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Bob Hill Responds to John Piper’s Article in the “Foreknowledge” Debate

Hereafter, JW will mean John Wrote. BH is my response.

JW If we do not get our doctrine of God right, we will destroy the foundations of delight. Joy may flourish for a generation when the root is severed, but in the end, delight in God will die without true doctrine.

BH I agree with John whole-heartedly. That is exactly what the determinism of noble men has done to many Christians. They feel a loss of the joy and delight that they should have in the wonderful God who reveals Himself in the Word. But, when we see the true God Who is revealed in the Bible, we can rejoice again. He is the God Who cares, Who responds, Who mourns, Who loves, Who is grieved, etc.

JW Personally, this has meant a twenty-year battle with the attack on God’s foreknowledge of his creature’s moral choices. This engagement has been sporadic until recently, and intense for the last two years.

BH Personally, for me, this has been a forty-year battle against the God who can’t of Calvinism to restore the glories of the God of the Bible who is able. I was a strong Calvinist. The deterministic theology stifled my joy in the Lord. William Bierderwolf’s book, How Can God Answer Prayer was the first light I had that there was a biblical view contrary to the view I then held. This has restored the glorious God of the Bible. Praise His name!

JW The position, of course, is not new. The Socinians of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries made the same argument.

BH It really doesn’t matter who held to this position in the past. Every church father that I have read has held views that are considered aberrant to evangelicals today. The important issue is this: What do the Scriptures say on the issue?

JW John Calvin wrote, “[God] foresees future events only by reason of the fact that he decreed that they take place” (Institutes, 3.23.6). And Jacobus Arminius wrote, “[God] has known from eternity which persons should believe... and which should persevere through subsequent grace.” (4) Denying God’s foreknowledge of human choices has never been an option within orthodox Christianity.

BH John Calvin and Jacobus Arminius have written what they wanted. Just because they were right on a lot of things does not mean they were right in everything. They were both wrong on a lot of things, too. In fact many people were persecuted because they believed a person should be baptized after they were saved rather than before they believed. I’m glad I did not live at their time. In spite of Servetus’s theological errors, he shouldn’t have been executed for disagreeing. But, on the other hand, we must grant them the lee way that they did not have the freedom that we still have today. Until Martin Luther nailed his theses on the door, justification by grace was not an option within orthodox Christianity. But it is still the main option in American Christianity today.

JW In other words, doctrine matters for life and worship. Edwards believed passionately that a defective doctrine of God would, in the end, destroy delight in God and devotion to God. And above all, this meant that the glory of God would be lost in the Church and in the world. I think he is right. The issue of God’s foreknowledge is ultimately about the glory of God.

BH I agree with John here. It is true that “a defective doctrine of God would, in the end, destroy delight in God and devotion to God. And above all, this meant that the glory of God would be lost in the Church and in the world. I think he is right. The issue of God’s foreknowledge is ultimately about the glory of God.” That is why this battle is so important. God wants all to be saved. Too many Calvinists are too consistent with their belief in the absolute determination of the elect and the damned as Calvin put it in his Institutes, Book Three, Ch XXI, sec. 5 p 491,

“The predestination by which God adopts some to the hope of life, and adjudges others to eternal death, no man who would be thought pious ventures simply to deny; but it is greatly cavilled at, especially by those who make prescience its cause. We, indeed, ascribe both prescience and predestination to God; but we say that it is absurd to make the latter subordinate to the former. When we attribute prescience to God, we mean that all things always were and ever continue under his eye; that to his knowledge there is no past or future, but all things are present, and indeed so present, that it is not merely the idea of them that is before him (as those objects are which we retain in our memory), but that he truly sees and contemplates them as actually under his immediate inspection. This prescience extends to the whole circuit of the world, and to all creatures. By predestination we mean the eternal decrees of God, by which he determined with himself whatever he wished to happen with regard to every man. All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, other to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to death. [My emphasis, Bob Hill]

JW Perhaps the most famous word of all on God’s claim on the future is Isaiah 46:9-10, “Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, “My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.” Those who deny God’s exhaustive definite foreknowledge object that the predictions in view here are only of things God intends to bring about himself. And, they say, of course he knows what he intends to do. But they deny that God claims to foreknow certainly what others will do.

