God’s glory in foreknowledge

Note, we have been discussing the logical order of salvation in God’s mind. So, when stating that God condemns people only after their evil actions and not before the foundations of the world of actions, this should not be imagined as God waiting patiently in time to see actual evil play out on our human timeline to then decree condemnation. In God’s mind, all of our timeline has already played out in an instant before our concept of time even began.

It is in that instantaneous sequence of events that God reveals He counsels and decrees some things before others. He chooses not to factor in some of His limitless foreknowledge while He elects some, in not considering any good or evil He already foreknows (and will eventually decree to permit or overrule) they will be doing. This is to make election absolutely impartial – His choosing some was not based on anything they do or are but solely on His Sovereignty.

Similarly, His decree to condemn the non-elect still happened before ‘in the beginning…’, but in God’s mind, it was after factoring in all the evil He foreknows they will be doing of their own will which He counsels to decree to permit or overrule.

God’s glory in predestining

Some stumble at the language in the above passages of describing God foreknowing human actions. They immediately protest – is God merely limited to being a passive observer, does He not have the power to predestine what He wills and have it happen irrespective of what man might be inclined to do? Should and can man’s self-determinism override God’s will?

By no means are these even implied. The language only reflects what God has revealed in places like 1Sam 13:13 – God would’ve established Saul’s kingdom over Israel forever if he had obeyed. If God had predestined Saul’s fall before Saul’s disobedience, why reveal an alternative? And why are God’s sovereign decrees on establishing the kingdom conditionally based on man’s actions?

God foreknows every part of the decision tree of every single human for all time. He simply at times chooses to form plans and purposes contingent upon some of man’s decisions. At other times, He chooses to assert His own will from the get-go. Note, the prior decrees of permitting man’s will are also God asserting His own will – just happens to factor in man’s own will too.

There is a misconception among some calvinists over God lacking glory if He somehow didn’t get to predestine all decision points before man has made any. What if it fit into God’s sovereign purposes to factor in human self-determinism? Should God be limited from doing so? All the calvinist needs is to see the sovereign purpose in allowing for human ‘freewill’.