God's Knowledge: Part 2

Foreknow is defined by dictionary.com as: "to know beforehand." Notice how the definition is completely bound up with the idea of time - knowing "before."

In the last post we thought about how God's knowledge is immediate, perfect, and simultaneous - which is to say that God's knowledge is not bound by time. God is both outside of time and the one who inhabits every moment of time. That is what it means for him to be omnipresent - he is always in all times and places.

Herein we find the rub - If God's knowledge is immediate, perfect and simultaneous, and he is in all times and places then he doesn't actually have FOREknowledge, he just has knowledge. The great Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck put it like this:

Strictly speaking, it is a mistake to speak of divine foreknowledge; there is only one knowledge of God. With him there are no “distinctions of time.” For what is foreknowledge if not knowledge of future events? But can anything be future to God, who surpasses all times? For if God's knowledge includes these very things themselves, they are not future to him but present; and for this reason we should no longer speak of God’s foreknowledge but simply of God's knowledge. Whatever is past and future to us is immediately present in his sight. ... Making distinctions in God’s knowledge is a thoroughly human conception and at odds with the teaching of Scripture.... (199-200)

Perhaps, you agree with that quote but then immediately ask - but what about Romans 8:29-30 which specifically says there are those whom God "foreknew?" Great question!

Grammar is Good

The first thing which must be seen is that Romans 8:29 says God "foreknew" (i.e. "foreknow" is a verb not a noun). The verb is incredibly important because many people don't even realize that when they start talking about God's foreknowledge of someone's faith they have actually changed what is being said from a verb to a noun. Rather than understanding this to be an action on God's part they begin speaking about God's foreknowledge as a thing God knows in advance. However, Paul very intentionally uses the verb - God actively foreknows.

Another important element of this being a verbal idea is bound up with how grammar works. Basic grammar reminds us that the subject of the sentence performs the action of the verb and the direct object receives that action. Look again at the verses we are considering from Romans:

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn of many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. (Rom. 8:29-30 - NIV) 

God is the subject who is performing the verbal actions. First, he foreknew and predestined "those" who will "be conformed to the image of his Son...." Next, "those" ones whom he foreknew and predestined are also called, justified, and glorified. This means that whoever receives the action of God's foreknowing will be ultimately glorified because there is no break in the grammar. The singular group signified by the direct object - "those" - receive all the verbal actions of God. Ain't grammar grand!

"He Foreknew" as God's Choosing

What does this all mean for how we are to understand Paul when he writes that God "foreknew?" Since "God foreknew" is an action God performs and which is received by his people ultimately resulting in their glorification, it seems best to understand this as speaking about an intimate, relational knowing of his people. In Romans 8:29, then, God's foreknowing is the language of election and choosing.

Some might balk at this explanation, but the beauty of Scripture is that it is self-interpreting. As Paul continues his argument in the letter to the Romans he uses this same word again. In fact, the only other time he uses this Greek word appears just a couple chapters later.

God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. (Rom. 11:2a - NIV) 

Paul goes on to outline how God "foreknew" Israel by reminding his readers of when Elijah fled and told God that he was the only one left. God responded by saying:

"I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal." So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. (Rom. 11:4b-5 - NIV)

Allowing him to unpack his own vocabulary, we find that Paul connects God foreknowing his people and their inability to be rejected to the fact that God always keeps a remnant "chosen by grace." Paul defines God's action of foreknowing as a gracious choosing of his people. His choosing them took place before they existed and hence it is right that Paul explains it as "God foreknew" them (Cf. Eph 1:4, 1 Pet. 1:20).

Notice how Romans 11:2-5 perfectly aligns with what God was said to be doing for "those" in Romans 8:29-30. God graciously kept a remnant of Israel (Rom 11:2-5), and for his New Covenant people all those whom God foreknew he also predestined them to be called, justified, and glorified (Rom 8:29-30). It is God's work of salvation from start to finish.

Recapping these first two posts:

• God's knowledge is immediate, perfect, and simultaneous - he is incapable of learning
• The action of God foreknowing is defined by Paul in the same letter as God's gracious choosing
• The best understanding of what it means that God foreknew his people is God's gracious choice to intimately know his people before he created them - hence he foreknew them 

All this talk of God's knowledge being perfect, immediate, and simultaneous raises a rather puzzling set of questions. For example - if God knows perfectly, immediately, and simultaneously that tomorrow you will eat an ice cream cone at 11:23 does that mean you are determined to do so? I mean if you fail to do so then his knowledge is not perfect, but if his knowledge is perfect then you will certainly eat it. Not so elementary after all, is it my dear Watson!

Until next time, puzzle over these verses until your puzzlers are sore - Psalm 115:2; 135:5-8; Daniel 4:34-35; Isaiah 46:9-10; and Ephesians 1:11.