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| Taken from a slow train meandering along this gorgeous gorge. A train was bulleting across the bridge in the background. |
Foreknowledge is not the same as Omniscience.
Let sound bytes bite the dust.
A biblical distinction is the essence of sound theology.
Can you distinguish the two? Do you know the vast difference? Let's learn it, it will make us wise unto salvation, instructing us in the truth of our salvation by God's free grace in Jesus Christ.
"And Adam knew his wife..."
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by Elder Matt Jordan
FOREKNOWLEDGE, NOT SAME AS OMNISCIENCE
"You only have I known of all the families of the earth..." Amos 3:2a
"For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate..." Romans 8:29a
"Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father..." 1 Pet. 1:2a
"And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Mt. 7:23
Theologians like to talk about the fact that God is both omniscient (omni=all; science=knowledge) and prescient (pre=before; science=knowledge). He knows everything about everything, and he knows it in advance. Nothing ever surprises the Lord or catches him off guard. He doesn't have to take continuing education classes in order to remain current on the latest findings or trends.
It always troubles me, however, when people confuse the verb "to foreknow" with the prescience of God. Prescience is an attribute, i.e. something God "is," but foreknowledge is an action, i.e. something God "does." Prescience speaks of his prior knowledge of facts and events, but foreknowledge concerns people: "For whom He did foreknow, them He also did predestinate..."
I suspect the confusion arises from the tendency to define the root "to know" in cognitive, or intellectual, terms. Indeed, "knowledge" generally refers to the idea of "intelligent thought" or "mental awareness." But in the Bible, the verb "to know" may also (and, in fact, it frequently does) refer to what we might call "relational knowledge." When Adam "knew" his wife and she conceived (Gen. 5:2), it is obvious to any thinking person that such knowledge involved more than something purely academic or cognitive.
It is in that sense that God could say to Israel, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth" (Am. 3:2). Does he mean that he was unaware the Babylonians, Egyptians and Assyrians existed? No, God knows all things, for he is omniscient. He means, however, that Israel had been marked out as his special covenant people in relational terms. Likewise, Christ's sentence to the wicked in the last day will highlight the fact that they had never been brought into covenant relationship with him: "Depart from me...for I never knew you" (Mt. 7:23). Of course, He knows about them--everything there is to know about them--but He never loved them as His own, covenant children.
"Foreknowledge" then means "fore-loved." Because God loved a people before time began, He chose them to be His own: "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father..." (1 Pet. 1:2), and He predestinated them to finally be made like His only begotten Son: "For whom He did foreknow, them He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son" (Rom. 8:29).
Why is it so important to distinguish between God's covenant act of foreknowing a people and God's incommunicable attribute of knowing all events and circumstances in advance? It is important because it negates the popular interpretation in religious circles that interprets "foreknowledge" to mean that God looked down through time and saw those who would choose Him, so He chose them. The individual who takes this position of "foreseen faith" fails to understand the difference between foreknowledge and omniscience.
Bethel Primitive Baptist Church
