It is God’s foreknowledge that provides the basis for the predictions of the prophets. God announced to Adam and Eve that the seed of the woman would certainly defeat the serpent and his seed (Genesis 3:15). Promises of future blessing were given to Abraham (12:3). God said to Moses, “I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go” (Exodus 3:19). The coming glory of the Messiah was declared by the OT prophets – Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea. God reveals the rise and fall of future world empires and the establishment of the kingdom of God in Daniel chapter seven. In many places the New Testament sees Christ’s ministry and the establishment of the Christian church as fulfillment of foreknowledge made beforehand by the Old Testament prophets.

What the Word of God has placed before us is scriptural evidence of a personal and profound Creator who knows the future and guides history according to His own purposes-plans-sovereign will. In spite of this overwhelming biblical evidence, the question of the relationship between God’s foreknowledge and human responsibility and freedom has occupied the attention of theologians and philosophers for centuries. We hear it argued sometimes that if God knows for certain (without any margin of error) what will happen in the future, then it must happen. The argument is then made that, in reality, it makes no difference at all what choice a person makes since it was predetermined by God and that it could not have been anything other than what God had already decided.

Reputable and recognized theologians of the early church contended and denied that foreknowledge implies any kind of predeterminations or predestination of events. Justin Martyr, for example, said, “What we say about future events being foretold, we do not say it as though they come about by fatal necessity.”

Many biblical worldview theologians caution that foreknowledge destroys the biblical principles of human freedom (free will) and personal responsibility, so they respond to critics that God does not know future events either certainly or completely. Think about that for a moment – does that not sound like a God with limitations? Unfortunately the theological arguments regarding the foreknowledge of God digress and become even more sketchy… for example, many modern theologians have conceived of God as growing and developing along with nature and man. This God, it is argued, can at most know only those events which have already taken place. The result being that the future remains open and uncertain for God as well as for man. Author of the Adam Clarke Bible Commentary and British theologian, Adam Clarke, opined that although God can know all future events, He chooses not to know some events beforehand. This leaves me to question – who chooses God’s list of which people – places or things to foreknow?

One of the most remarkable and profound minds to speak on the subject of God’s foreknowledge was the great theologian and Christian thinker Augustine. Some say Augustine denied God’s foreknowledge – not true. For those who accept the existence of God, He is a sovereign deity who infallibly (without error) foreknows the entire future. On the other hand, human beings have a psychological feeling that they are completely free. Throughout the history of philosophy almost all philosophers have argued whether God’s infallible foreknowledge predetermines what humans think and do in the future. In answering this question, I want to assure you – those who claim that the infallible foreknowledge of God and the free will of humankind are incompatible are wrong. If they were right, it would mean that God’s infallible foreknowledge predetermines all future events, including all human reasoning and actions. In his book On Free Will, Augustine pushes hard that God’s infallible foreknowledge of what we will choose and do in the future is entirely compatible with the free will of humanity concepts.

According to critics of a compatibility between the foreknowledge of God and free will of mankind, all events, including human deeds, are absolutely predetermined by God’s foreknowledge and will. We human beings think we can act or carry out our actions voluntarily, but if God foreknows how we will act in the future, in other words, that we will act in a specific way, then we must necessarily act as He knows because divine knowledge does not make mistakes and is unchangeable. If we act out of necessity, then there is no voluntary choice in our actions – resulting in God’s foreknowledge of what we will do in the future predetermining our will. In order to support and prop-up their ideas, they argue that even though humankind wishes to be happy in the future, not all can be happy because we do not have the choice to be happy – only God makes one happy. In short, for fatalists, God’s foreknowledge and will is a necessity to determining who we are, and what we will do with the choices we have been given. Augustine, however, defines God as omnipotent, omniscient, righteous and good. For his definition of our dilemma, Augustine says, “God unerringly foreknows everything, including our future acts, so the problem here is whether His divine knowledge predetermines our actions and decisions in the future.” Augustine goes on to prove the existence of mankind’s free will, and then analyzes the problem of the compatibility of man’s free will and God’s foreknowledge. Critics ask “Why can we not achieve our future will if we have free will?” Augustine replies, “We may wish to be happy in the future, but may not be able to achieve this because to do so would be dependent on factors that are wholly beyond our control.” In other words, there may always be external circumstances and conditions which work against us in fulfilling our desires. So, for Augustine’s part, he would say to us today… we should not speak about the freedom to do simply as we want to do, but rather, we speak only of the freedom of our will to choose as we wish to choose.

When we use the concept of “something being in our power,” we mean simply “being able to do what we will.” Therefore, there are very few things that are in our own power, but our will is one of them. In the moment we wish to do something, the “will” is there and we discover it within ourselves. At which point we contend that we may use our free will to choose the will of God above our own will. Even if we do not achieve what we will, we cannot say that we do not have the power to will. We may only think “we will”, but in fact we do not achieve whatever we wish, for our success in attaining what we wish depends not only on our will, but also on other factors that are wholly beyond our control. That is why as Christians we are taught scripturally to pray – “not my will, but your will (God’s) be done; on earth as it is in heaven.” So we can see that our will itself would be our own as long as it remains in our power, therefore, “it is not necessary to deny that God has foreknowledge of all things while at the same time our will is our own”; in other words, God’s foreknowledge of what lies ahead into the future does not override and determine our will. Despite all of these arguments, Augustine concludes: “We shall exercise our wills in the future because He has foreknowledge that we shall do so.” It might even be more clearly said, “God has foreknowledge that we will exercise our own will in the future, because He has allowed us to do so.” A “permissive will.” In this particular example, God’s foreknowledge is consistent with our will, but His foreknowledge is not the cause of our choices.

In conclusion, human beings can choose one particular action from among various alternatives. As Augustine concludes, the power to will is not taken from us by or is not opposed to God’s foreknowledge. In fact, Abrahamic religions necessarily support the idea of the compatibility between divine knowledge and human free will. For if we did not have free will, in other words, if we must act in a certain way, then why would God judge us? This would be meaningless. Furthermore, His divine foreknowledge certifies our will because His timeless foreknowledge is consistent with our will in a future time, therefore there is no incompatibility between God’s foreknowledge and our free will.

Because of the clear biblical teaching regarding God’s foreknowledge, evangelical theologians have generally held that God has complete knowledge of all future events. There is a further distinction, however. The followers of Calvin insist that God knows all events precisely because He sovereignly determines what is to happen in human history right down to the tiniest detail. Here foreknowledge is closely tied to, if not identified with, foreordination. At the same time, most Calvinistic theologians assert that human beings are nonetheless responsible for their choices—not victims of a blind fate. It is also generally held that God is not the author of sin. Rather, sin is the result of the rebellion of angels and men against a
holy and righteous God.

Evangelicals in the Arminian tradition, on the other hand, distinguish foreknowledge from foreordination of events. While the plan of salvation of the world and human history in broad outline are predetermined by God, it is argued that individual response to God is not so predetermined. Hence God can foreknow an event without directly decreeing that event to take place. While evangelical Christians differ in their descriptions of the relationship between the eternal all-knowing God and the events of human history, it should be kept in mind that the Word of God, the Bible, teaches both God’s foreknowledge of all things and the responsibility and accountability of humans for their choices.