The argument has been presented by the most eminent theologians that God literally knows all of the future. This idea was further refined into the concept of Predestination, which means that God has predetermined everything that occurs. Among the advocates of this view, it is considered proper to believe that God knew of the evil, which the world has known since the fall of Adam, from before the time of creation. They also consider that God, while knowing of the evil that would result from creation, nevertheless, formulated a plan to counteract it before anything was created!

Aside from attributing the initial cause of evil to God, rather than to his adversaries, the proponents of this view have credited God with a characteristic that stands in conflict with his attributes as they are presented in scripture. God's attributes, according the Bible, are, justice, power, love, and wisdom; these are represented, respectively, by the four living creatures, which surround his symbolic throne. The text in Revelation provides a description in symbolic terms:

Additionally, other texts can be cited to explain the symbolic meaning of the four living creatures. The lion is presented first and denotes God's courageous pursuit of justice. (Proverbs 19:12; 20:2; 28:1; 30:30; Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalms 89:14; Jeremiah 25:38) The bull represents God's power. (Job 21:10; 39:11; Proverbs 14:4; Psalm 62:11; Isaiah 40:26) The third creature, with the face of a man, symbolizes God's love as only man was created in the image of God. (Genesis 1:26-28; Matthew 22:36-40; 1 John 4:8, 16) The eagle represents God's superior wisdom. (Job 39:27-29; Proverbs 2:6; James 3:17) Ezekiel, in his vision, saw four living creatures with these same qualities. - Ezekiel 1:5-10.

Moreover, all of God's attributes function in complete harmony. There is no imbalance among his judgments as is often found in sinful human judges. He deals with every situation exactly as it is. And his vision is not flawed since he sees exactly what is in the hearts of men. All his ways are perfect and without flaw. For this reason Moses could say:

The idea that God caused evil by creating the first human pair, while knowing beforehand that they would sin, certainty undermines his quality of justice. It was not God who led Adam and Eve into sin. Satan introduced that course of action when he chose to rebel against God's sovereignty. (Genesis 3:1-7) Initially, Satan was created without flaw, and there was no sin in him. The text in Ezekiel explains exactly what happened:

Scripture teaches that unrighteousness was not created in Satan; rather, it was found in him at the time of his transgression. When Satan told the first lie to Eve he became the father of the lie. The lie was his conception and not God's. Jesus made reference to this fact in his discourse to the Jews of his day:

Consequently, Satan abused his free will when he lied to Adam and Eve. And Adam and Eve choose, of their own free will, to disobey God and join the rebellion initiated by Satan. There is nothing in scripture to indicate that God knew beforehand what course of action his intelligent creatures would take in response to his stated command. There is nothing to support the claim that God caused the evil that occurred.

Moreover, God had warned Adam of the consequences for disobedience before he sinned. Prior to his sin Adam had existed in the perfect image of God, and just as God had the ability to will, so too, he endowed Adam with the ability to will. Adam's will, however, was not absolute like that of God's. Adam was not to abuse his ability to will by taking a course in opposition to the absolute will of God, which was expressed in his command concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Although Adam was created in the image of God, he was by no means equal to God. Adam's existence was dependent on his subjection to the will of God. Thus, Adam had the opportunity to express his love for God by obeying his commands, while God expressed his love for Adam by providing him with the necessary direction contained in his commands, which would have ensured his continued existence and happiness.

The relationship between God and his intelligent creatures was based on faith and trust. Had God predetermined that Adam would sin, then no element of faith or trust could have existed. They would have been mere robots, devoid of the ability to will. They could not have freely chosen for themselves to demonstrate their love for God by their obedience to his commands. Had predestination been a reality then God could never have hoped that Adam would love him. Predestination would have meant that Adam did not have the ability to express his love for God since all of his actions would have been preprogrammed. It would have also meant that God, too, would have been a preprogrammed being since Adam was created in the image of God.

In the Bible the word know is often used with the sense of experience. Moses, in speaking of Adam's sexual relations with Eve, stated that "the man knew Eve his wife." (Genesis 4:1) Thus, he had an experience with her. Later, God warned the nation of Israel not to seek out gods with whom they had not known; i.e., had had no experience. (Deuteronomy 11:28) This fact becomes more evident when more examples are cited.

When God had heard the cry of complaint about the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, no doubt by means of angels, he stated:

Thus, it is easy to see that God had not taken notice of the degree of the sin that had occurred in those cities. This is not to say that God did not know that people were living in those cities; rather, it means that he had not inspected them at the time when their sin had became notorious. For this reason he undertook to make an inspection so as to know or experience whether or not the report was correct.

