Omniscience and Human Freedom

one

If God knows everything, how can I be free?

Sometimes people get a little confused about how our human will can be compatible with God’s omniscience if God knows absolutely everything. After all, if God knows what I’m going to do tomorrow, or next year, or ten years from now, then doesn’t that mean I’m destined to do it?

God can’t be wrong, right?

So if God knows what I’ll do tomorrow and God is never wrong, that makes it seem like I have no choice, doesn’t it?

How can we reconcile human freedom and God’s perfect and comprehensive knowledge, not only about everything that is or has been, but everything that will be?

two

God’s knowledge as vision, not prevision

The answer to the riddle about God’s perfect knowledge and human free will is found when we remember what we’ve spoken about before regarding God’s eternity. We said that God is outside of time and sees all moments of time at once. There is no past or present or future to God. So He doesn’t remember the past and predict the future. He sees it all now. But seeing something as it happens doesn’t mean forcing it to happen and it doesn’t imply that it isn’t happening freely.

When a shopkeeper sees a customer come into the store, the shopkeeper isn’t forcing the customer to come into the store. He just knows the customer’s coming into his store, and he knows it with certainty. How does he know, and know certainly? Because he sees it happening right in front of him.

So too, when Jesus tells Peter that Peter will deny Him three times, it’s not because Jesus is going to force Peter to deny Him. It’s because Jesus is God, and with His divine mind He sees Peter denying Him and sitting across the table from Him, and dying a martyr’s death and even though all these things happen at different times relative to each other God sees them all at once. It’s all happening right in front of Him. And that kind of knowledge doesn’t take away anybody’s freedom.

three

God’s tailor-made plan for your life

God’s perfect knowledge doesn’t take away your freedom but it does mean that God can arrange everything with the knowledge of what will help you make the best use of your freedom.

God knows everything, all the time. That means that when God designed this world, when He made the sun and the moon and the stars, when He arranged the course of salvation history, and when He mapped out the generations of the descendants of Adam and Eve, He had you in mind.

When He came to earth as an infant, when He was a boy working in Joseph’s carpentry business, when he walked around without home or family, preaching and healing, and when He died very slowly because His wrists were too torn to lift His body for another breath of air, all that time, He had you in mind.

When He saw the political and technological and cultural state of the world, He had you in mind.

He’s been thinking of you the entire time. The whole cosmic, human, and providential thing has been structured so that you can be happy with Him in heaven forever.

This is a world that has been tailored to your specifications.

He knew about you all along and has put you where you have the greatest potential to shine, to give glory to Him and draw close to Him and merit His congratulations when it’s all over.

That means that you can do this! You’ve got what it takes. You can be a saint. You can make the most out of this world. Because this world was made with you in mind.

four

Scripture in particular was written with you in mind

Another point to consider: God only wrote one book, and while He was writing it through the inspired human authors, He was thinking of you. He’s always been thinking of you. He always knows everything, all the time.

He knew which parts of the Bible you would read, and when you’d read them. He knew which truths, and which insights you would be able to find in those pages. He put that truth in there for you to find it.

Scripture was written for you, it was written to you. It was written for your benefit, with you in mind.

Any truth you find there God specifically put for you to find there.

So open that book up. It’s not just a message for humanity in general.

God is the author of all of Scripture, and God knows everything, all the time.

He wrote this book with messages for you in particular.

So read and discover not only the message that the Bible contains for the whole human race, but also go and discover the insights and the emphases that your Heavenly Father wants you to receive today.

five

God knows you’re worth it

Because God is omniscient, it means He doesn’t make any mistakes.

There’s no way for someone who knows everything to discover later on that He made a blunder and so there’s no way God can ever have any regrets.

Now that means that all the people who screw things up horribly in the course of their lives (and that means you too, of course), well, God knew you would screw things up like that. He knew you’d do all those awful things before He made you. And yet He made you anyway. And He can’t make mistakes.

So what does that mean?

It can only mean one thing.

God knew that you were worth it. Despite everything you’ve done wrong, you are worth it. Despite everything, God thought His world would be better with you in it and He’s never wrong.

You make the world a better place. That’s why you’re here. And that goes for everyone else too.

God’s perfect knowledge doesn’t take away your freedom, and it doesn’t take away your ability to misuse your freedom. But God’s perfect knowledge means you can be sure that whatever misuses you’ve made of your freedom, you are a net gain to this world. And that’s a beautiful thing to know.