Predestination

When we examine the relationship between God’s foreknowledge and His predestining, one might wonder if one precedes the other, and how that impacts metaphysical realities. As part of this line of reasoning, it is important to examine the Scriptures to discover what God foreknew. There are at least six explicit Biblical references to God having prior knowledge: Psalm 139:4, Jeremiah 1:5, Acts 2:23, Romans 8:29, Romans 11:2, and 1 Peter 1:2. Interestingly, there is another passage that speaks of believers also having prior knowledge—2 Peter 3:17. Examining these gives us insight for understanding the relationship between God’s foreknowledge and His predestining.

There has been no shortage of debate amongst Christians about the relationship between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. Because of our finite perspective —and our insistence on having a theology that logically makes sense to us—we are tempted to downplay, diminish, or even outright reject one of these truths in favor of the other. In his little book, A Defense of Calvinism, Charles Spurgeon cautions us against this error:

This article by Dr. Myron Houghton first appeared at Sharper Iron in June of 2005.

I. INTRODUCTION

The primary purpose of this paper is to present the major points of the open view of God as found in Dr. Gregory A. Boyd’s recent book, God of the Possible¹ and to respond to those points with an exegesis of relevant biblical passages. While I am not impartial, I intend to be fair, both in the clarity with which the major points of the book are explained and in the manner in which I respond to its major ideas.