Does God Know the Future?

Author:

Hank Hanegraaff

Article ID:

JAG142

Updated: 

Apr 13, 2023

Published:

Jun 11, 2009

This article first appeared in the Ask Hank column of the Christian Research Journal, volume31, number3 (2008). For further information or to subscribe to the Christian Research Journal go to: http://www.equip.org

“Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please” (Isa.46:9–10).2

A significant contingency in Christianity—open theists—are currently communicating that God does not have perfect knowledge of the future. How do we respond to this crisis within Christianity?

First, the Bible from beginning to end demonstrates the omniscience of God. In the words of Isaiah, God knows “the end from the beginning” (Isa.46:10). As such, God’s knowledge is exhaustive, including even those things yet future (cf. Job37:16; Ps.139:1–6;147:5; Heb.4:12–13).

Furthermore, if God’s knowledge of the future is fallible, biblical predictions that depend on human agency might well have turned out wrong. Even Jesus’ predictions in the Olivet Discourse could have failed, thus undermining His claim to deity. God Himself could have failed the biblical test for a prophet (Deut.18:22). Indeed, if God’s knowledge of the future is incomplete, we would be foolish to trust Him to answer our prayers, thus negating the “confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him” (1John5:14–15).

Finally, while open theists suggest that God cannot know the future exhaustively because He changes His plans as a result of what people do, in reality it is not God who changes, but people who change in relationship to God. By way of analogy, if you walk into a headwind, you struggle against the wind; if you make a u–turn on the road, the wind is at your back. It is not the wind that has changed, but you have changed in relationship to the wind. As such, God’s promise to destroy Nineveh was not aborted because He did not know the future but because the Ninevites, who had walked in opposition to God, turned from walking in their wicked ways. Indeed, all of God’s promises to bless or to judge must be understood in light of the condition that God withholds blessing on account of disobedience and withholds judgment on account of repentance (Ezek.18; Jer.18:7–10).3

— Hank Hanegraaff

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