Additionally, after God had put Abraham to the test, in order to determine whether or not he would prove faithful, God sent an angel to inform him that he knew or had experienced that Abraham had proved faithful.

It would have been no test at all had Abraham been preprogrammed to do as God had told him to do. And had God known the outcome ahead of time how could he say, "For now I know that thou fearest God?" Of Abraham the scriptures relate that "God had found his heart faithful." (Nehemiah 9:8) The idea that to know means to experience is also found in the New Testament. - Galatians 4:9.

Since it is not possible to support the doctrine of predestination, how then can the prophetic texts proclaiming future events be explained? In an effort to answer this question, Jonah's prophecy, concerning the account of Nineveh's sin, provides valuable information about how God dealt with that nation without predetermining the outcome of events.

As in the case with Sodom and Gomorrah, Nineveh's wickedness had "come up before" God. (Jonah 1:2) He had, by some means, become fully aware of the severity of the wickedness that was perpetrated by the Ninevites. The king of Nineveh, himself, had acknowledged the reality of evil and violence in that city. (Jonah 3:8) After his initial delay, Jonah, upon entering the city began to prophesy of its destruction by proclaiming, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." (Jonah 3:4) The most poignant verse in the entire book reads, "And the people of Nineveh believed God;" (Jonah 3:5) This means that they, like God, had considered the reality of the situation at hand, and they believed that God was about to do exactly as Jonah had declared.

Understanding that their destruction was imminent, the Ninevites, including their king, took the following action:

This action, taken by the entire populous, demonstrated their regret for their error. It was their hope that God would notice their change of heart, and not do to them as he had promised. This general attitude was expressed by the king when he said, "Who knoweth whether God will not turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?" (Jonah 3:9) From this it can be concluded that God had continued to allow them to exercise their free will during the forty-day period. Had he predetermined their destruction they could not have turned aside from their evil ways. Had he predetermined their repentance then they could not have expressed hope that God would change his mind as a consequence of their repentance.

Nevertheless, God did take notice of their repentance. And for this reason he changed his mind; something that he could not have done as a consequence of their repentance had he predetermined to reverse his initial declaration prior to their change of heart. The prophet Jonah expresses this in a wonderful way:

Although Jonah was displeased at the outcome of the situation, he did accurately describe the nature of God by saying that he was gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and one who repents of evil. (Jonah 4:1-2) Jonah had learned these things about God from the writings of Moses, who wrote, not his own opinion of God, but of what God had said about himself:

If God were a being who knows or experiences future events before they occur it would not be possible for him to change his mind, or repent from his anger, and forgive transgressions when sinners turn from the ways of their fathers. God does not punish the children for the sins of their fathers; rather, he punishes the children who take up and persist in the ways of their fathers. (1 Kings 14:22; 2 Kings 15:9; Nehemiah 9:2; Daniel 9:16; Ezekiel 18:1-32) If God had predetermined for sons to take up the evil ways of their fathers than they could not, of their own free will, repent from that evil because God would have predetermined it.

Nevertheless, we ought to note that although God pardons the wicked when they repent, his patience does, however, have its limitations. Consider the case of the Amorites, a severely wicked people, whom God spoke of to Abraham:

God had taken notice of the severity of the wickedness practiced by the Amorites, whose practices included, adultery, incest, homosexuality, and bestiality; he recognized that the inclination of their hearts was bent toward evil to such a degree that repentance was not possible. Thus, there is a condition of the heart from which no repentance is possible, and it is this condition that leads to what God views as the completion of error, for which capital punishment must be forthcoming. Such was the condition of the earth at the time of the flood:

Nevertheless, we ought not to conclude that God did not attempt to distinguish between those worthy of capital punished and those born in sin who had expressed genuine concern over the wickedness, which had developed around them. For this reason God spared Noah and his family because God saw that Noah was righteous when compared with his contemporaries. (Genesis 7:1) Thus, it can rightly be concluded that God provides a means of deliverance for those who seek to do his will when he visits punishment upon the wicked. Such was the case in the days of the kingdom of Judah, which had degenerated further and further into wickedness during the forty-year period of Jeremiah's prophesying of impending doom. Early in the reign of Jehoiakim God began to separate the incorrigibly wicked from those who sought to do his will:

Moreover, God had sent those whom he favored (the good figs) off as captives to Babylon, and he had kept those whom he regarded as totally wicked (the bad figs) in the land of Judah, so that they might suffer destruction when the Chaldeans returned during the reign of wicked king Zedekiah. After the exile in Babylon God allowed his people to return to their land; however, he did not allow them to have a king. The period of the sinful kings had ended, and it was well established that God did not want a sinful king representing him. (Ezekiel 43:7-9) This idea did not originate with God. - 1 Samuel 8:4-22; 12:16-25.

