Does God Really Know the Future?

A friend of mine called me on Thanksgiving to tell me about his father’s losing battle with Lou Gehrig’s disease. As we wrapped up our conversation, my friend quietly reflected: “All I can do now is pray for my dad; God knows exactly what’s going to happen.”

But is that true? Does God really know the future? Despite overwhelming biblical support of God’s exhaustive foreknowledge (see Isa. 42:8-9; 46:10-11, Heb. 4:13, Luke 12:6), a growing number of scholars are arguing that God has a good idea of what the future holds, but doesn’t know it for certain. Some even say that God couldn’t know the future because there is nothing yet to know. “As soon as [future] truths become available,” contends William Hasker, “God will be the first to know them!”

Hasker and others make such claims based, in part, on biblical statements like the one in Genesis 22:12. After watching Abraham raise the knife to sacrifice Isaac, God says, “Now I know that you fear God because you have not withheld from me your only son.”

But did God actually learn something about Abraham’s faith that he had previously not known? There are many reasons to conclude ‘no’, but let me (briefly) offer two:

1. Abraham had already clearly demonstrated the depth of his trust and loyalty to God before Isaac was even born. Paul tells us in Romans 4:18-19 that “against all hope” and “without weakening in faith”, Abraham believed God’s promise to give him and Sarah a son, even though he and his wife were far beyond normal child-bearing years. Did God need to see Abraham raise the knife in order to know of his faith? I don’t think so.

2. God knew what was going through Abraham’s mind during every step of his faith journey. Even the aforementioned scholars admit to God’s present knowledge of all things, including the most hidden intentions of every person, prompting Bruce Ware to ask rhetorically: “Is there any facet of Abraham’s inner thoughts, feelings, doubts, fears, hopes, dreams, musings, predispositions…or tendencies that God does not know absolutely, perfectly and certainly?” Clearly, God knew of Abraham’s faith well before the incident with Isaac.

Why, then, did God say, “I now know,” instead of, “I have always known?” The answer lies in a correct understanding of the immutability of God. Even though God’s essential character is unchangeable, it is fair to say that his emotions change with the unfolding of history.

Unlike us—when we experience emotion, we’re reacting to unforeseen events over which we have very little, if any, control—when God emotes, he responds to an event which he knew would happen and which he could have prevented had he so desired. Nevertheless, when God is said to be disappointed or saddened, these are real emotions that accompany his evaluation of what happens in history. It's kind of like this: even though I might work with my daughters in the planning out of every detail of their respective weddings (I'm using a far-fetched analogy), when the time comes that I actually officiate at their nuptials, I'll undoubtedly be moved to joy and tears.

So it is when God is said to be delighted or even “enlightened”. God rejoices when he experientially confirms what he planned. Thus, when God tells Abraham, “now I know you fear me,” it is not as though he actually discovered something previously unknown, but he is graciously offering us a divine commentary—and with great pleasure—on an event he knew about before the world was made.

So to my friend whose father is dying of ALS I say: “Yes! God knows what will happen to your father. And you can trust that in his infinite wisdom He is up to something beautiful—for his glory and your good!”