FOREKNOWLEDGE or PREDESTINATION?
A mystery in the Gospel has caused division in the Body of Christ for centuries and created denominations according to how theologians interpret certain Bible verses. It is that interpretation of Scripture that we shall examine here.
"For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified." Romans 8:29-30.
It is that little word "predestined" that has been the word in question. It has caused heated arguments and led many to wonder why God commands us to pray for others when, in fact, their outcome has already been decided from before the foundation of the world.
To correctly understand what Paul wrote in Romans, we must step back a few words to "foreknew." The Greek word for "foreknew" is proginosko, which means "to have knowledge beforehand."
Put another way, it says that before something happens, someone knows how it will occur in detail and outcome. Therefore, the verse in part can read: "For those whom He had knowledge of beforehand."'
In Biblical terms, it means that God has knowledge of all outcomes before they spell out. It is quite incomprehensible to the human mind to fathom that God has foreknowledge of everything that has happened (before it did), everything that is happening right now, and all that is yet to come in the future. But He does. He says so. We know God only by revelation He gives us of Himself. Our option is to believe what He says about Himself or deny it. He created us with that freedom and ability.
Look, for example, at Jeremiah. God chose him to be a prophet to Judah. "Before I formed you in the womb I KNEW you, and before you were born I consecrated you... Jeremiah 1:5.
Before God spoke to Jeremiah, He knew Jeremiah would obey His call, so He spoke to the man. His words surprised Jeremiah, but Jeremiah's "yes" to the call did not surprise God at all. He knew because of His omniscience that Jeremiah would obey. No matter how much persecution and misunderstanding his people heaped on Jeremiah's head, he never stopped obeying God. God knew he would be faithful before Jeremiah walked out his obedience. This is not dealing with the nataural state of people. This is supernatural revelation from God that we receive by faith.
No matter how unbelieveable it seems. every human being ever born has a free will that can believe God or not. God does not do the choosing for us. He doesn't force us to follow His will. He gives us a choice. Translated, that means God does not select certain people to believe in Him and choose to be born again while condemning the rest of humanity to hell. Jesus did not die for a select few; He died for all, that all might be saved. That's what John 3:16 says---and God means it:
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life."
While on the cross, Jesus did not say to the thief: "Today you will be with Me in Paradise", so the thief declared his belief in Jesus. It was quite the reverse. The thief said to Jesus, "Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!" Then and only then did Jesus say to the thief, "Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise." Luke 23:42-43.
If just certain people were selected to go to heaven, while the rest were woefully condemned to hell, the devil would not be so driven to destroy God's purposes and His people, too. He wouldn't need to. God would have already set His quota for the heaven-bound, and that number could not be altered even by the devil. Neither could substitutes be injected in the place of others that somehow failed to meet God's criteria.
Three attributes of God alone are OMNIPRESENCE, OMNPOTENCE, AND OMNISCIENCE. In that order they signify that God is present everywhere all the time past, present and future as well as within the universe; that He is all-powerful and daunted by nothing; and that He knows everything past, present and future. In the passage from Romans, Bible translators gave His omniscience the term "foreknowledge" in this particular verse.
His all-knowing of the past, present and future lets God wee everyone down through the ages who would and will follow Him in obedience. Knowing what He knows, God formed a plan for those people who believe in and trust Him. THAT PLAN is what He PREDESTINED for such believers. It is God-intended from before the foundation of the world, but it is based on what He knows we will do before it happens...His foreknowledge. It is that we believers be conformed to the image of Jesus.
It means He is all-knowing. He does not force people to embrace Him and His will, but once we do, He has a prescribed plan of living and walking according to the Holy Spirit. He foreordained all the New Testament instructions for living and walking in the Spirit so that we can put on Christ and be clothed in His image as we obey the Spirit.
Verse 30 goes on to describe that plan. "...and these whom He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son..." Our conformity to Jesus is what God PREDESTINED for believers. Not that we initially be saved according to a preferential plan, but that once we repentantly turn to Jesus, God's plan for us is conformity to the image of Jesus.
Those who believe in predestination for salvation---the Calvinists---overlook this verse that says God foreknew. This one misinterpretation of His very being has led to misunderstanding of the rest of the Bible as it applies to Christians today. It is a trick of the enemy to reduce the soul-winning fervor of the Church to a shiver and condemn many more lost souls to hell.
Now you say: I don't understand all this about foreknowledge and omniscience. You don't need to understand it. Simply believe it. God is omniscient! God knows the end from the beginning to the most minute detail imaginable. Based on that knowledge, He has purposed that believers, those who are born again, cast off their old way of living and put on Jesus as a new Man of spiritual flesh and blood.
It is not comprehensible, but by faith it is believable. To plow ahead by ignoring God's omniscience and accuse Him of providing preferential, predestined salvation of certain individuals while condemning the rest of people to an eternal hell, separated from Him forever, is blasphemy!
But I hear you say, "I don't believe it. God could not know without causing it to happen." That is not what the Word says, my friend. It says He foreknew. Period. He would be a liar to say He loved the whole world, but chose only a few to know the salvation that cost Jesus His life to provide it. God is omniscient. That is what He says.
If God's omniscience is too hard a concept for you to believe, try this one on for size...His omnipresence. God is eternal. He says so. When Moses asked God who he should say authorized him to plead the case for Israel's freedom from slavery, God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." God expressed a truth limited to Himself. He did not say "I WAS," or "I WILL BE." He said, "I AM." He is ever-present without a beginning. He IS omnipresent. He was not created. He has always been. He never had an origin. He had no start and He has no end. There never has a been a place where God isn't. He is Eternal. To Him everything is NOW. He is omnipresent.
So, once you get your arms around His omnipresence and all that means, believing God is omniscient will be a piece of cake!