OMNISCIENCE AND FREEWILL

If God is omniscient and knows all future events, He knows exactly what we will do before we do it and, therefore, we could not act otherwise. If we could, it would mean that God is not omniscient, something the Bible rules out. Therefore, it would seem that if God is omniscient, we do not have freewill and are not morally responsible.

To demonstrate this alleged conflict within the biblical faith, one atheist stated it this way:

·       PREMISE #1 – God knows every future event.

·       PREMISE #2  - We cannot act in a way contrary to how God knows we will act.

·       CONCLUSION #1 -  We do not have freewill.

·       CONCLUSION #2 -  God is not just in judging us, since we could not act otherwise.

However, there is a problem with PREMISE #2. Instead, of “we CANNOT act otherwise,” this phrase can just as easily be rendered “we WILL NOT act otherwise” to preserve our freewill. The difference in meaning is enormous! The last phrase suggests that we do have freewill even though we act in accordance with God’s omniscience – that we COULD have acted otherwise but WILL NOT do so. Therefore, God remains omniscient and we remain free moral agents.

DOES GOD KNOW THE ENTIRE FUTURE?

There are many verses that suggest that God was blindsided by events. However, there are many verses that explicitly inform us that God is perfect in His knowledge:

• You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. (Psalm 139:3-4)

• Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:13)

But are future events “hidden from God’s sight?” Evidently not!

• Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit. (Psalm 147:5)

If His understanding has no limit, then His knowledge of the future would also have no limit.

• “See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you." (Isaiah 42:9)

To declare them, He must know them. But does He know all future events?

• Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people, and what is yet to come-- yes, let him foretell what will come. (Isaiah 44:7) 

He declares that none are like Him able to declare “what is still to come”:

• “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 46:10)

When He claims that He makes “known the end,” it doesn’t seem that there are any details left out:

• “For I knew how stubborn you were; the sinews of your neck were iron, your forehead was bronze. Therefore I told you these things long ago; before they happened I announced them to you so that you could not say, 'My idols did them; my wooden image and metal god ordained them.'” (Isaiah 48:4-5 (NIV) 

God wouldn’t leave any room for the idols to fill in the missing blanks, because God had no missing blanks of foreknowledge to leave out.

However, there are a number of verses that seem to suggest that God is not perfect in foreknowledge. God had given Moses a song to teach to Israel which prophesied her future rebellion, but this song includes a curious detail:

• "I will hide my face from them," he said, "AND SEE what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful.” (Deuteronomy 32:20) 

This verse seems to suggest that God does not know what will happen to Israel, and that He will have to play “wait and see.” However, when we read the rest of the song. We find that God does know precisely:

• "I will heap calamities upon them and spend my arrows against them. I will send wasting famine against them, consuming pestilence and deadly plague; I will send against them the fangs of wild beasts, the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.” (Deuteronomy 32:23-24)

• Rejoice, O nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants; he will take vengeance on his enemies and make atonement for his land and people. (Deuteronomy 32:43)

How then do we explain “and see?” Perhaps God is merely using language as a human might, as if to say: “Then my words will be vindicated in the seeing.”

Some verses even seem to suggest that God had changed His mind. For instance, God informed Samuel that

• It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night. (1 Samuel 15:11; KJV; All other verses in the NIV) 

The KJV makes it seem that God has changed His mind based upon new information about Saul. However, in the same account, the Prophet Samuel confidently claims that God does not change His mind and that there is no reason for God to change His mind:

• Samuel said to him [Saul], "The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors--to one better than you. He who is the Glory of Israel does NOT LIE OR CHANGE HIS MIND [“repent” in the KJV]; for he is not a man, that he should change his mind." (1 Samuel 15:28-29)

The same Hebrew word is used in both sets of verses. In 15:11 it says that God does repent, but then Samuel says that He doesn’t repent. How do we reconcile this apparent contradiction?

Words are often used differently. In regards to the first verse, the NIV translates the Hebrew as “It grieved God,” not that He changed His mind but only His course of action according to His plan. In fact, He had always planned that the kingly lineage would be of Judah and not Saul’s tribe of Benjamin:

• The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his. (Genesis 49:10)

God’s perfect omniscience is not an academic matter. It is a matter of our food - our peace and trust. If God is not omniscient and therefore might change His mind in our regards, we have no basis for peace. He might later change any of His promises. He might even decide that He doesn’t want me. We cannot have a joyful confidence about such a God or any assurance about our salvation or place in heaven.

The laws of physics are another indication that God will not learn some new facts and change things around. Instead, as far as we can tell, the laws are immutable, elegant, and universal. God gives us no hint at all that He is monkeying with the laws as new information comes into His lab.

It is also alleged that God didn’t know how Abraham would respond and whether or not He would be able to fulfill His covenant through him. As Abraham was ready to plunge his knife into Isaac, the sacrifice that the Lord had required of Abraham, the Angel of the Lord intervened:

• "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. NOW I KNOW that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." (Genesis 22:12) 

The Angel of the Lord then renewed the covenant with Abraham. However, it seems unlikely that the Lord didn’t know the outcome of this trial. For one thing, He had earlier unconditionally promised Abraham that he would be a blessing to the world (Gen. 12:1-3). Later, He indicated that Abraham’s obedience was a foregone conclusion:

• Then the LORD said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Abraham will SURELY become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth WILL be blessed through him. For I have chosen [“known” in the Hebrew] him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him." (Genesis 18:17-19)

Abraham’s future obedience was clearly foreknown by the Lord and so too the fulfillment of His covenant. How then are we to understand “NOW I know” in light of God’s apparent foreknowledge? Perhaps in this manner: “Now I know with my eyes.”

