I must say that I believe so. I read passages like Isaiah 46:9-11 and I believe it.
However, in preaching and teaching to a local church congregation, I was caught off guard that some God-fearing, Jesus-loving, Sunday night church-going people don’t agree with my summation. Without knowing, I am apparently pastoring a sub-group of “Open Theists.” They hold to inerrancy and inspiration, and they believe Jesus is the only way. We just differ on the whether or not God knows the future. So I feel as a Pastor I must make a study of the doctrine of Divine Foreknowledge. Am I right? Are they right?
I would love to hear from other Pastors who have dealt with this, or if you have some good resources on this topic. I will document my studies in hopes of helping others to understand their own beliefs and be able to articulate and defend them.
May God bless this study.
I’m not a pastor, but I do have an opinion on the subject. It would take a good hour to really throw out the evidence for the skeptic to grasp. However, there are many characterstics of God that must not be debated less the ideals of hope and faith are negated…one is His omniscience. The fact that he is all knowing is quoted by many in the Bible. David in Psalms 33: 13-15, Isaiah in chapters 40 & 46, Luke in Acts 15, and Paul in Hebrews and several other books. I have struggled with this subject in the past, wondering whether God allows man to set his own destiny, just to see what path he “might” take. vice what path he would desire him to take. God allows man to make his own choices, fulfilling his own future, all the while knowing the path he will take. He did it with every major character referenced in the Bible all the way back to Adam and Eve. God has nothing to prove about Himself. Man, however, has everything to prove to Him. We don’t know what we don’t know, but God does. If we did, we would not have a need to pray. God does know, and the whole purpose of prayer is not about changing God’s mind about what we want changed in the present or the future (which is a whole other debate), rather it provides us an avenue of communication instilling our confidence that He is in charge and that our dependence is fully on Him. If one does not believe He is omnicient, just throw faith and hope out the window. To say we believe in the inerrant Word of God, yet believe God is not ominicient is an enigma. The two go hand in hand. Prophecy, which can be found throughout the Old and New Testament, is another indicator that God “knows” what the future holds. It has been proven over and over, with the climax being the birth and death of our Savior, Jesus Christ….what more proof does one need than to know that when man fell, He already knew He would have to come in the form of man and die on a cross to save man.
Hi Mike!
Thank you for your comments. I appreciate your perspective. Obviously you’ve thought much about this. Your insights will no doubt help me to communicate to my people this important truth.
I am looking forward to studying this topic in-depth.
His…yours,
Ken
[...] Does God Know All the Future? [...]
Of course GOD knows the future. This is my belief.
Carolyn