The Case Against the Hyper-Omniscience of God

Does God know ALL of the future?
Does God know the future of free will choices?
Has God predetermined how many years, days, hours any one person will live on earth?

Classical Theology, especially those with Calvinistic leanings, will answer an unequivocal YES. Logically, but unfortunately, that is what one expects of a man-created omniscient God. Biblically, the evidence seems to point to the opposite. If our answer to the above questions are classical and "yes", what kind of God are we portraying? Will such portrait display the Biblical nature of God, or will it portray a man-made God?

Those who espouse the hyper-omniscience of God revert to the few verses on predestination and verses like the  following:

Psalm 139:16
"Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
    the days that were formed for me,
    when as yet there was none of them."

Jeremiah 1:5
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

But, is there only one correct interpretation of these verses or are there alternate interpretations that are just as valid and, perhaps, even more consistent with the whole of Scripture and the true nature of God? Let us examine some cases.

2 Kings 20:1-11 and Isaiah 38:1-8 gives the account of the "predetermined" death of Hezekiah and God IMMEDIATELY changing his mind about it in response to Hezekiah's prayer. Verse 1 in both passages declare emphatically the predetermined WILL OF GOD, "“Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover.”"

There is no way to interpret this with the hyper-omniscience view. GOD HAS DECLARED! GOD DOES NOT LIE! GOD DOES NOT CHANGE! All of these principles go down the sewer based on this narrative! Note the emphasis of God: "You SHALL NOT RECOVER". If they insist, what kind of God do they portray? Most definitely, if that were  our view, we SHOULD make the following disturbing conclusions:

1. God is a  SADIST enjoying the emotional torture of Hezekiah after such declaration. The hyper-omniscience might say, "God is just testing the faith of Hezekiah". Perhaps, but he is definitely a  SADIST just the same. No way around this!
2. God is a HYPOCRITE. Since He is not fickle and  knows all of the future, he has  to be a bonafide HYPOCRITE, acting as if the did not know how Hezekiah would react, and pretending not to know that  He would give in to Hezekiah's prayer. The hyper-omniscience group would say, "This passage is anthropomorphic (God is speaking in human terms)". Such is a ridiculous argument! How can God communicate his will to us if He does not indeed speak in human  terms, with human words, human idioms and human contexts. In fact, Christ became HUMAN in order to make revelation AS CLEAR AS DAY. So the anthropomorphism argument is just a GREAT COP OUT for those who put doctrine above the clear word of God. The hyper-omniscience proponent would retort, "God's thoughts are higher than our  thoughts". OK, then should we stop studying Scripture because God's thoughts are too high for us to understand? This principle refers to the the "brain" of God compared to ours BUT in NO WAY does it refer to the declared clear revelation of Scripture. What God's word says, man must be able to understand simply and clearly or God has failed at  the job of revelation.
3. God is FICKLE-MINDED. He declares something emphatically and then immediately changes his mind and makes an opposite declaration

Now suppose we adopt the alternative Biblically-supported interpretation that God does know the future of free will choices.  What kind of God will that portray?

1. God is COMPASSIONATE. He knew that Hezekiah was on his way to death (omniscience) so he sent Isaiah to tell him to prepare for death so as not to take him by surprise nor hope that he would get better. God told him to "settle his affairs".
2. God ANSWERS PRAYER. This is obvious from the narrative, no further explanation is needed other than to point out that Hezekiah uttered a very short prayer and simply wept bitterly. Because of God's compassion, he responded positively to the request.
3. God CHANGES HIS MIND depending on man's free will actions. He did this for Hezekiah and so many others. God relents. The Hebrew meaning of relents is literally, "felt sorry for" which is mainly used to show regret and repentance. In the case of the city of Ninevah in the book of Jonah, God declared doom to Ninevah if they did not repent. God did NOT know that  such a pagan nation would actually repent but they did, even in sackcloth and ashes! God regretted his declaration and  repented of his intent and spared Ninevah! Why? Because...
4. God is LOVE! That is the main attribute of God which is the MOST EMPHASIZED in Scripture. Sovereignty is mentioned only in passing and fewer passages. That is quite similar to predestination which is also just mentioned only in a few verses. We should hearken to the SHOUTS of God and not his WHISPERS. We should let the shouts of God interpret the whispers of God and not the other way around.

The hyper-omniscience argument to our portrayal of God is that God is less omnipotent as if God has some kind of disabilty. This is nothing but a hyper-omnipotence argument. This group believes that God is so INSECURE that He has to control every detail of everything in order to be  GOD. This is  completely far from Biblical truth! This insecure God is man-made! The God of the Bible is OMNI-COMPETENT. You can blindfold this God, tie his hands behind his back and he still continues to come out victorious in the end. This God does not need to control everything but He is competent enough to support everything.

Let us now examine the case of God testing Abraham by telling him to sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering.  The hyper-omniscience view would still portray a disturbing God.

1. God is a  SADIST enjoying the emotional torture of Abraham after such declaration. The hyper-omniscience might say, "God is just testing the faith of Abraham". Perhaps, but he is definitely a  SADIST just the same. No way around this!
2. God is a HYPOCRITE. Since He knows all of the future, he has  to be a bonafide HYPOCRITE, acting as if the did not know that Abraham would pass the test. The hyper-omniscience group would say, "This passage is anthropomorphic (God is speaking in human terms)". Again, such is a ridiculous argument! 

Now again, we adopt the alternative Biblically-supported interpretation that God does know the future of free will choices.  What kind of God will that portray?

1. God wants GENUINE LOVE, a love that he CANNOT control because God CANNOT fool himself! Controlled love is a joke! Love has to be bonafide UNCONTROLLED FREE WILL CHOICE in order to be genuine. This is precisely the reason why the Great Commandment (which should be the Chief End of Man) emphasizes genuine uncontrolled love. 
2. God is LOVE! That is indeed the main attribute of God which is the MOST EMPHASIZED in Scripture. Again, we should let the shouts of God interpret the whispers of God and not the other way around.

How about the debate between Moses and God two times, the first in Exodus 32 where in verse 14, God relented ("felt sorry for", i.e., regretted his intention and repented in his action). He admitted that Moses was right, so implying that God Himself was wrong! God is NOT A HYPOCRITE!!!

Not convinced? Read Numbers 14 where Moses again won the debate and in verse 20, "the Lord said, 'I have pardoned, according to your word.' ". Note that in this case, God acted NOT ACCORDING TO HIS WILL but according to the will of Moses!!! Hallelujah! Such a wonderful loving heavenly Father who actually gets involved intimately with his people and desires "human" conversation and "human" interaction with them. God is love and wants to enjoy genuine unadulterated love  from his people, so he created genuine TOTALLY UNCONTROLLED FREE WILL, a necessity for genuine love to be demonstrated by any of his people.

To the hyper-omnscience proponents, I hope and pray that you will enjoy relationship with God the way that I do. Junk doctrine that contradicts Scripture and the loving nature of God! God wants us to bask in his love, not his sovereignty. Sovereignty simply enhances basking in God's love!