In any event, God’s foreknowledge is inseparable from the entire biblical revelation. Everything that He has promised us depends upon His perfect knowledge and ordaining of the future.

Jesus assures His followers that they need not worry about our needs as do the unbelievers because of God’s foreknowledge:

• Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:8)

We can only rest assured in Him because He knows ALL things.

Also, the Bible assures us that the “Lord knows those who are His” (2 Tim. 2:19), and that we are His solid and unmovable foundation. In order to give us the assurance that nothing will ever separate us from Him (Romans 8:38-39), He must have perfect foreknowledge. In fact, to give us any assurances, He must have perfect foreknowledge. Without this, He would always be learning new things, and with this new knowledge, there would always be a likelihood that He would have to revise His plans. Heaven forbid!

DOES GOD’S FOREKNOWLEDGE CANCEL OUT ANY POSSIBILITY OF FREEWILL?

It has been claimed that if God is omniscient – this means that He has perfect foreknowledge – we cannot have freewill. Why not?

1.     If God has perfect foreknowledge, the future must happen the way that God knew it would happen from even before He created the world.

2.     Therefore, the only choice we will make is the one that He foreknew that we would make.

3.     CONCLUSION: Since we will not act otherwise, we lack freewill.

However, the conclusion doesn’t follow logically from premise #1 and #2. Although, as a Christian, I accept premise #1 and #2, the second part of the conclusion does not logically follow from them.

Although I WILL act as God foreknows I will act, it doesn’t follow that I COULD NOT act otherwise. I could have acted otherwise, but I simply chose not to! Consequently, God is perfectly omniscient, and yet we still freely choose.

Tony Jones: Re-Modeling God according to Updated Specifications

We want life to make sense to us – and this is a good impulse – and so we re-shape God according to our understanding and lifestyle. And this is not a good impulse. Why not? For one thing, we are warned against doing this. Many verses declare that He is above our understanding. We are finite and He is infinite:

•         "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

The Creator of the universe is further beyond our understanding than even the universe itself! Therefore, we shouldn’t go beyond what He has revealed to us (Isaiah 8:20; 1 Cor. 4:7).

But how do we understand the recent devastating earthquake in Nepal? Why would our omniscient God allow this horror? He certainly could have intervened!

In order to preserve his belief in an all-loving, non-judging God, the Emergent Church teacher, Tony Jones, rhetorically asks:

•         What if, instead, God is traveling through time with us? What if God abdicated all the sovereignty so as to give creation room to flourish? What if God is in a dynamic love-relationship with us, and both we and God are being changed as a result? http://tonyj.net/blog/2015/04/28/where-is-god-in-the-earthquake/

In order to justify his philosophy of life, Jones is willing to reject God’s biblical self-disclosure – His unchanging-ness (immutability), omniscience, and omnipotence:

•         If this [above] is the case — and there’s ample biblical evidence that it is — then the earthquake in Nepal caught God by surprise. God is neither planning earthquakes nor sitting back and allowing them to happen. God is a victim of the earthquake because thousands of God’s beloved children perished.

“Ample biblical evidence?” Well, let’s take a look:

IMMUTABILITY:

•         Malachi 3:6 – “For I am the LORD, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.

•         James 1:17 – Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

•         James 1:10-12 - “You, LORD, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You remain; And they will all grow old like a garment; Like a cloak You will fold them up, And they will be changed.  But you are the same, and Your years will not fail.”

•         Hebrews 13:8 - Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

OMNISCIENCE:

•         Psalm 139:4 – For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether.

•         Hebrew 4:13 – And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must given account.

•         Psalm 147:5 – Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite.

•         Psalm 139:16 – Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.  And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.

•         Isaiah 42:9 – “Behold, the former things have come to pass, And new things I declare; Before they spring forth I tell you of them.”

•         Isaiah 45:11 – Thus says the LORD, The Holy One of Israel, and his Maker:  “Ask Me of things to come concerning My sons; And concerning the work of My hands, you command Me.

OMNIPOTENCE:

•         Psalm 37:23 – The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, And He delights in his way.

•         Matthew 10:29 – “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin?  And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will.  But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”

•         Romans 8:28 – And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

Job’s three friends also tried to construe God and His actions according to their worldview. They were correct that God was involved in Job’s misfortunes and attributed “good” motives to God. However, they were convinced that Job had some massive secret sins that were responsible for His suffering and misrepresented God in their attempt to bring God into conformity with their philosophy, and God was angry at them:

•         After the LORD had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” (Job 42:7)

We are not at liberty to conform God to our ideological preferences. Instead, the measure of our love for God isn’t a matter of how “nice” we want to make Him seem, but instead, how faithful we remain to His Self-revelation:

•         Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. (John 14:23-24)

Not only is Jones’ views unbiblical, they are also illogical and beneath the dignity of God. How can we account for the fine-tuning of the universe, the immutable and elegant, laws of nature, DNA, the cell, life, logic, reason, freewill, and consciousness, if even an earthquake had “caught God by surprise?”

Why does Jones invent such a God – one who will also be caught by surprise by our diseases, failures, and even death and therefore helpless before them? I’ll leave that up to you!