Thanksgiving is a great holiday, but one that throws off my schedule in a myriad number of ways!  Before the holiday, I spoke with a co-worker about my previous blog entry about free will.  In that post, I raised a question about if it were even possible for God, in the Arminian system, to create a being with free will who would not sin.

Unfortunately, the holiday kept me from actually writing on that until now!  And since we’ll most certainly be doing overtime at work to make up for all the work we missed over the holiday weekend, I figured I’d better get this in before work :-)

In any case, to offer a clarification of my position and to restate it in a way that will hopefully make a bit more sense.  Unfortunately, it is impossible to write 100% clearly on the issue since we are going to have to discuss the issue of what “before” means to a timeless Being.   In other words, when Ephesians 1:4 says, “…even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world…” we have to understand what the “before” means.

I will delve into that more in the future (unless I go completely insane with all the overtime).  For now, I will just mention that my belief is that the “before” mentioned in Ephesians 1 refers not to time but to a logical order.  We can view that as the logical order of the decrees of God.  Because God is timeless, there is no “before” or “after” inherent in Him; yet He is also aware of the passage of time in His creation.  That is, God knows that yesterday happened before today, even though he doesn’t experience time in the sense that we do.  God knows that He created the world before the world fell, but this knowledge is not experientially gained as it is in our case.  (In other words, we know the passage of time because we experience it; God knows it because He decreed it.)

Thus, we can look at the order of the decrees of God.  By this, we are speaking of a logical order not a temporal order.  When we look at Ephesians 1 again, we see that before the foundation of the world, God had already decreed that there were certain people (the Elect) who were chosen in Him unto salvation.  Regardless of whether we hold to the “foundation of the world” as being temporal (that is, the actual creation and starting point of time) or the decree that there would be creation, the logical order is still the same: Election precedes creation.

After all, what the decree that occurs before the foundation of the world says is: “he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.”  Thus, at the very least what we see is that in the logical order of things God has decreed:

A. There would be some who must be holy and blameless before him.

B. Then God created those very people.

As we move to Revelation 13:8, we see the same theme.  To see the relevant portion in a few versions:

everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain. (ESV)

whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.  (KJV)

all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world (NIV)

everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. (NASB)

As you can see, the Greek refers to either Christ’s being slain before the foundation of the world, or else there are certain people whose names have been written in the book of life before the foundation of the world.  Ultimately, both of these are taught in Scripture.  Once again, we see that before the actual creation of the world, God had logically decreed certain things to occur; namely, that there would be some who are saved.

This is epitomized in 1 Peter 1:20, which says of Christ: “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for your sake.”  This passage is especially fruitful for our discussion because it speaks about God’s eternality (in having Christ foreknown before the foundation of the world) yet also about His acting within time (in having Him become “manifest in the last times”).  Thus, we see Scriptural warrant for the previously mentioned idea that God is atemporal and yet still knows what goes on within time.

Now, all these things culminate to show something specific as relates to the act of Creation.  Before God created anything, He already had in mind both that there would be a savior and that there would be some who are saved.  But in order to save anyone, there must be a reason for the salvation.

This is key to the discussion with the Arminian.  We know that when God created Adam in the Garden, Adam was created good.  Yet these passages also indicate that despite the fact that Adam had been created good, God had already decreed that there would be sinners and that He would save some.

The Arminian seeks refuge in the foreknowledge of God.  He might even take comfort from the passage in 1 Peter which specifically uses that term of Christ.  However, what the Arminian gains in “warm fuzzy feelings” he loses in the matter of consistency.  For if it is the case that God foreknew that Adam would sin, then the question must be: Why did God create Adam?

In other words, even if we suppose that God’s decree was based on God’s foreknowledge this doesn’t solve anything for the Arminian.  God created Adam knowing full well that Adam would sin.  God decreed that He would save some through the death of Christ, but at the point of Creation Adam could not have done anything but fall because God had already decreed it.

In other words, the Arminian cannot rescue freedom here.  Adam was just as bound to sin as he is for the Calvinist, because God’s plan at the point of creation included Adam’s fall.

This brought us to the point I made in the previous post that my co-worker asked for clarification on.  The Roman Catholic I spoke with last week argued that God’s primary goal was to create actually free creatures (as argued above, this still doesn’t work even granting Arminians their entire presupposition).  But let us throw a wrench into the system.

God’s omniscience includes not only all actual events, but all potential events too.  A quick Biblical proof of this is found in the condemnation of Chorazin and Bethsaida in Matthew 11:21: “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.”  Thus, Christ knew not only the actual events (that Tyre and Sidon had not repented) but the possibilities too (that if the works done in Chorazin and Bethsaida had been done there, they would have repented).  So we know that God knows the possibiles and not just the actuals.

This brings me to my question.  If God knows all possible actions that Adam could have done, then either God intentionally did not choose the universe or universes in which Adam did obey Him, or else there were no such universes in which that could have happened.

Naturally, this gets a little sticky for us since we only live in the “actual” universe and not in potential or possible ones.  But if God’s decree is based on His foreknowledge, as the Arminian declares, then God is free to act before the fact to ensure which possibility occurs.  Consider, for example, if you foreknew what tomorrow’s lottery numbers would be.  You could then act in such a way that you will win the lottery, if that is what you desire; or you can act in a manner in which you will not win.  This is completely up to you to do.  All you have to do is choose which path you want.

In any case, the Arminian is stuck with a huge problem.  Either God is too incompetant to create a man who can freely choose to obey Him, or else God intentionally chose to create a universe in which sinful man would of necessity exist.  The only way to avoid this dilemma is to either accept Open Theism (in believing that God cannot see a free choice, and thus one denies His omniscience) or else to accept Calvinism (that God sovereignly decreed what would happen).

Given the numerous Biblical passages that demonstrate both that God is in fact omniscient even over free choices, and the abundant Biblical evidence that God has in fact decreed whatsoever comes to pass, we know that the Biblical response is Calvinism, not Open Theism.

UPDATE:  By the way, I would also add this point.  When the Arminian speaks of God’s foreknowledge, he speaks of it as if it would be a one-shot event for God.  That is, God is “trapped” by what He knows will happen. 

It’s like God knows the outcome of what would happen if He rolls a pair of dice, but is powerless to change that outcome.  He has freedom to roll the dice, but not freedom to determine how they’ll land.  And if they land poorly, He can’t just pick them up and re-do it.  He’s stuck with the result. 

In other words, God knows the future but is powerless to change anything about it.

Ultimately, this relies on a misunderstanding of how God knows something.  We, as humans, deal with odds and probabilities.  There is a chance of something happening.  God doesn’t deal with chance though.

Going back to the dice metaphor; God created the dice.  He designed them in the first place.  The laws of physics are based on His very nature and the way He designed the universe.  If God drops the dice, He’ll know exactly what needs to occur for them to come up in a specific way.  In short, God can’t help but determine the outcome.  His foreknowledge is based on His determination of what will happen.  He knows because He decrees.

God cannot “learn” anything.  He cannot gain knowledge.  He cannot be surprised.  This is only possible if there is no such thing as chance for God.  There can only be chance if there is ignorance.  If there is no chance, there must be determination.