BH John is completely accurate in recording what we believe. God has the ability to do whatever He wants. If He desired to know the future actions of all beings, He could do that. The only problem is, they would not be free to make those choices, and God shows that dilemma by stating in Isaiah 5:1-4: “Now let me sing to my Well-beloved, a song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard: My Well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. 2 He dug it up and cleared out its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, and also made a winepress in it; So He expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes. 3 “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, please, between Me and My vineyard. 4 What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?”

God stated the problem with free will agents. God did everything He could do without predestinating them to do what He wanted them to do. It even shows God’s disappointment with the nation. God expected Israel to bring forth good grapes, but they did not. These kinds of statements are evident throughout the Bible.

JW But that assumes there are two classes of future events: those God predetermines and therefore foreknows; and those that arise from some other source than his plan, and which he does not know are coming, namely, those that arise from human and demonic choices.

BH This is quite accurate. The thing that John seems to miss is this: God is completely able to counter myriads of actions of human free agents when His eternal purpose would be threatened. The God who sustains our whole universe is able to do exceedingly more than we can even imagine. But, most of the actions of the free agents in the world do not impinge upon God’s eternal purpose.

JW But does Isaiah make this distinction? I don’t think so. For virtually all the predictions God has in mind in these texts in regard to Israel’s future judgment and rescue involve thousands of human choices to bring them about; yet God foreknows them; and this knowing is what it means for him to be God.

BH This is not a biblical statement. The biblical statement that God made was God knows because He will do it. I want to quote the last verse of the Isaiah passage as well as the two John quoted. Isa 46:9-11 “Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure,’ 11 Calling a bird of prey from the east, the man who executes My counsel, from a far country. Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it.” God declares the end from the beginning, because He will bring to pass His eternal purpose. This eternal purpose was the provision of redemption: Eph 3:10,11 “the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, 11 according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

JW Isaiah does not separate what God is planning to do and what man will choose to do. Virtually all God’s judgments and deliverances involved choices that humans would make as instruments of God’s plan.

BH It is clear that God did, indeed make sure the crucifixion of Christ would be done in the way He prophesied. That’s exactly what Acts says in two places: Act 2:22-24, “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know— 23 Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; 24 whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.”

Act 4:27,28 “For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together 28 to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before [predestinated] to be done.”

When God was dealing with His nation, Israel, He said more than 150 years in advance He would use Cyrus to release the Jewish captives and rebuild the temple in Isa 44:28 “Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd, and he shall perform all My pleasure, saying to Jerusalem, “You shall be built,” and to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.”’” We who hold the open view of God believe He will bring these things to pass. If God determined all things, then He also would foreknow all things. His foreknowledge and predestination are always linked, but there are many examples of things God does not foreknow.

JW For example, in John 13:19, Jesus says at the Last Supper, “From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am.” With the words “I am” Jesus lays claim on deity in words that God uses of himself in texts like Isaiah 43:10 (“You are My witnesses,’ declares the Lord, ‘And My servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am”). And the warrant for believing that he is divine, he says, is that he is telling the disciples what is going to befall him before it comes to pass.

BH I believe strongly in the deity of Christ. However, this statement is not like the statement in John 8:58, which is a deity statement. “Jesus said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.’” Christ’s statement in John 13:19 is a statement that He is Messiah. Messiah is a glorious claim, and their salvation depended on believing that He was. John 8:24 “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

JW Then two verses later, in John 13:21, Jesus specifically predicts the betrayal of Judas. “Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray Me.” The disciples wonder who he is talking about, and Jesus says in verse 26, “‘That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him.’ So when He had dipped the morsel, He took and gave it to Judas.” Jesus had known it from the beginning, as it says in John 6:64, “Jesus knew from the beginning ...who it was that would betray Him.” And he not only knew that it would happen and who would do it, but also when it would happen. Matthew 26:2: “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man is handed over for crucifixion.” And it says that when he had given the morsel to Judas he said, “What you do, do quickly” (John 13:27). He knows that it is coming, who will do it, and when.

