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Does God know everything that's going to happen? If God knows everything that's going to happen, is that useful? Is that a quasi-determinism? Most Christians, even ones who refute Calvin's horrid notion of predetermination (That the "elect" are already chosen...so why bother trying to do right? Hence the comic strip character of the same name.) assume that God knows everything that's going to happen. The idea is that God is outside of time, so all time is present to God and God sees everything that has happened and is happening and will happen. It's really only foreknowledge from our perspective, since to God there is no past or future, only an eternal present. So how might that work? Today I saw a man slip on a spot of ice and fall down. (He was o.k., don't worry.) If God knows everything that's going to happen then he knew that that man would fall down. Suppose this man had prayed this morning, asking God to protect him from falling. Suppose God warned him about the patch of ice and the impending fall. What next? If the man takes precautions against slipping, say he wears cleats, and doesn't fall...then what God said would happen did not happen. God was wrong. Can an omniscient being be wrong? If the man tries to avoid falling but still does, then God was right but what good was that foreknowledge? Besides this, if God knows how everything is going to turn out then he knew at the point of creation everything that would happen from then to the end of time. So he knew about the man falling and really ought to have built the universe in such a way that the gentleman didn't fall. That sounds a bit silly...the guy was o.k., after all. But how about the Holocaust? God would have seen that coming, and ought to have created a world in which it couldn't happen. But if God did that, created a world in which bad things didn't happen, it would mean that we had no choice over our actions. Sure, God could create us in such a way that we always chose the "right" thing...but is that choice? Suppose I'm in a pizza shop that only serves the kind of pizza I like - pepperoni and tomato. I would have ordered pepperoni and tomato anyhow, but it doesn't mean I had a choice - that was the only thing on the menu! (The pizza shop represents life so no, I couldn't have gone to a different pizza shop.) The witness of the Bible (and common sense) is pretty clear on this issue - people can and do make choices that go against the will of God. It seems to be part of the idea, that we muddle through on our own. This is known as "free will." In order to be really free we have to be able to make lousy choices, choices that will hurt us and/or others. Anything less, any sort of predetermination, is less than free. So God could know what will happen as the result of our actions. He could know what will happen if we chose A, B, C, D or E. But God cannot know which one we will choose. To know that would be a limitation on our freedom. Is that a limitation of God, that he can't know everything about the future? No. To be omniscient God only has to know everything knowable. God cannot, for instance, know what a square circle looks like - that's a contradiction. So, too, is foreknowledge of the actions of a perfectly free being. By definition, a free being can make any possible choice...this makes foreknowledge of the choice impossible. That means, in essence, that God takes risks. That means that, while God might be able to orchestrate and influence, he is not the puppet master and the story might not turn out the way he would like. Does that make God less than omnipotent? A lot of conservative evangelicals think so, and tend to shun people who hold this view. As a good anglo-catholic, however, I say "no." Giving away control does not make God less powerful. Why? Precisely because that control was a gift to us from God. It was freely given, which actually makes God more powerful. We only have that self-determining power because God created us that way. So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. - Genesis 1:27 Created in the image of God doesn't, of course, refer to physical likeness. God doesn't have a body, except the one he temporarily assumed in the person of Jesus. Made in the image means that we are like God in character, in mind and soul. What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! - Hamlet Act II, Scene 2 Made in the image means that we have the freedom to choose our own path. Far from reducing God's power, this model actually makes divine intervention logically possible - God knows potential outcomes, and can steer us toward better choices. But at the end of the day, it's up to us to decide. Like Frodo on the edge of the chasm of Mt. Doom, we have a choice to make. Where Sauron fits into the picture is another entry altogether. |
