by Ken Green<\/p>\n
A Reformed (Calvinist) scholar wrote: \u201cThe Scriptures clearly teach that long before we pray, God already knows everything and that He has already determined what He is going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s true that God is omniscient and absolutely sovereign over all things. To think that we can give God new information or convince Him to do something that He hasn\u2019t thought of is the height of arrogance. But if we\u2019re not careful, we\u2019ll abuse these wondrous truths about God by never pouring our hearts out to Him in prayer.<\/p>\n
As one of my grandchildren once prayed: \u2018God, you already know everything. So, just take care of it all.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Personally, I can find no fault in the logic of that child. Reformed theology is Christian fatalism. The scholar says \u201cThe Scriptures teach that long before we pray\u201d (he means, from all eternity, before we were born, before the heavens and earth were created) \u201cGod already knows everything and has already determined what He is going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t believe the Scriptures teach this. What the Scriptures teach is that God doesn\u2019t change, but His plans are not always fixed. The future is flexible depending on our freewill choices. There are a number of examples in the Bible of God obviously changing His plans.<\/p>\n
In some matters, God has purposed and revealed that something will happen. He has absolutely predestined or foreordained that this will be done. In such cases, He knows it will be done. Why does He know this? Does He know because He looks into the future and sees it happening? No. He knows it because He is faithful to do what He promises. And not only is He faithful, but He is able to do it. He\u2019s going to be around in a hundred or a thousand or ten thousand years to bring it to pass.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, \u2018My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure<\/em>\u2019\u201c (Isaiah 46:9-10).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
What most non-Reformed folks cannot seem to grasp is that their theology of God\u2019s absolute foreknowledge is as fatalistic and unscriptural as the Calvinistic theology of absolute predestination. If, as the grandchild said, \u201cGod already knows everything\u201d and as the scholar said, \u201cHe has already determined what He will do\u201d then, it makes perfect sense to say, \u201cJust take care of it all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Ken Green A Reformed (Calvinist) scholar wrote: \u201cThe Scriptures clearly teach that long before we pray, God already knows everything and that He has already determined what He is going to do.\u201d It\u2019s true that God is omniscient and absolutely sovereign over all things. To think that we can give God new information or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[866,562,889],"class_list":["post-8196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-foreknowledge","tag-predestination","tag-reformed-church"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":53774,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-tale-of-two-gods\/","url_meta":{"origin":8196,"position":0},"title":"A Tale of Two Gods","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"How Calvinism's God and the Bible's God are Two Very Different God's by Ben Giselbach One very popular denominational preacher and writer, John Piper, is famous for saying that \"all things\" - even down to the subatomic level - \"are ordained, guided, and governed\" by God.\u00a0[1]\u00a0The idea that God determines\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34040,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-american-dutch-reformed-chinese\/","url_meta":{"origin":8196,"position":1},"title":"The American Dutch Reformed Chinese","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 11, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ed Harrell Vanguard (Volume 5 No. 6), March 22, 1979, p. 339 Can you interpret that? 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