HoHum:
Just recently observed Groundhog Day. In the movie, Groundhog Day, Bill Murray plays Phil Connors, an arrogant and egocentric Pittsburgh TV weatherman who, during a hated assignment covering the annual Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney, finds himself in a time loop, repeating the same day again and again. Hollywood has a lot of movies that cause us to think about time. Some are about time travel, traveling back in time, traveling to the future. Some cause us to think about time in a different way like Groundhog Day. If you like to think about time, then this message is for you.
WBTU:
Look at Isaiah 42:8-9:
Vs. 8- I am the LORD; that is my name! Literally I am Yahweh. This is the name that the Lord gave in Exodus 3:14: “God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”” This word Yahweh can be connected with another Hebrew word meaning, “to be, to exist, to become.” This name of God is meant to emphasize His eternity or self existence. Who was, and is, and is to come.
Vs. 8- I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols. In the previous verses, God had addressed the Messiah. Here he turns to the people, and assures them that He is the only true God. This statement is meant to counteract the tendency to make God into man’s image. “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is for ever praised. Amen.” Romans 1:25, NIV.
Vs. 9- See, the former things have taken place. Many of the promises given to Abraham came to pass. During the time of Isaiah, the defeat, captivity, and exile of the 10 northern tribes came to pass. This happened during the time of King Hezekiah in Judah. Prophesied about in Hosea and Amos and other places.
Vs. 9- new things I declare. The defeat, captivity and exile of Judah by Babylon, and their restoration by Cyrus the Persian. From Isaiah 42 we see the mission of Christ. Vs. 1-4 fulfilled in Matthew 12:15-21. Vs. 6 a light for the Gentiles fulfilled in Matthew 4:16 and Luke 2:32. Vs. 7, similar to Isaiah 61, mentioned by Jesus as being fulfilled in Luke 4.
Vs. 9- before they spring into being I announce them to you.
a beautiful image. The metaphor is taken from plants and flowers, referring to the springing up of plants, or to their sending out shoots, buds, or flowers. The phrase literally means, 'before they begin to germinate.’ God knows which seeds will germinate and produce. The sense is, that God predicted the future events before there was anything by which it might be known that such occurrences would take place. God told of this when there were no possible indications of such things. God knows about this by omniscience, because He is all knowing.
One can hardly conceive of a clearer description or definition of foreknowledge. The true God has foreknowledge.
Thesis: Let’s talk about foreknowledge and God tonight.
For instances:
What is foreknowledge?
to know beforehand. God has infallible knowledge of our future choices before we actually make them.
Predictive prophecy and fulfilled prophecy depend largely upon God’s foreknowledge. The mark of a true prophet is if the thing He predicts comes true. “But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death.” You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?” If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.” Deuteronomy 18:20-22.
It should be pointed out that in the many passages where God speaks of His knowledge of the future, He is not just declaring what He Himself plans to do in the future, but He is also foretelling what human beings will be doing of their own free will. It’s like when I try to walk in Wal Mart. Try to predict where these people are going so I don’t run into them. Sometimes I am wrong. God knows the outcome of human free will decisions.
God has foreknowledge when it comes to the choices of individuals concerning salvation. “who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father” 1 Peter 1:2, NIV. “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” Romans 8:29, NIV.
The death of Jesus involved foreknowledge. “This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.” Acts 2:23, NIV. Because God foreknew certain free will choices of men like Judas and Pilate, He could arrange in advance the certain death of Christ on cross.
Other instances of foreknowledge. God foreknew His people Israel. “God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew.” Romans 11:2, NIV. He foresaw the justification of the Gentiles as well. “The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”” Galatians 3:8.
A clear indication of God’s foreknowledge. “The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because he once was, now is not, and yet will come.” Revelation 17:8.
Objections to foreknowledge
Some object to God’s foreknowledge not on the grounds that it is not true but on the basis that God knows all future things because He has foreordained or predetermined all things. This view eliminates human free will. There are no free will choices and God predetermines everything. God foreknows because He knows what He is going to do and there is nothing that He allows that is not within His predetermined plan. Even Adam and Eve’s first sin was because of God’s predetermined plan. See any problems with this?
Some object to God’s foreknowledge because they deny God’s foreknowledge altogether. This is the view known as Open Theism.
Rather than the future being predetermined by God, it is completely open to God as well as to us. Hence the name open theism.
God can make “educated guesses” about what will happen, but He does not know future events- including free will choices- until they actually occur. In fact, if such choices were known in advance, they would not really be free. They say that in denying God’s foreknowledge they are preserving free will. We must commend them for this.
Is free will being preserved at the cost of God’s omniscience, all knowing? No, say Open Theists; God is still omniscient because he knows everything there is to know. The future is unknowable (much like God making a circle square, it is not possible). The future does not exist yet, so there is nothing there to be known.
Others object to foreknowledge and take the view that God could know the future, even future free will decisions, if He wanted to do so; but in fact He blocks His own knowledge of such future choices just so they will remain free. They say that if our future choices are foreknown, they are certain and thus are not free.
These objections are not valid because of the many Scriptures that speak of God’s foreknowledge. The only valid view that preserves both God’s foreknowledge and human free will is the view that God foreknows all the outcomes of future free will choices because He is the God who stands above time and knows all things, past, present, and future.
Objections to this explanation
The open theists objection that the future is unknowable can be contered by:
The Bible teaches God’s foreknowledge. Look at all of the fulfilled prophecy. Isaiah predicted the Christ 700 years beforehand.
To make God into man’s image is not acceptable. God, because He is God, can do things we cannot do and cannot understand. Wondering how God can know the yet to happen future is a mystery. But because we are finite we will probably never be able to answer this to our satisfaction. Must leave the “how” of foreknowledge to mystery. Is is the height of arrogance to reject such a reality only because we cannot wrap our puny finite minds around it. Edward Hastings said this, “The universe reveals to us an all knowing God, who fulfills His purposes without encroaching on man’s free will. History sets before us two facts which, we should say, were contradictory to each other, were it not that we have seen them reconciled in our own experience and in that of others. First of all, a God that moves through the ages, slowly but surely overcoming all opposition and accomplishing His righteous purposes; then, on the other hand, man free to choose between good and evil, at liberty to accept or reject the will of God, maker of his own history and master of his own destiny. The two things are incompatible with one another, we say. But the simple truth is that they are reconciled in history and experience.”
Another objection is that if God foreknows, then He must have foreordained it. Foreknowledge does not cause or determine any of the events so foreknown, any more than an observer’s witnessing of present events that are unfolding before him has any influence on those events. It is the events that cause the knowledge, whether they be present knowledge or future knowledge.
Once an event has occurred, it becomes a past event and thus becomes “fixed” or “certain” in the sense that it cannot be changed. But this does not mean that any free will choices involved in that event are somehow robed of their freeness. Here’s an example. Let’s say that I ask us to watch with me a vidoe of a sermon that I have watched before. Then I say at one point in the video, “I know exactly what the preacher is going to say next. There is no question about it. He is going to say such and such.” And then on the video the words are said just as I predicted. Did my “foreknowledge” of these words in any way affect the freedom of the preacher to say them? Not one bit. My certainty is dependent upon the sermon as originally preached. God’s foreknowledge works in a similar way, except He sees the reality of events before they happen instead of afterwards. But His foreknowledge no more affects the certainty of the events than does my after the fact knowledge of a past event.
