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FROM: 11/10/02 Radio Program
Question:
The Lord know us before we are born. He knows the beginning from the end. We must choose right from wrong. Does God know what we will choose? That sounds like predestination. How do you explain this?
Answer:
It is true that God knows us before we are born, and expressed such to Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:5). Truly, He knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10; Romans 4:17). The book of Amos expresses the fact that God is omniscient (all-knowing, Amos 4:13).
Yet, God choosing to foreknow certain things does not inhibit man's own personal choices in this life. You made the point that God expects men to choose right from wrong, and this is true (Genesis 2:15-17; Joshua 24:15; etc). Man, of his own free-will, chooses to obey or disobey God. Though God knows our decisions, this does not constitute predestination.
Foreknowledge and predestination are two separate things. I know the "religious" world likes to lump them together as if there are the same, but they are not. When the Bible speaks of predestination (Ephesians 1:4-5), the context declares that God predestinated the PLAN by which men are saved, not the PEOPLE. God has not individually chosen "John," "Sally," and "George" to be saved, while individually choosing "Sam," "Trudy," and "Donna" to be lost. Remember, God has given man a choice in the matter. Therefore, it is up to man as to whether or not he will obey or disobey God.
The prophecies of the Old Testament are a good example of what we are talking about. Though God predestinated that a Savior would come into the world, He did not force men to obey or disobey in order for prophecy to be fulfilled. God had the foreknowledge to see men voluntarily obeying his will (Just as He can see men voluntarily disobeying His will!) and through these obedient ones, He predetermined that Christ would come, and die for us that we might have a home in Heaven. God's foreknowledge did not supercede or deny anyone their free will then, and it does not do that today.
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