JW Two things are crucial to note here: one is that Jesus foreknows the evil deed of Judas with certainty. The other is that Jesus himself says that this foreknowledge is part of his glory as divine: “I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am” (John 13:19). If evangelicals have a passion for the glory of Christ, we must join him in affirming, not denying, his ability to foreknow with certainty human choices without removing moral accountability. It’s his glory to know them.

BH John’s assertions are interesting but speculative. He speaks authoritatively and with passion. I appreciate this passion, because I think he believes he is defending the very character of our God. That is very commendable. However, what we do know is this. Jesus knew from the time that Judas began to think about betraying Him that Judas would betray Him. Jesus was in close communication with His Father. This does not have to be prescience as John would say. All of the plans of the schemer were known by the Lord, but that doesn’t mean it is foreknowledge. It could just as well be present knowledge of Judas’ mind set. God knows the hearts of all men. John 6:64 “‘But there are some of you who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him.” This passage can be interpreted as I think John interprets it, that from the beginning means from the beginning of time or something like that. That’s a possibility, but it is not the only one. I believe my interpretation is more viable when we consider all the repent verses, the perhaps verses and the verses where God expected one thing and another happened.

BH I must also add that the prophecies about Judas need to be addressed, because Judas’ betrayal of Christ was never foretold in the prophets.

If the betrayal of Christ by Judas was foreknown and foreordained, how could Mat 26:24 be true? “The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” Judas would have had no choice. Therefore, God would have predestined a man to damnation. Does God do evil that good may come? Jam 1:13-17 says God doesn’t even tempt men with evil let alone predestine them to do it.

BH What does, “That it might be fulfilled,” mean? Mat 2:15 and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.” 2:23 And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth [Nazarevq], that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, “He shall be called a Nazarene [Nazwraio"].” [No OT Scripture, but consider Isa 11:1; rx,nEwÒ]

BH Others say: Barnes, “The words do aptly and appropriately express the thing referred to, and may be applied to it.” Bloomfield, “Appears quite suitable or applicable to it.” Moses Stuart, “O.T. phraseology expresses in an apt and forcible manner, the thought which they desired to convey.” For example, Isa 6:9,10 was fulfilled before the Babylonian captivity but confer John 12:37-40; Mat 13:14 “And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:” Act 28:28; Isa 6:9-10 And He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ 10 “Make the heart of this people dull, And their ears heavy, And shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And return and be healed.” Dr. Edward Robinson, Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, “Phrase is used as a formal quotation and implies ‘that something took place, not in order that a prophecy might be filled, but so that it was fulfilled; not in order to make the event correspond to the prophecy, but so that the event would and did correspond to that prophecy. The phrase is often used to express historical or typical parallelisms.’ ”

BH Gospel Scripture to consider: Mat 27:9-10 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of Him who was priced, whom they of the children of Israel priced, 10 and gave them for the potter’s field, as the LORD directed me.” No Jeremiah passage. Zec 11:12-13 Then I said to them, “If it is agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain.” So they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver. 13 And the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD for the potter. John 15:24,25; Psa 35:19; John 19:36; Psa 34:19,20

BH John 13:18 “I do not speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen; but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me.’” Psa 41:9 “Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.” Psa 41:4-10. His prayer had been one for healing after confessing his sin (v. 4). However, he lamented the fact that his enemies took advantage of his condition. Wanting him to die (v. 5), they feigned friendship while slandering him (v. 6), saying that he would never survive (vv. 7-8). Even his trusted friend betrayed (lifted up his heel against) him (v. 9). These words, of course, were quoted by Jesus concerning Judas (John 13:18). But here David had in mind the treachery of his friend Ahithophel, who betrayed him, and then hanged himself (2 Sa 16:20-17:3, 23). Barnes wrote, “It is difficult to tell whether the text has any reference whatever to Judas Iscariot.”

