The Absolute Foreknowledge of God
Where Did the Theory of the
Exhaustive Foreknowledge of God Originate? The philosophical syllogism is
stated this way: God does not change. Any addition to knowledge would be
a change in knowledge. Therefore, God’s knowledge does not change. Since God’s
knowledge does not change. And the future brings new events for us. God knows
the future exhaustively.
Augustine on Absolute Foreknowledge
In The
City of God, Book XI, c.21, page 364, anticipating these motifs of
Calvinism, Augustine explained God’s Knowledge on the basis of immutability.
His premise was God does not change, and any addition to His knowledge would be
a change, therefore, God’s knowledge does not change:
For what else is to be understood by that
invariable refrain, “And God saw that it was good,” than the approval of the
work in its design, which is the wisdom of God? For certainly God did not in
the actual achievement of the work first learn that it was good, but, on the
contrary nothing would have been made had it not been first known by Him.
While, therefore, He sees that that is good which, had He not seen it before it
was made, would never have been made, it is plain that he is not discovering,
but teaching that it is good. Plato, indeed, was bold enough to say that , when
the universe was completed, God was, as it were, elated with joy. And Plato was
not so foolish as to mean by this that God was rendered more blessed by the
novelty of His creation; but he wished thus to indicate that the work now
completed met with its Maker’s approval, as it had while yet in design. It is
not as if the knowledge of God were of various kinds, knowing in different ways
things which as yet are not, things which are, and things which have been. For
not in our fashion does He look forward to what is future, quite different and
far and profoundly remote from our way of thinking. For he does not pass form
this to that by transition of thought, but beholds all things with absolute unchangeableness;
so that of those things which emerge in time, the future indeed, are not yet,
and the present are now, and the past no longer are; but all of these are by
Him comprehended in His stable and eternal presence. Neither does He see in one
fashion by the eye, in another by the mind, for He is not composed of mind and
body; nor does His present knowledge differ from that which it ever was or
shall be, for those variations of time, past, present, future, though they
alter our knowledge, do not affect His, “with whom is no variableness, neither
shadow of turning.” Neither is there any growth from thought to thought in the
conceptions of Him in whose spiritual vision all things which He knows are at
once embraced. For as without movement that time can measure, he Himself moves
all temporal things, so He knows all times with a knowledge that time cannot
measure. And therefore He saw that what He had made was good, when He saw that
it was good to make it. And when He saw it made, He had not on that account a
twofold nor any way increased knowledge of it; as if He had less knowledge
before He made what He saw. For certainly He would not be the perfect worker He
is, unless His knowledge were so perfect as to receive no addition from His
finished works.
Plotinus’s
thoughts on the subject are presented in: Plotinus III, Loeb Classical Library,
trans. by A.H. Armstrong, Ennead III, p.305, p. 154, p. 152, p. 156, p.
157
seeing all this one sees eternity in
seeing a life that abides in the same, and always has the all present to it,
not now this, and then again that, but all things at once, and not now some
things, and then again others, but a partless completion, as if they were all
together in a point, and had not yet begun to go out and flow into lines; it is
something which abides in the same in itself and does not change at all but is
always in the present, because nothing of it has passed away, nor again is
there anything to come into being, but that which it is, it is.
Necessarily there will be no “was” about
it, for what is there that was for it and has passed away? Nor any “will be,”
for what will be for it? So there remains for it only to be in its being just
what it is. That, then, which was not, and will not be, but is only, which has
being which is static by not changing to the “will be,” nor ever having
changed, this is eternity. The life, then, which belongs to that which exists
and is in being, all together and full, completely without extension or
interval, is that which we are looking for, eternity.
The unchangeableness or the immutability of God is the
foundation upon which Augustine developed his ideas of foreknowledge. Because
God’s knowledge does not change, the future must be foreknown by God also.
Interestingly, Augustine touched on another theme at the same time; the
intemporality of God. “For not in our fashion does he look forward to what is
future, nor at what is present, nor back upon what is past ; but in a manner
quite different and far and profoundly remote from our way of thinking. For He
does not pass from this to that by transition of thought, but beholds all
things with absolute unchangeableness; so that of those things which emerge in
time, the future, indeed, are not yet and the present are now, and the past no
longer are; but all of these are by comprehended in His stable and eternal
presence.” God is not affected by time therefore he must be out of time or
without time. In addition, Augustine viewed God as having no transition of
thought: “He does not pass from this or that by transition of thought. This
static conception of God forces God into a mold as much as it forces man into a
mold.
Augustine
assumed that everyone agreed that God knows all future events: “Nevertheless,
they are far more tolerable who assert the fatal influence of the stars than
they who deny the foreknowledge of future events. For, to confess, that God
exists, and at the same time to deny that He has foreknowledge of future
things, is the most manifest folly.” “For one who is not prescient of all
future things is not God. Therefore we are by no means compelled, either,
retaining the prescience of God, to take away the freedom of the will, or,
retaining the freedom of the will, to deny that He is prescient of future
things, which is impious.”
