Is it Impossible for God to Know the Future if He Didn't Write it?

J.C. Thibodaux


Make the hurting stop...

  Few things push the limits of my tolerance for stupidity. After spending over a decade in the military, being fed brain-dead liberal humanist propaganda from some of the 'fine arts' departments in college, and sitting through a good deal of Ren and Stimply plus both seasons of Excel Saga, I'm a pretty tough nut to crack as far as looniness is concerned. But even I have limits. I will show you one directly.

  If you've read any of my articles, you will understand that I believe that God has given men a limited free will, and chooses some for salvation according to His foreknowledge (see the article on Election for a more thorough exposition). Many of the theological persuasion known as Calvinism take issue with this, contending that God's election has nothing to do with our actions or choices, and that salvation is completely deterministic (i.e. God determines absolutely everything, free will is just an illusion). Some Calvinists honestly do very well in arguing this point, presenting a logical sequence of scriptures, facts, and hermeneutics to bolster the support for their doctrinal points while maintaining integrity, honesty, and reverence for God and His holy word. All of you can take the rest of the day off, this article does not concern you.

  Then there are the ones who don't know how to reason soundly, much less make a case, and will resort to absolutely any method to try to win an argument. In trying to make the point that the Bible does not teach election according to foreknowledge, but fore-love instead ('prognosis' sounds like a word for love, doesn't it?), some Calvinists of the latter persuasion have actually attempted to argue the impossibility of God having foreknowledge of events He did not directly cause.

(emphasis mine, if you don't take pain pills, this might be a good time to start)

"It is impossible for anyone, even God, to foreknow for certain that something is going to happen unless it is 100% certain that it will actually happen. There can be absolutely no possible contingencies that will keep it from happening if it is truly 'foreknown.' This is why you and I cannot know one single thing in the future for certain. We do not control any of the contingencies. Many unknown things may keep it from happening. God foreknows simply because he fixes it so it will certainly happen. God does control every contingency. This is why Romans 8:28 is such a comfort. If man has a true 'free will,' then even God could not be absolutely certain of any event since the man might change his mind at the last second."

John G. Reisinger, The Doctrine of Election (Part 2)



Critical examination

  Despite the painfully stupid logic used here, this is sadly not an isolated incident (I have had this argued to me directly more than once). Let's look at these lines of reasoning carefully and in a logical order and try not to laugh:

"It is impossible for anyone, even God, to foreknow for certain that something is going to happen unless it is 100% certain that it will actually happen. There can be absolutely no possible contingencies that will keep it from happening if it is truly 'foreknown.' This is why you and I cannot know one single thing in the future for certain. We do not control any of the contingencies. Many unknown things may keep it from happening."

What amazing powers of deduction!! We can't do it, so God must not be able to either! Oh wait, what if God knows the outcomes of all the contingencies as well? (Doh!)

"God foreknows simply because he fixes it so it will certainly happen. God does control every contingency. This is why Romans 8:28 is such a comfort."

No one is arguing that God does not have control, I am making the point that He does not choose to exercise it to its fullest at all times.

"If man has a true 'free will,' then even God could not be absolutely certain of any event since the man might change his mind at the last second."

Yet another case of simply begging the question. To argue that man could change his mind at the last second and produce an outcome that God did not foreknow is to simply assume that God could not foreknow the last-second change. When discussing this issue one time, a not so logically sound Calvinist blurted out in frustrated desperation, "Then how does God know the future if He didn't cause it??" A question akin to "How long is infinity?" The 'how' does not concern me in the least. Lack of understanding of the means by which an event takes place is not proof that it does not occur: Just because I can't explain or demonstrate how God could form matter from nothingness is no bar to Him doing so. The God who is infinitely strong in power and infinitely understanding in wisdom is equally unfathomable in His ways -- and one need not understand it fully to believe it.

"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable [are] his judgments, and his ways past finding out!"

Romans 11:33



A completely different problem of evil

  Another valid rhetorical question against such insipid logic concerns God's knowledge of evil: If God is not the source of evil (Article 15 of The Canons of Dordt declares the idea of God being the Author of sin to be "a blasphemous thought"), and He cannot foreknow what He has not determined, does God then not have perfect knowledge of all of the evil that will occur? If the above reasoning used by Mr. Reisinger and others is true, then God could not have perfect knowledge of the immoral actions of men and angels because He is not the author of their wickedness, making Him somewhat less than omniscient.


Preaching to the choir

  Some Calvininist apologists selectively play dumb and resort to terrible logic. It's truly awful that some people can accept abstruse principles like the Trinity and God's existence in infinity past without question, but when it comes to things like God's perfect knowledge of things He did not directly cause, they suddenly turn and act as if the things which are impossible with men must also be impossible with God, which is clearly not true (Matthew 19:26). It's a sad day when a synergist has to remind a Calvinist of that.

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