FOREKNOWLEDGE: It is such a big word but means very little, almost insignificant. Yet classical theologians give it so much attention. Reminds me of Shakespear's title, "Much Ado About Nothing".
Foreknowledge or semblances of it are mentioned in Scripture only 5 times.
Acts 2:23
this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
1 Peter 1:2
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
1 Peter 1:20
He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you
Romans 8:29
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Romans 11:2
God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel?
The Fallacies of Traditional Understanding:
First of all, the traditional view of foreknowledge and the sovereignty of God has tried to differentiate between predestination and foreknowledge to justify that under their scenario, man still has free will. They say that God predestined what he foreknew as if that kind of philosophical gobbledygook would shed more light on that doctrine! I claim to be very good at logic but you lost me there!
However, is there such an event or situation where God has foreknowledge but DID NOT CAUSE it?
Let's face it, foreknowledge, as traditionally understood doesn't add any good thing to our bible knowledge or doctrine except make us conclude (and logically so) that God, the great communicator, the perfect communicator, has again failed at revelation! The proponents of this meaning have to admit that, or they do not belong to this world or their minds are not created in God's image.
Either God's logic and thought process are the same as ours in scope and reason or rationality or he should not bother about revelation since we will not understand him anyway, and we should not bother to read his Word.
So traditionalists: kindly answer my original question (using your definition of foreknowledge) and please give me a simple answer that I can communicate to "little children". Is there any event or situation in the whole universe that God has foreknowledge of BUT DID NOT CAUSE THE EVENT?
OK, you have to admit at this point that any answer you give will sound funny and irrational. Maybe even distorted and who in this universe is the "master of distortion"???
Alternative Definition and Interpretation
Now let us look at the alternative interpretation which WILL NOT nor SHOULD NOT contradict the rest of Scripture nor the revealed nature of God: Most importantly, since we ought to love God with ALL OUR MIND according to the Great Commandment, it has to sound logical and reasonable, something that will satisfy our minds.
Let us review the passage in Acts 2:23 where Peter explicitly combined the word PLAN with the word FOREKNEW. Now try to substitute the word, PLANNED for every occurrence of FOREKNEW. Guess what, the concept becomes more understandable precisely because it is reasonable.
Now, the next question we have to address is WHY use the word FOREKNEW instead of PLANNED in the original Greek. By the way, there is no such equivalent word for FOREKNOW in the Hebrew, so either the Old Testament Hebrews had no concept of it OR, the Greek word as used by Paul are his translation of an old Hebrew concept in Greek terms.
Supercede, maybe, contradict, never!
We also have to apply our hermeneutic rule that the New Testament CANNOT and SHOULD not introduce any new concept to the Word of God (Jewish Scriptures), as personally acknowledged by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, that contradicts it. The New Testament should be limited to simply explaining the Old Testament (like Sabbath and Tithes) or completing it (like Jesus Christ being the Lamb of God). Any new concept should never contradict any Old Testament concept or declaration.
I am putting myself on a limb here against the "New Testament ONLY" Christians but I have no apologies. AGAPE is not exactly God's love. It is a Greek elaboration of KHECED which is as close as we can get to what God's love is because Hebrew is the language and context that God chose to use to describe his loving nature.
AGAPE is just the closest Greek word and the core element of KHECED. AGAPE is not emotional but KHECED is!!! So Agape is an anemic version of God's kheced. This makes us realize that PHILEO and EROS are part of God's KHECED. The New Testament agape either simply emphasized the core element, OR it was the closest translation of KHECED. Any translator would understand this. For example, today we use the word, faith, for the Greek pisteuo and that is the closest English equivalent but it has to be explained well to even come close to what it really means. For in English, faith means so many things, including blind faith, which is totally absent in the original Greek meaning.
Lost in Translation
To further appreciate my point here, let us closely examine the Great Commandment in Deuteronomy 6:5 as translated in the Greek. Note that in the Hebrew and the Septuagint, we are to love God with 3 of our faculties:
Hebrew: lebab (inner man), nephesh (soul,senses and emotions), meod (force, abundance)
The 70 scholars of the Septuagint translated these words as:
Septuagint: kardia (old translations: mind, new translations: heart), psyche (soul, disposition, psyche), dunamis (energy, strength, force).
The first thing to notice is that translations of the Hebrew words vary over time. Lebab and Kardia used to be translated as MIND. New translations adapt to changing cultures and usage of words so Kardia is now rendered HEART but originally, it meant the inner man which involves the will and generates the mindset. So no one-word translation can really offer justice to the original (one reason I insist of parallel versions for personal and group study).
Now, let us go through the gospel versions of the same command (Matthew 22:36, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27).
When Jesus Christ himself quoted the Great Commandment in Matthew 22:36, he even omitted STRENGTH! So, is this an anomaly in translation, or is it something else? Is this a misquote of the Word of God? or is this something else?
In the Mark (Peter's) version and Luke (the historian and chronicler), there are 4 faculties mentioned: HEART, SOUL, MIND, and STRENGTH. Is this a misquote of the Word of God? or is this something else?