On page 364
we see that Augustine maintains that in order for God to have perfect knowledge
he cannot receive additional knowledge. There is no Biblical proof given for
this statement because there is none. Augustine’s concept is based solely on
human reasoning from Platonic logic. Augustine, instead of investigating God’s
Word on the Foreknowledge of God, simply stated that God must have prescience
or the knowledge of all things that will happen in the future. Again notice the
lack of Biblical evidence. Using Platonic reasoning and ad hominem arguments
Augustine forces his view of foreknowledge on his readers. His ad hominem
attacks on the views of detractors suggests that Augustine had no answers for
those who deny the exhaustive prescience of God. Educator H. Scholfield
described indoctrination as “far from encouraging the use of evidence to
substantiate, it actually suppresses all evidence which is in any way likely to
undermine the beliefs and ideas it is attempting to inculcate...the victim of
the indoctrination will never be able to consider an alternative because none
appears to be available...”
The Immutability of God
Plato
This syllogism reflects God’s immutability from Plato’s view.
God is perfect. The perfect does not change. God does not change. Plato wrote
in “A dialogue between Socrates and Adeimantus” in The Republic:
Is it not true that to be altered and
moved by something else happens least to things that are in the best
condition...that the healthiest and strongest is the least altered....And is it
not the soul that is bravest and most intelligent that would be least disturbed
and altered by any external affection...those things which are well made an in
good condition are least liable to be changed by time and other influences.
That is so. It is universally true then, that that which is in the best state
by nature or art admits least alteration by something else. So it seems. But
God, surely and everything that belongs to God is in every way in the best
possible state...Then does he (God) change himself for the better and to
something fairer, or for the worse and to something uglier than himself? It
must necessarily, said he, be for the worse if he is changed.
In this
dialogue between Socrates and Adeimantus, Plato presented his classical
presentation of the Immutability of God. This concept was proposed by Plato and
later adopted by Augustine through the writings of the Neo-Platonists. This
view of perfection is called the static view of perfection. We would disagree
with Plato that perfection must be static. If God were to respond perfectly to
each situation as the event occurs then God could be perfect and dynamic. As an
illustration consider a football coach. If the coach was determining the plays
of both teams, then the coach could easily cause his team to win. Such a coach
would not be brilliant or admired. However if a coach were able to respond
perfectly to the changing strategy of the opposition, the such a coach would
have to change his game plans as the opposition changed their strategy. This coach
would be practicing dynamic perfection. Such a coach is more worthy of our
admiration.
Augustine
The historical influence of Plato on Augustine is easily
documented in The Confessions of St.
Augustine. He visited Simplicianus and mentioned that he had read “certain
books of the Platonists.” Simplicianus “much rejoiced over me(Augustine), for
that I had not fallen upon any other philosphers’ writings, which use to be
full of fallacies and vain deceits, after the rudiments of this world : whereas
in the Platonists, God and his word are everywhere implied.” St. Augustine’s
Confessions transl. by William Watts 1631,The Loeb Classical Library, The
MacMillan Company, New York, May 1912, Vol. 1, p. 409.
In the
tradition of Neoplatonic mysticism, Augustine turned inward to reach the good.
This act of introspection is described on page 86: “I entered and beheld with
the eye of my soul, above my mind, the Light Unchangeable.” From Augustine,s
Platonic background he had been taught that God was immutable or unchangeable,
so this was his conception of God in his conversion. Again Augustine, “I found
the unchangeable and true Eternity of Truth, above my changeable mind.” Also in
the The City of God, trans. by Marcus
Dods, The Modern Library, Random House, New York,1950 p. 250-257, we find
Augustine praised the Platonic philophers and admitted that the concept of the
immutability of God were taken from them.
These philosophers, then, whom we see not
undeservedly exalted above the rest in fame and glory, have seen that no
material body is God, and therefore they have transcended all bodies in seeking
for God. They have seen that whatever is changeable is not the most high God,
and therefore they have transcended every soul and all changeable spirits in
seeking the supreme.....He who is clever judges better than he who is slow, he
who is skilled than he who is unskillful, he who is practiced than he who is
unpractised; and the same person judges better after he has gained experience
than he did before. But that which is capable of more and less is mutable;
whence able men, who have thought deeply on these things, have gathered that
the first form is not to be found in those things whose form is changeable.
