How can God know the future, yet still allow us to make our own decisions?
“If he knows what I’m going to do, then didn’t He CAUSE me to do it?”
“Foreknowledge is not cause.”
I love that simple answer from the Dragon in the John Gardner novel GRENDEL. “Foreknowledge is not cause.” Just because God knows something, does not mean God caused it—though He might have!
Remember: there are many, many things about God that we are not able to understand. Yet, we have nearly 800,000 words in the Bible that we can understand. God has given us an incredible window into His divine mysteries. But He reserves some truths for Heaven.
Predestination is one of the mysteries we may never grasp on earth–and that is okay.
Here is my favorite way to explain predestination and free will. When a man is approaching the Pearly Gates, he sees a sign that says, “Whosoever will may come,” Revelation 22:17. But once he is inside the gates and looks back at the entrance, he sees a sign that says, “You did not choose me, but I chose you” John 15:16.
The point is: PERSPECTIVE. While we are on earth, everything we do feels like free will. We make choices every day—what we eat, what we say, where we go, whether we study the Bible, whether we tell the truth, and more. Everything about our Christian faith feels like choices we made using our free will. But when you get to Heaven, God may reveal to you the ways He was working behind the scenes, changing your heart, causing you to make decisions you would not otherwise have made. God does give us a free will. We have agency. But God has agency also—and more than we do. And He will accomplish His plans. He may predestine more of our circumstances than we would ever imagine.
In Daniel 11, an angel shows Daniel a vision of the future, including battle after battle between various kingdoms.
“The two kings, whose hearts are bent on evil, will speak lies at the same table but to no avail, for still THE END WILL COME AT THE APPOINTED TIME. The king of the North will return to his land … At the APPOINTED TIME he will come again to the South … Some of the wise will fall so that they may be refined, purified, and cleansed until the time of the end, for [the end] WILL STILL COME AT THE APPOINTED TIME” Daniel 11:27-29, 35.
There are appointed times.
God has a calendar and there are plenty of things scheduled. They will happen at the time He appointed—no matter what men do, they will never alter the dates on God’s calendar. Why? Because God is SOVEREIGN over times and places and choices and circumstances and our entire lives and all of human history.
God, teach us how to pray. Fill us with reverence and awe for One Who stands outside of time and controls all things. We praise You!
ΑΩ
Household Words: 