Had an interesting converstation with a friend on Facebook today (thanks Keith). He was prodding me for my thoughts again on a subject we've discussed before. Here's the transcript (edited, of course):
12:54pmKeith
I have a theological question for you. Explain what your justification is for God's ability to only know every thing that has happened and not everything future included
12:58pmAndy
Let me ask you this first: Does God know God's own future?
12:59pmAndy
If not, then how can He know our future (aside from bringing about the fulfillment of His will and design) in any specific detail?
1:00pmKeith
hmmm.....I don't think so. Otherwise how then would you explain him changing his mind when Moses asked him to spare lives?
1:01pmAndy
You would have to say He knew He would change His mind.
1:01pmKeith
right....and that doesn't make sense.
1:02pmAndy
And if that's the case, then how does He know our future without it impinging on our freedom AND without our future being little more than a ruse?
1:03pmKeith
agreed.....so .....prophecy
1:08pmAndy
Forthtelling aside, I see in prophecy not so much prediction as predetermination. As I'm sure I said to you before, if I tell Oscar that he will be punished if he lies to me, and then he lies and is punished, that's similar to God saying Israel will suffer punishment for its sins. Or you could say that prophecies concerning Jesus' birth are simply God bringing it about in a way He has forordained. You could also argue from the perspecitve that the writers of the Gospels picked and chose which prophecies they saw Jesus as the fulfillment of. In other words, there are many "prophecies" that did NOT refer to Jesus but perhaps could have . . . had He done something to fulfill them.
1:10pmKeith
Is that a slippery slope to saying that Christ was not the chosen one, rather he was just fulfilling prophecy that was written about someone else?
1:12pmAndy
Well, it's commonly accepted that the Suffering Servant referred to a person (or nation, i.e. Israel) contemporary with Isaiah but we also believe it refers to Jesus as well . . . so, is that a slippery slope?
Jesus said I did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. If that's the case, then even if the law (or prophecies) referred to someone else originally, Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of all that God had revealed to the Nation ofIsrael.
1:13pmKeith
i accept that :-)
1:17pmAndy
Back to the future . . .
1:18pmAndy
If when God created us, time, as we know it began, and as time bound beings with personal freedom we are able to make free choices and those choices have real influence over future events, then how can we say that God knows the future when it does not yet exist? Is it really limiting to God to say that He doesn't know something that can't be known or doesn't exist in His creation? I don't think it is. Although we may feel worried about limiting God, it doesn't seem that He's worried about it because He's already done it by creating us with autonomy and more especially through His own Incarnation in Jesus Christ.
So, what do you think? Does God know the future?
I found it interesting that the most requested final meal of inmates on death row was a cheeseburger and fries (read about it here). I would probably pick the same thing (add a milkshake), but I have to confess it feels a little creepy to share culinary choices with murderers and rapists.
