Most Christians are taught that God knows when everything in our lives is going to happen and that He is always in control of events surrounding us and this earth. I've never believed that, and you shouldn't either. For one reason, if God is always in control of our lives and the happenings in it, then why do we need to pray for things/events to come to pass? For our safety? It would seem a waste of our time if events have already been pre-determined, would it not?
That is an excellent question, and one that has been debated through the centuries, although perhaps not enough. For us, this is not a “deal breaker,” that is, something we consider non-negotiable in terms of having to agree on it with someone before we can work together with him. Our desire is to know the truth, because if we know it and tell it and live it, we can glorify the God of truth. If you see it differently, no problem. We would ask only that you consider our point of view.
The basic belief of most Christians is that God is outside of time, and therefore, once upon a time (biblically, “in the beginning”), before the world began, He saw the future as a present reality, including every single detail of human history, even the socks you are now wearing, or the fact that you would not be wearing any. If that is true, is there any other way your footwear today could have turned out, and did you really have genuine freedom of will in making the sartorial choice you did?
Honest and accurate research will show that the origin of this idea is not biblical, but Hellenistic and Platonic, and I will refer you to two books that go into detail about that. God most certainly does have foreknowledge, but Scripture does not support what we will herein refer to as “absolute foreknowledge,” and the ramifications of this spurious doctrine are far-reaching, and very difficult to reconcile in the human heart. Indeed, this issue most definitely pertains to the quality of one’s life.
Perhaps the thorniest issue to reconcile is that of evil, and the resulting suffering of mankind, the horror and magnitude of which words cannot describe. If God knew that the angel Lucifer would rebel against Him and later, as Satan, wreak havoc upon mankind such as we see all around us (and in our own lives) daily, but still went ahead and created him, how can that not hinder our love for and trust in Him? If God knew that Adam and Eve would disobey Him and bring disaster upon the human race, but still created them anyway, how can He be all good, as He claims to be? And how can we fearlessly put our lives into His hands?
Some sincere and well-meaning Christians would tell us that we must trust that God’s “ways are higher than our ways” (a verse usually taken grossly out of its context in Isaiah 55:7-11); that “all things work together for good” (a very poor KJV translation of Romans 8:28—the NIV is accurate and thus far more satisfying in terms of reality); that we must “take it on faith,” etc. Whoa—take what on faith? Biblically, “faith” is trust in an understandable promise.
Deuteronomy 29:29
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.
The Word of God has “everything we need for life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3), and His words make sense. On the contrary, superstition (“an irrational belief arising from ignorance or fear”) calls for one to believe nonsense. At the bottom line, what is at stake in regard to this issue is whether or not God is love, and lovable.
Once upon a time (biblically: “in the beginning”), when God was all by Himself, He sovereignly chose to relate to mankind as His Word subsequently declares He does, that is, in a “linear” relationship, experiencing time passing with us. His perspective is definitely far beyond our own (“With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day”— 2 Pet. 3:8), that is, He sees the big picture that we as temporal beings cannot, but He makes it clear that He relates to us according to how we see time.
We can understand that from statements such as what He said to Abraham in Genesis 22:12, “Now I know that you fear God…” If words have meanings, up until that moment God did not absolutely know what Abraham, a free will being, would choose to do. If a person has genuine free will, then his choices cannot be absolutely known in advance of his decisions to make those choices, even by God—unless, of course, He says differently in His Word, which He does not.
Did God have a pretty good idea of what Abraham would do? Certainly. Couldn’t a good parent fairly accurately predict what his child would do in a given situation? Multiply that probability as much as God is bigger than we are, and you can begin to see how He can be so accurate in His predictions.
No doubt you agree that God knows everything that can be known. The question is whether or not He can absolutely know the future. Consider this: God knows every detail of the past and every detail of the present, including the thoughts, words, and deeds of every human being, and of Satan and his evil spirit minions. That knowledge, combined with His knowledge of His own will and His own ability, make Him able to predict the future with amazing accuracy. However, when it comes to biblical prophecy, we must distinguish between what is conditional and what is unconditional. God cannot lie, and when He makes an unconditional statement about what will happen in the future, He does so knowing that He has the wherewithal to bring it to pass without overstepping the free will of any human being (which is also something that, by His nature, God cannot do). [For further study read “The Conditional Nature of Prophecy.”]
When they first hear that God does not have absolute foreknowledge, many people jump to the conclusion that this idea makes Him look smaller and less capable. Hopefully their “hang time” on that jump is minimal, because the truth is that it makes Him look much bigger and far more impressive.
