Editor’s note – Every Christmas season believers repeat the phrase “in the fullness of time,” but few ask what it means that God fixed the day of Christ’s birth before He made the world. The author traces Scripture’s teaching on God’s foreknowledge and lands on the question every honest believer eventually faces: if God declared the end from the beginning, what is left for us to choose? He does not pretend the tension resolves easily.
God’s Foreknowledge and Our Salvation
God says that He declares the end from the beginning. That means that He knew everything that would ever happen from before He created the universe. The Scripture even tells us that man needed a savior and that God knew this from before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:20). Then, when the time had fully come, God sent forth His Son to redeem us (Galatians 4:4-5).
Many believers wrestle with the notion that God knows everything from the very beginning to the very end, because that means that every event is fixed beyond our control. On the other hand, we are held responsible for our actions. Somehow, both scenarios must be true and maybe a study on that subject will help to answer our questions.
Specifically, the Bible says that disobedience to God’s commands is sin and that sin kills. Not necessarily physically, but definitely spiritually, by alienating us from God (Genesis 3:4-5, Romans 6:23). If God knows everything, if He always knew the results of every action, did He know which sin we would commit and when? Well, the Bible tells us that the man Jesus was foreknown from before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:20). So, God made provision for man’s sin before He ever created man. Not only that, but He also declared the exact day when the Savior would be born and where. For, when the time had fully come, God sent forth His Son to redeem us from our sin (Galatians 4:4-5, Micah 5:2).
Editor’s note – Scripture does not say God improvised a rescue after Eden failed; it says the Lamb was foreknown before the foundation of the world. Our salvation was never in doubt – only unveiled in time.
The Fullness of Time: Prophecy Fulfilled
Did you ever consider all the details to be considered to bring all of this prophecy about, including the exact time and place? A census of the full Roman empire had to be coordinated at the time when Mary would deliver her first-born son, so that He would be born in Bethlehem. None of that would have been possible without all previous events leading up to the birth of Jesus being precisely planned and executed. And God had planned every detail of this from before the foundation of the world.
Understanding Eternity
Here we need to interject some thoughts on eternity, because a proper understanding of what eternity entails helps in relating to God’s interaction with His creation. Eternity is NOT a very long time; it is the absence of time. Time had a beginning (Titus 1:2) and will have an end (Matthew 28:20); time is simply another entity created by God, while eternity IS before time began and still IS after Heaven and Earth (and time) have passed away. God is not subject to time since He inhabits eternity (Isaiah 57:15), but He communicates with us in ways we can relate to, because we have no “access” (for lack of better words) to eternity. However, since God is not subject to time, it follows that He is everywhere (in the universe) and “everywhen” (in time, past, present, and future). Therefore, God’s statement that He declares the end from the beginning looks like an understatement.
Editor’s note – Eternity is not a very long time; it is the absence of time. God’s knowledge of tomorrow is not a guess extended backward – it is knowledge, complete.
Free Will and God’s Sovereignty
Our mind is clearly incapable of imagining what life in eternity is like, but we should be able to accept that every split second of God’s creation has already been determined by God because He “declared” it. Why then does He yet find fault, for who has resisted His will (Romans 9:19-29)? However, even though God knows what we will do, He does not make us do it. Even when the Scripture talks about predestination, we are clearly not equipped to understand the full picture. One way that helps me understand a little is to think of God creating the circumstances that leave me struggling with the proper choice to make. I know God’s Commandments and have no excuse when I make the wrong choice, even though the right choice would have been extremely painful under the circumstance. God did not make me choose wrongly, and I must bear the consequences of my choice. The wonderful news is that God forgives us when we humble ourselves and confess our sin, which may help us to know our place and worship Him as God. If we try to dig deeper, we may soon find out that each one of us arrives at different conclusions because our mind is too limited to understand the things of God. Just as little children intuitively trust their parents, so we need to learn to trust that God knows better; that He holds everything in His loving hands and that He knows how everything will play out, even to the end of time, or the end of the ages.
A Word from the Editor
None of us will fully resolve, this side of Heaven, how God’s complete knowledge and our responsibility fit together. What we can do is obey what we know, confess what we get wrong, and trust the hands holding the rest – for now we know in part, but then we will know fully. (1 Corinthians 13:12)
Salvation – Eternal Life in Less Than 150 Words
Distributed by – BCWorldview.org
Editor Comment: You anchor the tension between God's foreknowledge and our real choices in Scripture, which is where it belongs. However, the issue of free will vs. predestination will remain debated while we are on this earth. The fact that God has made it clear what His ambassadors are called to do… preach the gospel to all who will listen… does not require our answer to that question.