How Can Election Be Based on Foreknowledge if There is Nothing Good to Foreknow?
J.C. Thibodaux
One argument often used by Calvinists against conditional election based upon God's foreknowledge is that there are no conditions to being elected that man could possibly meet for God to foreknow. Calvinists contend that conditional election is not possible, because man is so utterly depraved, he could not possibly fulfill any of said conditions on his own, being devoid of God's grace entirely.
"As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one."
Romans 3:10-12
An argument sound in its logic, but not in its assumptions. The problem with this line of reasoning is that it assumes that God only foreknows the lives of men outside of the context of His grace and the gospel. If God only foreknows us by ourselves without His grace, then of course all humanity is hopeless, as we are totally lost without Him. While I'm sure that God is well aware of that fact, He also knows if we actually will receive Him or not when we hear His Son.
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live."
John 5:25
God's foreknowledge of the future also encompasses His doings as well as man's: What He knows will occur is who will receive Him when they hear His word and the voice of His Son, not what we would do if He were to never show any grace at all to us. This argument takes God's foreknowledge completely out of context, for if God were to foreknow us only by ourselves without His mercy, then we could not even exist.
(emphasis mine)
"And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us: for in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.' "
Acts 17:26-28
Who hath given Him a charge over the earth? Or who hath disposed the whole world? If He set his heart upon man, [if] He gather unto Himself His spirit and His breath; all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust.
Job 34:13-15
We cannot even exist outside of God's mercy, much less believe the gospel. God foreknows not only how men will be in their natural state, but how men will react to His grace as well: Whether we will hear the voice of His precious Son and be brought to new and abundant life through Him (see John 5:25 above), or refuse to listen and reject His mercy (Zechariah 7:11, Romans 11:22).
Bottom Line:
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God's foreknowledge of men includes whether they will receive His word, not merely what they would do without Him.
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"Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony...If I went 'round sayin' I was an emporer just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!" - Dennis, Monty Python and the Holy Grail