), then God is a slightly more advanced human being. He is not like us; we are like Him.

And along those lines, next, we are like Him. We have been made in His image, after HIS likeness, not our own (see Genesis 1:26-27). How are we like God if we are not 1) rational and 2) make free choices as God does? This appears to be a weakness on the part of atheists and Calvinists alike, who state that if God is sovereign, then the will of man to make choices is non-existent because God has “predetermined” or programmed every action that occurs. If we are made in His image after His likeness, and He is rational and makes choices, then we, being like Him, can make choices, too. After all, when God created Adam, He gave him the responsibility of naming the animals in the Garden. Why would God bring the animals to Adam “to see what he would call them” (Genesis 2:19) if man cannot make rational choices, if God did not give man any power to choose whatsoever?

Last but not least, divine Sovereignty is the foundation for human responsibility. If God is sovereign, and God chooses to create time and space (and has foreknowledge of what His human creatures will do), then He can create human beings who have some measure of power to make choices without taking anything away from His own sovereignty. This is a point many Calvinist theologians and Christians just don’t understand: God giving a limited power of choice to humanity doesn’t make God weak or less sovereign; instead, it emphasizes how sovereign He is and puts divine sovereignty on display! The God who, as I mentioned in the previous paragraph, gave Adam the right to name the animals does what He does because it pleases Him. And, giving Adam power to name the animals takes nothing away from God. The Lord doesn’t shake in His boots or run scared after giving the animals to Adam, questioning, “What if I just gave my sovereignty away?”

God doesn’t do that because God is truly not like us.