6e. Does God really Know Everything?
Does God Know The Future?
The future contains both certainties and possibilities. God knows all about both sets, so He does know the future completely. There are a number of possible outcomes that depend on decisions by free-willed beings, whom God has elected to not control. He does not have foreknowledge of those choices, but He does know all the possible outcomes once the choices are made. Hence, God can know what will be even if He does not know how it will be. God could elect to know how it will be as well if all He wanted was robots, but since He wants free-willed beings as well, He must elect to not know which choices those being will make. This is why in the Bible, God is portrayed as being surprised by choices, warning of outcomes for bad choices, and laying out consequences for the different options we have to decide among (eg 2Chron 7:14; Judg 2:19; Ps 78:8; Ps 81:12; Jer 7:24; Hos 4:16; ).
My Chess Computer program calculates the possible outcomes given all the possible moves together with every possible response, out to a certain number of moves. The more moves it is able to project from a given point, the more probable it is that the computer will win the game. Computers are becoming more capable of quickly* calculating in advance the geometrically increasing number of possibilities with each successive move. They will eventually get to a point where there is no move I can make that has not been taken into account to the nth extreme. Then, the future is clear - I will not win the game - but it is not known from the beginning how the game will be played.
Surely God can do anything a super computer can do, and more. He can indeed know all the possible outcomes of our free-willed decisions, including all the ramifications downstream. This requires His incredible ability to know the variables and then to assess how they will interact. However, each of those trails may lead to different outcomes. God can predict the future with certainty when all of the possible variables eventually lead to the same outcome. For example, He knows where the Sin Drama playing out here on Earth will eventually end. He does not know which trail of events we will decide to take, because He has elected to not control those decisions. Yet, once we make our decisions, He knows to which set of possibilities each choice will lead. In this way, it is our choice even though God knows the ultimate outcome.
* Note: At first is was a matter of how much memory a computer had, that was limiting its ability to store all the information generated in identifying all these possible outcomes. Then the amount of time it took to do all the calculations was a limiting factor. You would set the "skill level" of the computer by limiting the time it was given to make the calculations. If it did not have enough time to get through many of the possible combinations, then its decision for its next move allowed for possibilities that it had not yet assessed. You then could find a way to beat the computer. If/when a computer can go through all the possibilities in a flash, it cannot lose.
NOTE: God will intervene to the extent that He changes the situations around
His created beings and allows them to have new information to deal with as they
make their free-will choices. For example, He knocks the Apostle, Paul off his
horse and asks him, "Why are you persecuting me?" Then Paul makes his
own decision as to what he will do next.
God's Foreknowledge - the Catholic Response
Tony is a wise Catholic Priest in New Zealand, who I first met in Antarctica. Tony has a great deal of experience. He has always been able to explain to me why he believes his faith and I feel that the debates we have are very enlightening. Here is one set of email exchanges that presented both our views on the heavy questions of God's Foreknowledge.
Subject: Re:God's Foreknowledge
>Mike said:
>Note: God knows all the possible choices we can make and all the possible
outcomes of those choices. He is like the ultimate chess computer. However, He
does not know which choices we will make, because He has elected to leave them
up to us. If He intervened against our free will, then we would not have any
free will. What God does do on occasion, is to intervene by creating a situation
around us so that we will reconsider our choices, but the decisions are always
up to us alone.
>
>Tony said: If this were true it would make God's knowledge dependent on us
- which doesn't sound right [because God would not then be perfect]. I think we
have to accept that God does know what choice we will make, but this doesn't
determine our choice - what gives existence to things is not God's knowledge
but God's will. What God's will is in this case is to give us freedom of
choice. God gives us freedom, even knowing that we will sometimes make wrong
choices - I think most parents will recognise this situation. God continues to
love us (we continue to exist) even though God does not love the wrong act
(love is an act of the will not the intellect). Yes, there is the opportunity
for repentance as long as we are this earth. The chance to change your mind
finishes at death, what Catholics call the Personal Judgment, not the Last
Judgment.
>
Interesting discussion. Fundamentally where we are out of our depth in trying
to reconcile God's mode of existence, which is eternal (and of which we have no
experience) with the dependent existence, which is in time (which is the only
one we know).
Ø Mike
said:
Why would God not be perfect if He decides to not control the decisions of His
free-willed beings?
You are saying that God's foreknowledge does not make it impossible for us to
decide things on our own. I agree, but it does remove the need for us to decide
at all. If God is already certain of what we will decide, then why bother with
this drama? If we can do nothing that God has not already known, why are we
here? Does God enjoy watching the inevitable happen over and over again? The
Bible indicates that God is often "surprised", or
"angered", or "happy" about the free willed decisions of
humans. How could He be surprised if it was all known ahead of time? [Note: in a follow-up email Tony made
the point that Humans are going through this veil of tears and trial in order
to learn some things. Hence, God
knows exactly what will occur, but He is letting it play out so we will learn
from it. I agree that we are learning from our experiences, but I see that as
happening within the context that God does not need to know how everyone will
choose.]
I believe from the standpoint of perfection, that if all He did was program us
to decide what He dictates, then He would be less of a God. It requires a
greater capability to know all the possible outcomes and variations, than to
only know one path. Because of His vast knowledge of all the possibilities and
outcomes, He knows where our intermediate decisions must eventually lead. For
me, this is a God Who has reasons to be relating to us, whereas the God of only
one possibility does not.
15 August 2001, updated on 21 November 2001
For more on this and a response to any questions, please email any comments to nasamike@nasamike.com