In all 3 gospels, however, God took great care NOT to omit HEART and MIND!!! So there is no excuse for insincerity in the Christian life, nor is there any excuse for ignorance of God's revelation. But I digress...
Back to Foreknowledge
This study emphasizes CONTEXT, CONTEXT, CONTEXT and the fact that God is so intelligent and coherent that He will not contradict himself in any part of Scripture. The traditional understanding of FOREKNOWLEDGE violates both:
A Complex Word is, after all is said and done, really simple!
Foreknowledge is definitely similar to Planning. Foreknew is similar to Planned. Both have a reference to or a vision of the future. So why not just translate that word as planning?
Flavors!
Because we miss the flavors of the original language. Yes, it is planning and designing and intending on the part of God. However, foreknowledge simply includes the certainty and definiteness that God WILL SEE TO IT that what he had planned is exactly what is going to transpire.
I said "WILL SEE TO IT" because even if God did not originally CAUSE the event to happen (and this is paradoxically the ONLY CORRECT assumption by the traditional meaning), He will make sure that it will (NOTE THE FUTURE TENSES) indeed transpire without magically manipulating hearts or forcing hearts to his will.
So "in the foreknowledge of God" should simply be read as "in the deliberate planning of God and with the guarantee that it is certain to transpire". Now, substitute this for all the occurrences of the word in the passages listed above.
A word on Predestination
We believe in predestination including the traditional meaning and interpretation thereof. However, contrary to the traditional application of its meaning, it can ONLY be applied to events that God has already revealed in his word, like the Second Coming of Christ, the New Jerusalem, the end times, etc. Nothing else is predestined apart from what is revealed and I have seen nor read nothing in Scripture that can contradict this statement.
God does not know because he does not NEED to know nor does he care to know, how many cups of coffee I will be drinking 500 days from now or how many ounces of toothpaste I will be using to brush my teeth tonight.
If the traditionalists insist that God cannot help but KNOW, then they are really saying that God cannot help but be a hypocrite.
What God has fore-ordained or predestined is guaranteed to happen. That proves the faithfulness of God to his word. Moreover, we can apply that same guarantee to God's promises. All of God's promises in Scripture come with His 100% guarantee! What he has NOT predestined will occur almost at random since God himself foreordained randomness. Free will is not true free will if God has any control over it. Randomness is not truly random if God interferes with it.
Simple God-given LOGIC!!!
As far as my knowledge of God in his Word, so far, I have a satisfied mind! Thank God!
The Fallacies of Traditional Understanding:
First of all, the traditional view of foreknowledge and the sovereignty of God has tried to differentiate between predestination and foreknowledge to justify that under their scenario, man still has free will. They say that God predestined what he foreknew as if that kind of philosophical gobbledygook would shed more light on that doctrine! I claim to be very good at logic but you lost me there!
However, is there such an event or situation where God has foreknowledge but DID NOT CAUSE it?
Let's face it, foreknowledge, as traditionally understood doesn't add any good thing to our bible knowledge or doctrine except make us conclude (and logically so) that God, the great communicator, the perfect communicator, has again failed at revelation! The proponents of this meaning have to admit that, or they do not belong to this world or their minds are not created in God's image.
Either God's logic and thought process are the same as ours in scope and reason or rationality or he should not bother about revelation since we will not understand him anyway, and we should not bother to read his Word.
So traditionalists: kindly answer my original question (using your definition of foreknowledge) and please give me a simple answer that I can communicate to "little children". Is there any event or situation in the whole universe that God has foreknowledge of BUT DID NOT CAUSE THE EVENT?
OK, you have to admit at this point that any answer you give will sound funny and irrational. Maybe even distorted and who in this universe is the "master of distortion"???
Alternative Definition and Interpretation
Now let us look at the alternative interpretation which WILL NOT nor SHOULD NOT contradict the rest of Scripture nor the revealed nature of God: Most importantly, since we ought to love God with ALL OUR MIND according to the Great Commandment, it has to sound logical and reasonable, something that will satisfy our minds.
Let us review the passage in Acts 2:23 where Peter explicitly combined the word PLAN with the word FOREKNEW. Now try to substitute the word, PLANNED for every occurrence of FOREKNEW. Guess what, the concept becomes more understandable precisely because it is reasonable.
Now, the next question we have to address is WHY use the word FOREKNEW instead of PLANNED in the original Greek. By the way, there is no such equivalent word for FOREKNOW in the Hebrew, so either the Old Testament Hebrews had no concept of it OR, the Greek word as used by Paul are his translation of an old Hebrew concept in Greek terms.
Supercede, maybe, contradict, never!
We also have to apply our hermeneutic rule that the New Testament CANNOT and SHOULD not introduce any new concept to the Word of God (Jewish Scriptures), as personally acknowledged by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, that contradicts it. The New Testament should be limited to simply explaining the Old Testament (like Sabbath and Tithes) or completing it (like Jesus Christ being the Lamb of God). Any new concept should never contradict any Old Testament concept or declaration.