Then, in regard to Plato’s report that the philosopher is a lover
of God,
nothing shines forth more conspicuously in
those sacred writings. But the most striking thing in this connection, and that
which most of all inclines me almost to assent to the opinion that Plato was
not ignorant of those writings, is the answer which was given to the question
elicited from the holy Moses when the words of God were conveyed to him by the
angel; for, when he asked what was the name of that God who was commanding him
to go and deliver the Hebrew people out of Egypt, this answer was given: “I am
who am; and though shalt say to the children of Israel, He who is sent me unto
you;” as though compared with Him that truly is, because He is unchangeable,
those things which have been created mutable are not-a truth which Plato vehemently
held, and most diligently commended. And I know not whether this sentiment is
anywhere to be found in the books of those who were before Plato, unless in
that book where it is said, “I am who am; and thou shalt say to the children of
Israel, Who is sent me unto you.”
Augustine freely admitted that the concept of Immutability
was a Platonic idea. He referenced the Platonic philosophers, and he mentioned
Plato. He then attempted to draw an analogy between these philosophic concepts
and God’s Word. We admit that this connection alone does not invalidate the
concept. However what is the Biblical evidence?
Augustine
cites Exodus 3:14 “ And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus
you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” The exact
meaning of God’s name is not certain. However what is certain is that there is
no reference to immutability. The meaning probably is a reference to the
eternal existence of God. Citing verses with obscure meanings is hardly proof
of a major doctrinal concept. Notice also that Augustine used philosophical
reasoning as proof of his doctrine of Immutability. Reasoning is a dependable
tool only with a Biblical foundation. This foundation is Platonic.
Calvin
Calvin wrote on Immutability:
“God remains unchangeably the same. God is here contrasted
with created beings, who, as all know, are subject to continual changes...he is
here placed in a state of settled and undisturbed tranquillity...Although he
subjects the world to many alterations, he remains unmoved; and that not only
in regard to himself.” Calvin, translated by James Anderson, Commentary on
the Book of Psalms, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan. p.462
“The book of life being nothing else than the eternal purpose
of God, by which he has predestined his own people to salvation. God, it is
certain, is absolutely immutable.” ibid, p. 73
“To this the words of Augustine refer, ‘As we do not know all
the things which God does respecting us in the best order, we ought, with good intention,
to act according to the Law, and in some things be acted upon according to the
Law, his Providence being a Law immutable.’” Calvin’s Institutes, p. l03
“Besides as he is the Eternal Wisdom, the Immutable Truth,
the Determinate Counsel of the Father.” Ibid, p. 517.
“By that immutable counsel of God, by which he predestined to
himself whomever he would, was alone effectual for their salvation...That
Scripture clearly proves this much, that God by his eternal and immutable
counsel determined once for all those whom it was his pleasure one day to admit
to salvation, and those whom, on the other hand, it was his pleasure to doom to
destruction.” Ibid, p. 494.
“Because his immutable decree had once for all doomed them to
destruction.” Ibid, p. 522.
“Where it is said that God repented of having made Saul king,
the term change is used figuratively. Shortly after it is added, “The Strength
of Israel will not lie nor repent, for he is not a man, that he should repent.”
In these words, his immutability is plainly asserted without figure.” Ibid,
p. 109.
As proof
that God remains unalterably the same Calvin declared that God remains unmoved.
Compare this statement with Aristotle (Aristotle, Metaphysics, The Loeb
Classical Library, p. 207) “for there is something which always moves that
which is moved, and the prime mover is itself unmoved.” Calvin obviously is
borrowing his ideas from Aristotle, a pupil of Plato, and mixing them with his
theology of immutability. Why was Calvin so certain that God is immutable? Is
this plainly asserted in Scripture? In this article most of the occurrences of
the Hebrew word for repent are listed. Of the 32 occurrences, 26 are references
to God. God is said not to repent 6 times. 20 references are to God repenting.
Was Calvin certain that God does not repent because of Scripture or because of
his Platonic influence?
Does
Scripture prove that God is immutable? Where is this clear evidence? It is
interesting that when Calvin is presented with the evidence that God changes he
dismisses it lightly. Calvin’s explanation that “change” is just a figure of
speech is unacceptable. A figure of speech is used to represent one concept in
terms of another because the nature of the two concepts allows an analogy to be
drawn. There is no analogy between the concepts of “does not change his mind”
and “changes his mind”.
The Niphal
form of the Hebrew word nagham is used in 1 Samuel 15:11 and 1 Samuel 15:35 to
mean that the Lord repented. However in 1 Samuel 15:29 the same word is used to
say that the Lord does not repent. If we understand that the Lord does not
repent but that in this specific instance God will not change his mind the
apparent conflict is easily explained. However Calvin uses another approach.
Calvin is convinced that God is immutable and therefore the term change is used
figuratively with God. Where does Calvin obtain his conviction that God is
immutable? Why does he dismiss without an explanation the idea that God could
change his mind?
Calvin
quoted Augustine as a source for immutability. But we have already demonstrated
Augustine received his doctrine of Immutability from Plato.