Some thirty five hundred years had passed since God had promised to send the seed that would bruise Satan in the head and lay the foundation for God's righteous rule to begin again as it had existed in Eden. (Genesis 3:15; 22:18) However, the time for the coming of the seed remained some five hundred years away. (Daniel 9:24-27) And the people continued to break God's laws and engage in acts of wickedness. (Malachi 2:1-17) When the seed did arrive the time for judgement was set. (Malachi 3:1-6) Thus, after four thousand years God had not changed his standards, and his people were ready to be harvested. The wicked were marked for destruction at the hand of the Roman armies, and the righteous were marked for deliverance in accordance with their obedience to the word's of the promised seed, Jesus Christ, who had given his disciples the following command:

The Roman armies first surrounded Jerusalem under Cestius Gallus in 66 CE. But their stay was brief, and they withdrew for no apparent reason. Some of the Jews then followed them all the way to Antipatris, attacking and killing over five thousand Roman soldiers as they fled. It was during this time that the Christians fled Jerusalem for the city of Pella. While the Christians fled, the Jews were preparing themselves for war with the Romans. This marked the beginning of the tribulation prophesied by Jesus in Matthew 24:15-20, Mark 13:14-17, and Luke 21:20, 21.

When Nero learned of the losses he had incurred at the hands of the Jews he ordered Vespasian to gather forces from Syria and Alexandria for an assault against the Jews. Vespasian marched into Galilee and fortified all the strategic locations around Jerusalem, taking several cities on the way. During this time many of the Jews stayed within Jerusalem, as much of the land had been subdued by the Romans. There was also a great deal of internal strife within the city itself. As Vespasian was preparing to attack Jerusalem he learned of the death of Nero. He then ordered that the attack be delayed while he saw to the affairs of the empire. There was also a great deal of turmoil within the empire at this time, due to the deaths of three emperors between the years 68-69 CE. While Vespasian went to Rome to secure his position as emperor he ordered his son, Titus, to march on Jerusalem. The coming of Titus to take Jerusalem marked the beginning of the fulfillment of Matthew 24:21 - 30, Mark 13:18 - 26 and Luke 21:22-27.

The Jews were celebrating the Passover when Titus laid siege to the city. The siege had lasted less than five months, during which time there was great distress within the city. The figurative language, used by Christ, "the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken," describes the destruction of the city and the temple, and with their demise came the end of the Jewish system of that age. - Matthew 24:29.

Josephus records that during the siege 1,100,000 died and 97,000 were taken as captives at the end. Thus, the days were "cut short" or else the devastation would have continued throughout all the land and no flesh would have been saved. All these things came upon that generation. (Matthew 24:34; Mark 13:30; Luke 21:32) This was the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and those who had pierced him had seen his coming on the clouds. (Revelation 1:7) It was after these events that the work of gathering the elect of the Lord continued as was foretold. - Matthew 24:31; Mark 13:27.

In spite of these momentous events, which were foretold to come upon the Jewish system of that era, there is nothing to indicate that God had predetermined who would be saved and who would be spared. The individuals who escaped the destruction did so as a result of their obedience to Christ's command. God did not know who would be saved or who would be destroyed until the time of judgement had arrived. The judgment upon the wicked was the result of their own refusal to repent before the coming of the day of Yahweh. The wicked had exercised their free will in opposition to God to the point where they had put his own Son to death; and many of them had not repented before the day of judgment had come upon them in all of its fury.

The scriptures that prophetically speak of the elect or those called out by God, refer not to any predetermined individuals, but rather to those who were willing to receive the Son of God at the time of his appearance. Thus, God had faith that there would be those who would receive his Son, and he made positions available for those willing to accept him. The elect were those who elected to fill those positions by means of their faith in Jesus. These were the ones called out of the world when they believed in God's Son.

