🤔 Understanding God's Foreknowledge from a Provisionist Perspective

[SoteriologyA1]

Imagine God looks into the future and sees a man with an angry expression, arm raised, about to swing at something. That’s all He sees—no context, no background, just an action frozen in time. Like a snapshot.

Then, in response to this isolated moment, God decides what it means. He places a hammer in the man's hand, a nail in the other, and Jesus on the cross beneath it. Now, the man isn’t just swinging in anger—he is crucifying Christ.

But notice the reversal of order here:

The man’s thoughts and actions come before God's decree that defines them. God is reacting to the action rather than predetermining it.

Was the man just swinging at air before God assigned meaning?

Did his anger exist without an object?

How can God plan the cross if He first had to wait and see the crucifier's raised hand?

This is what happens when you separate foreknowledge from God’s decree—events exist before their meaning, choices exist before their circumstances, and God's planning becomes a response rather than a cause.

Why This View Collapses:

If God hasn't yet determined the circumstances that lead to each decision, then what is He actually seeing? Just a disconnected reel of human choices without a backstory, without a cause, and without any logical sequence.

If God knows that John will choose Christ, but hasn't yet determined John's upbringing, circumstances, thoughts, motivations, or even his existance then how does that decision even exist?

If God knows that Peter will deny Christ, but hasn't yet established the conditions that make Peter's denial possible, then what exactly is He foreknowing?

At best, this turns foreknowledge into a passive observation of random snapshots. At worst, it makes history a self-generating, autonomous sequence that God merely discovers instead of determines.

---

If you believe in a God who fills in the gaps, you’ve already admitted those gaps exist before His plan—before His sovereignty. That’s not the God of the Bible.

The only God worth worshiping is the One who declares the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10) and works all things according to the counsel of His will (Ephesians 1:11).

 

[Carbon]

Imagine God looks into the future and sees a man with an angry expression, arm raised, about to swing at something. That’s all He sees—no context, no background, just an action frozen in time. Like a snapshot.

Then, in response to this isolated moment, God decides what it means. He places a hammer in the man's hand, a nail in the other, and Jesus on the cross beneath it. Now, the man isn’t just swinging in anger—he is crucifying Christ.

But notice the reversal of order here:

The man’s thoughts and actions come before God's decree that defines them. God is reacting to the action rather than predetermining it.

Was the man just swinging at air before God assigned meaning?

Did his anger exist without an object?

How can God plan the cross if He first had to wait and see the crucifier's raised hand?

This is what happens when you separate foreknowledge from God’s decree—events exist before their meaning, choices exist before their circumstances, and God's planning becomes a response rather than a cause.

Why This View Collapses:

If God hasn't yet determined the circumstances that lead to each decision, then what is He actually seeing? Just a disconnected reel of human choices without a backstory, without a cause, and without any logical sequence.

If God knows that John will choose Christ, but hasn't yet determined John's upbringing, circumstances, thoughts, motivations, or even his existance then how does that decision even exist?

If God knows that Peter will deny Christ, but hasn't yet established the conditions that make Peter's denial possible, then what exactly is He foreknowing?

At best, this turns foreknowledge into a passive observation of random snapshots. At worst, it makes history a self-generating, autonomous sequence that God merely discovers instead of determines.

---

If you believe in a God who fills in the gaps, you’ve already admitted those gaps exist before His plan—before His sovereignty. That’s not the God of the Bible.

The only God worth worshiping is the One who declares the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10) and works all things according to the counsel of His will (Ephesians 1:11).

Lots of great points making open theism look really silly, which it is.

 

[makesends]

Imagine God looks into the future and sees a man with an angry expression, arm raised, about to swing at something. That’s all He sees—no context, no background, just an action frozen in time. Like a snapshot.

Then, in response to this isolated moment, God decides what it means. He places a hammer in the man's hand, a nail in the other, and Jesus on the cross beneath it. Now, the man isn’t just swinging in anger—he is crucifying Christ.

But notice the reversal of order here:

The man’s thoughts and actions come before God's decree that defines them. God is reacting to the action rather than predetermining it.

Was the man just swinging at air before God assigned meaning?

Did his anger exist without an object?

How can God plan the cross if He first had to wait and see the crucifier's raised hand?

This is what happens when you separate foreknowledge from God’s decree—events exist before their meaning, choices exist before their circumstances, and God's planning becomes a response rather than a cause.

Why This View Collapses:

If God hasn't yet determined the circumstances that lead to each decision, then what is He actually seeing? Just a disconnected reel of human choices without a backstory, without a cause, and without any logical sequence.

If God knows that John will choose Christ, but hasn't yet determined John's upbringing, circumstances, thoughts, motivations, or even his existance then how does that decision even exist?

If God knows that Peter will deny Christ, but hasn't yet established the conditions that make Peter's denial possible, then what exactly is He foreknowing?

At best, this turns foreknowledge into a passive observation of random snapshots. At worst, it makes history a self-generating, autonomous sequence that God merely discovers instead of determines.

---

If you believe in a God who fills in the gaps, you’ve already admitted those gaps exist before His plan—before His sovereignty. That’s not the God of the Bible.

The only God worth worshiping is the One who declares the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10) and works all things according to the counsel of His will (Ephesians 1:11).

AMEN!!!

And just to nail it down, Acts 2:23, (my emphasis) "This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross."

 

[His clay]

AMEN!!!

And just to nail it down, Acts 2:23, (my emphasis) "This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross."

Also note the causal nature of the verse mentioned. Often I see the verse used because it says "foreknowledge." But take note the words before it, "was handed over . . . by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge." The plan and foreknowledge are causal not passive because of the words, "handed over".

One might respond by pointing to the passive "was handed over." But these words are in reference to the man. The man was handed over BY God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge. Thus, if one wishes to object by appealing to the passive verb construction, then he needs to properly identify who is being passively acted upon, and who is therefore doing to active action.

 

[Dave]

Alistair Begg once said that there are no angels running around heaven yelling "plan B, plan B".

There are also logical discrepancies in foresight being God looking into the future and reacting to man. Google "eleven reasons to reject libertarian freewill".

God providentially governs everything. I like to think of it as He, from the foundations of the world, actively chose to cause some things, and knowing the domino effect right down to the smallest detail, He then put His stamp of approval on it. In other words, while foreknowledge can be deliberately passive in God's eternal decree, it is only positively passive. Yet another way to say it is there is an element of God's eternal decree that is passive, but not in a reactionary way to man. It is only passive because God chose for it to passive.

This is how we can say that God is not the author of sin, or evil. He is sovereign over it. He eternally decreed it. He providentially governs it, but this passive element of God's decree puts all the responsibility of sin and evil in mans lap. I believe that one of the many reasons that things are decreed in the way that they are is to protect His Divine attributes.

Dave