Foreknowledge?

[buggy]

I have never been closely engaged by others in talking about Calvinism but here's my first one.

Here's an interesting conversation started by a Wesleyan-Arminian friend of mine and his understanding of foreknowledge, free-will etc.

His understanding is that repentance and faith cannot be classified as works; that God foreknows, but does not always intervene, and he bases these as his arguments why free-will makes common sense: if God does not intervene in everything; shouldn't Man be personally responsible for repentance and faith?

One of his broad-evangelical friends asked him as well: If God knows everything beforehand, why does He allows "free-will"?

How can his arguments be answered? Thank you!

 

[Andres]

you might also explain to your friend that you're not a deist as he seems to be since he says God does not intervene in everything. An impersonal, uninvolved God is not the God of the scriptures.

 

[MLCOPE2]

if God does not intervene in everything; shouldn't Man be personally responsible for repentance and faith?

Man is personally responsible for repentance and faith. The problem is that man is unable to do so until they have been quickened by the Spirit of God and regenerated. Then man is able to exercise faith and repentance. Though they are unable the unregenerate are commanded to obey the gospel as well. Inability does not negate responsibility.

 

[billy.leonhart]

Ask your friend if men are held responsible for not responding with repentance and faith. If not responding to the gospel in repentance and faith is sin, then responding to it with repentance and faith involves works / deeds. If these works are accomplished before the regeneration of the Spirit, then it is something that is intrinsic in men, and thus they are saved by their own works. However, if the Spirit regenerates man in order that he may then repent and place his faith in Christ, these works are as a result of God's sovereign work, and not in accordance with his own merit.

Billy
SBC
Texas

 

[Herald]

LTL, God's foreknowledge is often associated with His sovereign will of decree. This is in keeping with what Josh said earlier. The word itself, prognosis, does mean to know beforehand. But if you look at passages such as Acts 2:23 and Romans 8:29, 30 you will notice that God's foreknowledge is intricately linked to his divine plan, and this plan has existed since eternity past. That's a comforting thing to know, that's God's plan has always existed and no act of man can thwart it.

 

[Iconoclast]

This is taken from A Baptist Catechism...with Commentary, by W.R.Downing

There are two possible bases or foundations for Divine election: foreseen
faith based on a bare foreknowledge [prescience], or a covenant love
grounded in the Divine prerogative and expressed in free and sovereign grace.
The Scriptures reveal that the ultimate cause of Divine election rests in the
depths of Divine love and prerogative. God is never moved or motivated
externally to himself. He is ever motivated from within his own self–
consistency. Should he be mutable due to external causes, he would cease to
be God, and be relative to his creation and subject to some nebulous, external
absolute force such as chance or some impersonal fatalistic principle. The
Scriptures reveal that the Divine choice of sinners to salvation rests in God
alone. This is for the assurance and encouragement of the believer in his
present experience—that he might be assured of the certain and infallible
nature of his salvation, especially in the context of present trials and
opposition (Deut. 4:37; 7:6–7; 10:14–15; Eph. 1:4–5; Rom. 8:28–39; 9:13–
14; 11:33–36).
What of foreknowledge? Divine election based on foreseen faith would be
election by mere foreknowledge [prescience]. The biblical usage must
determine the exact significance of the term. What is the biblical teaching
concerning the foreknowledge of God? Foreknowledge is not synonymous
with omniscience. It is concerned, not with contingency, but with certainty
(Acts 2:23; 15:18; Rom. 8:29–30), and thus implies a knowledge of what has
been rendered certain. Acts 2:23 would make foreknowledge dependent upon
God’s “determinate counsel” by the grammatical construction which
combines both together as one thought with “foreknowledge” referring to and
enforcing the previous term. Foreknowledge is related to the Old Testament
term “to know,” implying an intimate knowledge of and relation to its object
(Cf. Gen. 4:1; Amos 3:2). The passages in the New Testament (Rom. 8:29;
11:2; 1 Pet. 1:2) all speak of persons who are foreknown, implying much
more than mere prescience or omniscience—a relationship that is absolutely
certain, personal and intimate. The only example of things being foreknown is
clearly based on Divine determination (Acts 15:18).
Because Divine election or foreordination to eternal life is grounded in the
immutable character of God, it is infallible. Were it based upon foreseen faith,
mere prescience, or human ability, it would remain fallible and mutable.
Because of its infallible and immutable character, Divine election or
foreordination to eternal life is the source of the greatest comfort,
125
encouragement and perseverance to the believer. This is exactly the way in
which and the reason why this truth is revealed in Scripture! Note especially
the great and glorious statement of the Apostle in Romans 8:28–39. Under
inspiration, he puts this truth in the context of the present promise (v. 28), the
eternal redemptive purpose (v. 29–34), the very worst that believers can
experience (v. 35–36), the redemptive, covenant love of the Lord Jesus Christ
(v. 37) and the infallibility of the Covenant of Grace (v. 38–39

 

[Christusregnat]

Foreknowledge implies fixity. In other words, if we grant that God's foreknowledge is mere knowledge of facts, those facts must be certain to be known, otherwise, it would be foreconjecture, not foreknowledge.

What makes this knowledge fixed? This is what we call predestination.

Cheers,

 

[teddyrux]

His understanding is that repentance and faith cannot be classified as works; that God foreknows, but does not always intervene,

One of his broad-evangelical friends asked him as well: If God knows everything beforehand, why does He allows "free-will"?

Thayer defines, proginōskō, as:
1) to have knowledge before hand
2) to foreknow
2a) of those whom God elected to salvation
3) to predestinate

This is the Greek word used by Paul in Romans 8:29.

If your friend is a Christian, according to Paul, God preordained that he would have faith and be conformed to the image of Christ. This is God's sovereignty. God called him. This does not exclude man's responsibility that Paul details a few chapters earlier in Romans.