The phrase foundation of the world (Greek; katabolas kosmou), found in various texts in the New Testament, does not mean creation. The noun foundation comes from the Greek compound katabola. Kata forms the prefix to the basic noun form and implies downward motion. The noun form, bola, means cast, fall, or throw. The Greek word for world is kosmos, which is often used to refer to the world of mankind. (Matthew 4:8; 1 John 2:15-17) Thus, the expression means the casting down of the world of mankind. It refers to the casting down of seed when Adam and Eve began to produce offspring. It was prior to that time that God planned for the sacrifice of his Son when he pronounced judgment on Adam and Eve after they had sinned. In passing judgment on Satan, God said, "and you will bruise his heal." (Genesis 3:15) Thus, it was determined when Adam was judged and cast out that Jesus would be slain. This is why the Lamb is said to have been slain from the foundation of the world. (Matthew 13:35; 25:34; Luke 11:50; Hebrews 4:3; 9:26; 1 Peter 1:20; Revelation 13:8; 17:8) It must also be noted that at Luke 11:49-51 Jesus referred to "the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world" and links this statement with the expression "from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zechariah." Thus, Jesus linked Abel with "the foundation of the world."

The following text, from Ephesians, is often cited to support the view that God predetermined those who would and who would not be saved:

The compound Greek verb proorizo, here translated foreordanined, is formed from the stem horizo and the prefix pro. Pro means before, and horizo means mark out or set bounds. From this it can be properly understood that the verb is used, not to describe who are predestined, but what they are predestined to. The ones chosen are always predestined to salvation, or to adoption. Thus, from the time of Eden God had marked out for sonship those who would be chosen based on their acceptance of Jesus as the coming Messiah.

The following text from Romans is also used to support the idea of predestination:

The word foreknew comes form the Greek compound verb proegno. Pro forms the prefix to the stem and means before. The stem, egno, is the aorist form of the verb ginosko, which means know. Thus, God is said to have known before those whom he foreordained (proorizo), or marked out, to be conformed to the image of his Son. When God commanded Adam and Eve to "be fruitful and multiply" he viewed these ones whom he foreknew as existing in the loins of Adam. God, indeed, looked forward to having fellowship with them. Paul also speaks in this way when he speaks of Levi as existing in the loins of Abraham long before he was born. (Hebrews 7:9, 10) Thus, when God decreed that the promised seed would bruise Satan in the head, he foreknew those, whom he would call, and foreordained them to be conformed to the image of his Son. When they were called by Holy Spirit in response to their faith in Christ, they were justified and glorified in him. In this sense God had previous knowledge or foreknew individuals prior to their manifestation in Christ and called them according to his purpose.

A similar statement indicating what it means for God to foreknow something or someone is found in the book of Jeremiah:

The verb "knew" comes from the Hebrew yadah, which has various shades of meaning. Primarily it is used to denote knowledge of someone or something (Genesis 12:11; 22:12); often in the sense of having an experience (Joshua 23:14); sometimes to define carnal relations (Genesis 19:5; Judges 19:22); it can mean discriminate, or distinguish (2 Samuel 19:35 Jonah 4:11); it can also mean to be acquainted with. - Genesis 29:5.

Thus, when God told Jeremiah that he knew him before he was formed in the belly, he distinguished him from his contemporaries, and related to him that he had already, in his mind, determined what his course of action would be in regard to his work as a prophet. It was God's purpose that Jeremiah would perform his role as a prophet according to what God had predetermined for him. This does not mean that God had experienced, in an external sense, the work of Jeremiah before it began; rather, it means that God had envisioned it in his mind and made it known to Jeremiah.

Moreover, David used the word know in a similar way when he lamented over the priests, whom Doeg had killed in the city of Nob:

Thus, the word know is often used when the speaker desires to relate what he considers certain to become reality. It is also important to note that although God gives everyone free will, and he does not predetermine who will be saved and who will be lost, he, nevertheless, does interpose in the affairs of men so as to accomplish his purposes. God made this point very clear in his dealings with Pharaoh of Egypt. - Exodus 9:15, 16.

The foremost example of a person doing the will of God, rather than his own will, can be seen in the execution of Jesus Christ. In his hour of trial he prayed to God:

At the time of his arrest Jesus said:

Jesus knew the course that God had predetermined for him. He followed that course willingly, even to the point of death. Nevertheless, it can be said that God knew him and loved him before he came to the earth. (John 10:17) God had confidence, trust, and faith in him, that he would fulfill the task that was set before him from the time of the fall of man in the garden of Eden.

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