Think about it. Who would be more capable and worthy of recognition, a football coach who somehow knew ahead of time each play the opposition would run, or the coach who knew the game and his own plays and the opposing team so well that he could skillfully adjust to whatever came at him, and come out victorious? Obviously, the latter. Ditto for God.
Bobby Fischer was once the world’s greatest chess player. Suppose you sat down to play him in his prime? Any doubt of the outcome? Would Bobby need to know what your moves were before you did? Nope. Why not? Because it wouldn’t matter at all what you did, he’d have a hundred contingency plans for each move you made. After all, he’s Bobby Fischer, the world’s greatest chess player. Ditto for the world’s greatest God! He will ultimately prevail over the Devil, and all those who have made the free will choice to believe His Word will live happily ever after with Him and the Lord Jesus.
Let us not fall into the trap of putting our trust in the static, pagan concept of a bored deity mindlessly watching his pre-planned scenario unfold, and maybe having to wonder what cosmic tragedy he has assigned to us. No, we who have made Jesus Christ our Lord can lay our very lives in the hands of the God whose fathomless love surrounds us and whose limitless resourcefulness are at our disposal. Our heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus stand with us in the trenches of life, and they are never caught off guard by the circumstances coming at us, but always ready to show us the next thought to think, word to speak, and step to take.
There are two books in particular that I found to be extremely enlightening about this whole matter. One is The God Who Risks, by John Sanders, and the other is God of the Possible, by Greg Boyd. In closing, I’d like to share with you a review of Boyd’s book that I did shortly after the tragedy of September 11, 2001. I titled it “Choose Your Own Adventure,” and I believe that it will give you much food for thought.
The incredible events of September 11, 2001 thrust into the world’s collective consciousness the age-old question: “If there is a God, and if He is a loving God, how could He have allowed such a horrifically evil occurrence?” Corollary to that question are many other equally heart-bending inquiries such as: “Is what happened on September 11 somehow a part of a sovereign God’s plan for mankind?” Or: “Do you mean to tell me that God knew exactly what was going to happen and did nothing to stop it?”
The problem of evil, that is, how evil can co-exist with a God who says He is love, is not only one that often tragically affects us personally, but it is also one that has turned countless people away from the Creator, who longs for them to know Him for who He truly is. Given the Christian Church’s traditional answers to the above questions, I think it is safe to assume that even millions of Christians are plagued with doubt as to whether some God-ordained tragedy may befall them. If knowing the truth makes one free, then believing something contrary to God’s Word, especially about such a vital issue as this, could put people in great bondage.
In the wake of the September 11, 2001 holocaust, I think we have a golden opportunity to set before people God’s answers to their questions, if we are willing to re-evaluate some “sacred Christian cows” and ask, “Where’s the beef?!” I believe that Greg Boyd’s book, God of The Possible, can help us understand and articulate those answers. The fact that it is only 169 pages of good-sized print helped me get started on it, and what I found was a book loaded with Scripture, a rock-solid biblical exposition of a subject it seems has been too often ignored in favor of the unscriptural Platonic, Augustinian tradition. The latter may well have left the majority of the Christian populace with an almost fatalistic worldview that significantly dilutes their resolve to pray, to share their faith, and to realize the far-reaching importance of their own choices.
In his Introduction, Boyd asks such penetrating questions as:
If every choice you’ve ever made was certain an eternity before you made it, were you really free when you made each choice? Could you have chosen differently if it was eternally certain you’d make the choice you did? If God foreknew that Adolf Hitler would send six million Jews to their deaths, why did he go ahead and create a man like that? [We might now add Osama bin Laden].
How is God not responsible for the behavior of evil people he “unleashes” on the world if, in fact, he is absolutely certain of what they will do once “unleashed”? If God is eternally certain that various individuals will end up being eternally damned, why does he go ahead and create them? And then try to get them to accept his grace throughout their lives—as though there were genuine hope for them? If the future is exhaustively settled in God’s mind, as the classical view holds, why does the Bible repeatedly describe God changing his mind? Why does the Bible say that God frequently alters his plans, cancels prophecies in the light of changing circumstances, and speaks about the future as a “maybe,” a “perhaps,” or a “possibility”? Why does Scripture describe God as expressing uncertainty about the future, being disappointed in the way things turn out, and even occasionally regretting the outcome of his own decisions?
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