The Foreknowledge of God

  • Acts 2:23  Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God
  • Acts 26:5  They knew me from the first, if they were willing to testify, that according to the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.
  • Romans 8:29  For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.
  • Romans 11:2  God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew.
  • 1 Peter 1:2  Elect according to the foreknowledge of God
  • 1 Peter 1:20  He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world
  • 2 Peter 3:17  You therefore beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from our own steadfastness

Of the seven times the noun or verb form of “foreknow” is used, two are used of humans who do not know the future, in order to indicate knowledge of the past, not the future.  One of the usages with reference to God also speaks of past knowledge (Romans 11:2).

Literally, the two parts of the word are “before-knowledge,” as in “to know beforehand.”  Commonly, the other four usages have been interpreted as “to know the future.”  However, three of the seven usages do not fit that definition.  If all usages are to be understood consistently, the meaning should be “to have known previously,” as in past knowledge that has application to future events.

  • Acts 2:23  Jesus’ death was part of God’s plan that was formed in the past
  • Acts 26:5  People could testify of facts of the past.
  • Romans 8:29  For whom God planned in the past, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.
  • Romans 11:2  God knew the Israelites for a long time in the past
  • 1 Peter 1:2  Elect according to God’s plan that was formed in the past
  • 1 Peter 1:20  God formed the plan for Jesus before creation
  • 2 Peter 3:17  You know how it went for others.  Use this past knowledge to protect yourself.

Predestined

  • Romans 8:29 – 30  For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.  Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
  • Ephesians 1:3 – 5  Blessed by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will…
  • Ephesians 1:11  In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.
  • Acts 4:27 – 28  For truly against your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Heron and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.
  • 1 Corinthians 2:7  But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory.
  • Romans 8:29 – 30  Note 8:28, “To those who love God.”  Verse 27 is about those in whom the Spirit dwells.  The “called” in verse 28 are the “called” of verse 30.  Those who love God were predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.  The predestination is not about who was to be called, but about what would be done for those who loved God.
  • Ephesians 1:3 – 5  What is predestined is the adoption of the faithful.
  • Ephesians 1:11  What is predestined is an inheritance for the faithful.
  • Acts 4:27 – 28  God planned, as revealed by Psalm 2, for the rulers of the earth to oppose the Messiah.
  • 1 Corinthians 2:7  God planned great things for those who loved Him (verse 9).

If individuals were preselected for salvation, then God deceived people by issuing a call to respond to the gospel.  The chosen were deceived into thinking they had made a choice.  The rejected were deceived into thinking they had a choice.

Does the Holy Spirit Act upon Unbelievers to Create Faith?

  • People think they make choices.  In the Scriptures, people are told to make choices.  If we do not have free will, then God is deceiving us by asking us to choose.
  • If the Spirit overrides free will, then both faith and love cease to exist, so the Spirit cannot cause faith.
  • From the history in Acts, many times God orchestrated the delivery of the gospel to people He knew needed to hear it.  He could have inserted it into them, but that would have ruined the objective: faith.
  • Romans 8:14 – 18  describes the delivery mechanism: through people, by speech.
  • No passage states or infers that the Spirit causes belief directly.