I recently received the following from a friend and thought my response may be beneficial to share. I changed the names involved (except my own) for their privacy:
Hi Jacob,
Lori's brother Michael is visiting us for a couple days. He likes to talk theology. He thinks that because we have free choice, God doesn't know everything. Like would God put a tree of knowledge of good and bad in the garden if he knew man would choose evil? Would you put a culvert in your back yard and then tell your kids not to go near it? I'm not doing his position justice, but you get the idea.
So can you give me a few scriptural references we could discuss with him to straighten him out?
ThanksYour brother in Christ,Jason
Hello my friend, thanks for your question. The position your brother-in-law is taking is called Open Theism which is a heresy that denies God's omniscience.The argument is essentially that if man has free will then God cannot know for sure what man will choose to do. If God knew the future decisions of men then those decisions would be predetermined in the mind of God. Could a person be free to do action "P" if God knows he will actually do action "Q" before he does it? They would say there is no freedom if God already knows what we will choose but this conflates knowledge of a future event with causation of said event.
Also Open Theism is used as a dodge to the problem of evil, that is, If God is good then why is there so much pain and suffering in the world?
The argument for the problem of evil states:
1. God is defined as an all-loving, all-knowing, and all-powerful being.
2. Such a being would want to stop evil/suffering from occurring, would see it coming, and be powerful enough to prevent it.
3. Evil/suffering still occur.
4. Therefore there is no such God.
So in reaction to this argument some have said that God is all-loving and all-knowing but not all powerful. He wants to stop evil and suffering but he is not always able to do so because he lacks omnipotence (Finite godism). Others have said that God is all-knowing and all-powerful but not all-loving. He foresees evil and suffering, he could stop it, but he does not care to do anything about it (Deism). Others take the position that God is all-loving and all-powerful but not all-knowing. So then God wants to stop evil and suffering, and he is powerful enough to do so but because he cannot foresee with certainty what will occur there are things that he was unable to stop. Finally, others simply accept the argument as is and conclude that there is no God at all.
The appropriate response to this argument, however, is the Free-will defense. God is, in fact, omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotent (all-powerful) and omnibenevolent (all-loving) and evil/suffering exists but this is not a logical contradiction. The reason it is not a contradiction is because God created human beings with free will, able to make decisions between right and wrong. Making free moral creatures God allowed for the possibility of evil and suffering to enter the world (although he did not create it, he made is possible) through the rebellion of his creatures. God has deemed the freedom of the will to be a greater good than determinism. Free willed creatures can obey or disobey, they can love or they can hate. Determined creatures can only do what is forced upon them to do. In order for any relationships we have as human beings to be meaningful, whether with friends or spouses or the Lord himself, then we must have the freedom to not love, to not obey, to not honor.
God most certainly did know that evil and suffering would occur. He knew Adam and Eve would disobey. God did not cause it but he allowed it because he valued having meaningful relationships with those who would choose to love and follow him. Furthermore, God is more glorified in a world where sin and evil and suffering occur because he has been able to demonstrate both his justice and his grace in this world in such a way that a non-fallen world could never know. So God is perfect love, but he does not force people to love him. God is perfect knowledge but knowledge is not the same as determinism nor does he always choose to use his knowledge in combination with his absolute power to stop all evil and suffering because 1) in many instances that would be to eliminate freedom of choice and human responsibility and thereby invalidate the possibility of meaningful relationships and actions, and 2) because some of the evil and suffering in this world is part of the curse because of the fall (Genesis 3) and God is actively judging mankind through those means. God often uses evil people and actions to accomplish his greater purposes (Genesis 50:20; Judges 3:7-8). Although God never does evil himself he sits above the world and orchestrates the evil therein to bring about his purposes such as the punishment of the wicked and also the greater good of those who love Him and are called by God (Romans 8:28).
So evil and suffering do not stand in contradiction to God's existence as perfectly good, all-knowing and all-powerful but they fit within a world where God made people who have free and meaningful decision and in which God is actively punishing the wicked.
Now, all philosophy aside, the Bible simply outright denies the notion that God doesn't know the future with certainty. In Isaiah 41:21-24 God challenges the idols to demonstrate their own deity saying:
Set forth your case, says the Lord;
bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob.
22 Let them bring them, and tell us
what is to happen.
Tell us the former things, what they are,
that we may consider them,
that we may know their outcome;
or declare to us the things to come.
23 Tell us what is to come hereafter,
that we may know that you are gods;
do good, or do harm,
that we may be dismayed and terrified.
24 Behold, you are nothing,
and your work is less than nothing;
an abomination is he who chooses you.
Notice one of the distinctions God makes between himself and false gods and the challenge he issues that they may prove their divinity “Tell us what is to come hereafter that we may know you are gods.” The Lord says his ability to know what will happen in the future is part of his divine nature and it sets him apart from dumb idols and false deities. Again in Isaiah 46:9b-10 the Lord says “I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose’”.
All of the predictive prophecy that the Bible contains depends on God’s ability to know the future, including the free choices of men. The fact that his word stands and he always accomplishes his purposes and brings about what he intends demonstrates with absolute assurance that he knows not only all possible choices of men but the ones they will actually make. The Bible leaves no room for an impotent God that empties him of any of his qualities. If we strip him of even one attribute he ceases to be God and becomes a demi-god, a finite being.
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