When speaking of God's knowledge of the future, many use the following model:
God knows the past, present and future. With respect to the future, God looks down the road of the future and can therefore see all that will happen. I have a serious problem with this conclusion. My problem is as follows:
1. God's knowledge of the future is founded and based upon his having planned the future. Why is this so? The reason this is true is because, unless God has first planned the future, there can be no future, there can be nothing for God to see in the future. Where did the future and what is in the future come from, if God did not put it there? God does not see and learn. God does not gain knowledge. Nothing exists in the past, present or future unless God has planned and created it to be there.
2. Those who hold the view as stated above, "God knows the past, present and future. With respect to the future, God looks down the road of the future and can therefore see all that will happen", fail to grasp a very important truth about the character of God. The view they hold separates God from the future. This view does not understand the implications of God omnipresence, omniscience and immensity. That is, God is everywhere, all the time, fully and completely. God is so in touch with what he has created it would be difficult to identify where God ends, and his creation begins, to the extent it is impossible to draw the line. Once a line is drawn saying on this side is God and on the other side is creation, that other side would be where God is not. God is present with his creation more than water is present with a fish or air is present with us. Distinguishing between God and creation is impossible for us.
3. The issue is not, "Does God know the future?" The true issue is, since God has planned the future and therefore knows the future, how do we make sense of this in trying to understand the sovereignty of God and our freewill and God having created and planned everything and us being or not being puppets in a fatalistic or deterministic world?
