God's Foreknowledge and Predestination

Posted by Me on an OAO Message Board:

joem said:...exhaustive foreknowledge...equals exhaustive predestination...

jesse said:...If God eternally foreknew all that will unavoidably occur, God could never decide what will occur...

I think these statements are mutually exclusive. And as such, one or both statements must be wrong. And if wrong, then the philosophical underpinnings of these statements must also be wrong. So which one is wrong?

I agree with foryou that in God's perfection He could foreknow all events in time including His active role in it and not need to change anything. God is powerless to originate a current idea/action in the same way that He is powerless to sin, IE change from being perfect.

Malachi 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

In addition, God is the creator...Including being the creator of time. If you say He sovereign; He is not limited by time. There can be no "moment" for Him in eternity. To discuss sequence or moments, presupposes that He is limited by time. Is God in time or eternity? Time begins and ends. God has given us this picture in creation/natural revelation. God has no beginning and no end. If you can comprehend this, you can comprehend the incomprehensible.

I being a creature in time and space cannot fathom anything that is beyond time or space. This is why God has to reveal Himself for someone to know Him. That is why He uses Parables, analogies (heck, all knowledge is analogical), poetry, allegories, prophetic imagery and such the like. He cannot say I am like "X". Because there is only one "x" like Him and that is the "X," IE Himself; thus all knowledge of God is derivative and is in universal terms: the three "universal" omni's or universal negative (versus affirmative) definitions: eternal (without time) and pure/holy (without blemish). For we know not what "eternal" or "pure" really mean since we experience neither eternity nor consummate holiness.

I agree with foryou that we must always return to scripture. We cannot start with the scripture and finish with philosophy. We must start with scripture, and be always checking our philosophy each step of the way by scriptural principles; concluding with something that does not contradict scripture or else we have erred in our surmising.