I am putting myself on a limb here against the "New Testament ONLY" Christians but I have no apologies. AGAPE is not exactly God's love. It is a Greek elaboration of KHECED which is as close as we can get to what God's love is because Hebrew is the language and context that God chose to use to describe his loving nature.
AGAPE is just the closest Greek word and the core element of KHECED. AGAPE is not emotional but KHECED is!!! So Agape is an anemic version of God's kheced. This makes us realize that PHILEO and EROS are part of God's KHECED. The New Testament agape either simply emphasized the core element, OR it was the closest translation of KHECED. Any translator would understand this. For example, today we use the word, faith, for the Greek pisteuo and that is the closest English equivalent but it has to be explained well to even come close to what it really means. For in English, faith means so many things, including blind faith, which is totally absent in the original Greek meaning.
Lost in Translation
To further appreciate my point here, let us closely examine the Great Commandment in Deuteronomy 6:5 as translated in the Greek. Note that in the Hebrew and the Septuagint, we are to love God with 3 of our faculties:
Hebrew: lebab (inner man), nephesh (soul,senses and emotions), meod (force, abundance)
The 70 scholars of the Septuagint translated these words as:
Septuagint: kardia (old translations: mind, new translations: heart), psyche (soul, disposition, psyche), dunamis (energy, strength, force).
The first thing to notice is that translations of the Hebrew words vary over time. Lebab and Kardia used to be translated as MIND. New translations adapt to changing cultures and usage of words so Kardia is now rendered HEART but originally, it meant the inner man which involves the will and generates the mindset. So no one-word translation can really offer justice to the original (one reason I insist of parallel versions for personal and group study).
Now, let us go through the gospel versions of the same command (Matthew 22:36, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27).
When Jesus Christ himself quoted the Great Commandment in Matthew 22:36, he even omitted STRENGTH! So, is this an anomaly in translation, or is it something else? Is this a misquote of the Word of God? or is this something else?
In the Mark (Peter's) version and Luke (the historian and chronicler), there are 4 faculties mentioned: HEART, SOUL, MIND, and STRENGTH. Is this a misquote of the Word of God? or is this something else?
In all 3 gospels, however, God took great care NOT to omit HEART and MIND!!! So there is no excuse for insincerity in the Christian life, nor is there any excuse for ignorance of God's revelation. But I digress...
Back to Foreknowledge
This study emphasizes CONTEXT, CONTEXT, CONTEXT and the fact that God is so intelligent and coherent that He will not contradict himself in any part of Scripture. The traditional understanding of FOREKNOWLEDGE violates both:
- The traditional understanding is based on a rigid word study with blatant disregard of CONTEXT and the bigger Bible picture.
- The traditional understanding contributes to contradictions of other parts of Scripture and the very nature of God. God is definitely and explicitly recorded to be Jealous, gets angry, gets surprised, and ESPECIALLY CHANGES HIS MIND etc. in various parts of Scripture. How will that support foreknowledge? In their passion to elevate the concept of the sovereignty of God, Classical Theology, especially the Hyper-Sovereignty theologians end up depicting God as a GREAT HYPOCRITE who knows all of the future but pretends not to!!!
A Complex Word is, after all is said and done, really simple!
Foreknowledge is definitely similar to Planning. Foreknew is similar to Planned. Both have a reference to or a vision of the future. So why not just translate that word as planning?
Flavors!
Because we miss the flavors of the original language. Yes, it is planning and designing and intending on the part of God. However, foreknowledge simply includes the certainty and definiteness that God WILL SEE TO IT that what he had planned is exactly what is going to transpire.
I said "WILL SEE TO IT" because even if God did not originally CAUSE the event to happen (and this is paradoxically the ONLY CORRECT assumption by the traditional meaning), He will make sure that it will (NOTE THE FUTURE TENSES) indeed transpire without magically manipulating hearts or forcing hearts to his will.
So "in the foreknowledge of God" should simply be read as "in the deliberate planning of God and with the guarantee that it is certain to transpire". Now, substitute this for all the occurrences of the word in the passages listed above.
A word on Predestination
We believe in predestination including the traditional meaning and interpretation thereof. However, contrary to the traditional application of its meaning, it can ONLY be applied to events that God has already revealed in his word, like the Second Coming of Christ, the New Jerusalem, the end times, etc. Nothing else is predestined apart from what is revealed and I have seen nor read nothing in Scripture that can contradict this statement.
God does not know because he does not NEED to know nor does he care to know, how many cups of coffee I will be drinking 500 days from now or how many ounces of toothpaste I will be using to brush my teeth tonight.
If the traditionalists insist that God cannot help but KNOW, then they are really saying that God cannot help but be a hypocrite.
What God has fore-ordained or predestined is guaranteed to happen. That proves the faithfulness of God to his word. Moreover, we can apply that same guarantee to God's promises. All of God's promises in Scripture come with His 100% guarantee! What he has NOT predestined will occur almost at random since God himself foreordained randomness. Free will is not true free will if God has any control over it. Randomness is not truly random if God interferes with it.
Simple God-given LOGIC!!!
As far as my knowledge of God in his Word, so far, I have a satisfied mind! Thank God!
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