Did God's Foreknowledge Determine His Choice in Election?

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Dear Fellow Travelers,
I received the following email from someone, who is obviously encouraged by these recent perspectives; I think you will appreciate it: That God would have the foreknowledge to know what this old woman would be and do and become; what she has been and is and will be, and, yet, still loves me so much that he would not only choose even me, but also accomplish what He did on that cross to cancel out all those sins that would have kept me separated from Him forever, is so totally amazing to me. These truths give me the awareness of humility I wish I had known, or at least wanted to know , before it all began. Tell us more— CC
The “tell us more” part is the challenge, so let me be on with it. I realize that most Christians believe, strongly believe!, that God’s foreknowledge DID determine His choice in election. In other words, God looked down the corridors of time and saw something “good” in some of us, namely, that we exercised our “free will” and accepted His offer of salvation, and, thus, He chose us, i.e. He chose those He foreknew would choose Him. Sometimes (most of the time), it is not a good idea to accept something as truth simply because most people believe it is truth. I might add, from what I have been able to see, many of those, who accept this position, do so based on some inner feeling, rather than on objective truth.
Contrary to popular opinion, I am persuaded that God’s foreknowledge did NOT determine His choice in election, and the reasons are many, not the least of which is that by virtue of the fact that God is God, His choices are not contingent upon anything, certainly not our decisions. To say that God’s decision to choose me was contingent upon my decision to choose Him, forever excludes me from salvation, because I would never have chosen Him, apart from His having first chosen me and given me His life. In other words, my choosing Him can come ONLY after regeneration, not before. I am born again, so I can believe, not the other way around! Yes, I am familiar with the answer Paul and Silas gave to the Philippian jailer in response to his question, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”. This is a direct quote: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, and your household” (Acts 16:31; NASB). Admittedly, this seems to contradict what I just said; however, it does not. Obviously, one must believe on the Lord Jesus in order to be saved [“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8)], but do NOT put the cart before the horse. One cannot believe on his own; in fact, he doesn’t even want to believe, until “by grace through faith” He is given the life of Christ. You see, salvation has to do with what God has done, NOT what we have done. We really do need to get over ourselves! You think about this, and I will continue on the morrow—