BH John 17:12 “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. John 6:37-40; John 10:27-29; Heb 2:13. No OT Scripture says this.

BH Scripture in Acts to consider: Acts 1:16 “Men and brethren, this Scripture had to be fulfilled [What Scripture?], which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus 17 for he was numbered with us and obtained a part in this ministry.” David didn’t say this about Judas. He said it about his “own familiar friend”. Psa 41:9 “Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.” These scriptures were fulfilled in the sense of illustration by Judas.

BH Acts 1:20 “For it is written in the book of Psalms: ‘Let his dwelling place be desolate, And let no one live in it’; and, ‘Let another take his office.’ Psa 109:8 Let his days be few, And let another take his office. Psa 69:25 Let their dwelling place be desolate; Let no one live in their tents. Peter said that David prophesied of Judas. But when did David discuss Judas Iscariot? Certainly he did not refer to him directly or name him. The Psalms often anticipate Christ. Likewise the enemies of the royal psalmist became the enemies of the Messiah. Therefore, someone was predicted in Psa 69:25 and 109:8. Both of these psalms are royal imprecatory psalms, but the prophecy is very general. Acts 1:20 applies them to Judas.

JW His knowledge of Peter’s threefold denial is even more remarkable. Jesus not only predicts that Peter will deny him three times that very night, but treats the act with such certainty that he is already praying for Peter’s future repentance and future ministry.

JW “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” But he said to Him, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!” And He said, “I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me.” (Luke 22:31-34)

JW This absolute knowledge that Peter would sin, how often he would sin, when he would sin, and that he would repent does not remove Peter’s moral responsibility in the least, which is made plain by the fact that Peter weeps bitterly precisely when he remembers the words of Jesus’ prediction. Peter does not say, “Well, you predicted this sin, and so it had to take place, and so it can’t have been part of my free willing, and so I am not responsible for it.” He wept bitterly. He was guilty and he knew it.

JW Jesus was glorious in the prediction, and Peter was guilty. Why do all four gospels tell this remarkable prediction in detail? Surely the most profound answer is the one given by John 13:19, “I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am.” His foreknowledge of “all the things that were coming upon him” was an essential aspect of his glory as the incarnate Word, the Son of God. The denial of this foreknowledge is, I believe John would say, (whether intended or not) an assault on the deity of Christ.

BH The book of Job gives us tremendous insight into the incident of Peter and his denial of our Lord. Job was not privy to what went on in heaven in Job 1:7-12, when the Lord said to satan, “From where do you come?” So satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” 8 Then the Lord said to satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” 9 So satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” 12 And the Lord said to satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.” A similar incident seems to have taken place in heaven, and God the Son was privy to it. That’s why the Lord said in Lk 22:31-34, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” 33 But he said to Him, “Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death.” 34 Then He said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know Me.” Christ knew that satan had been given the permission to test Peter beyond what Peter could withstand at that time. satan had been given explicit permission to tempt him three times before the rooster crowed. Peter would fail. God would then use this to teach Peter how weak he was in his own strength.

JW A third way that Edwards upholds God’s glory in the foreknowledge of human choices is in his treatment of the fall and all of redemptive history that God brought about in response to it. Edwards argues like this:

JW If God [doesn’t] foreknow the volition of moral agents, then he did not foreknow the fall of man, or of angels, and so could not foreknow the great things which were consequent on these events; such as his sending his Son into the world to die for sinners, and all things pertaining to the great work of redemption; all the things which were done four thousand years before Christ came, to prepare the way for it; and the incarnation, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ Š etc.

BH God did not have to foreknow the fall of man, or of angels so He could make the decision to provide the redeemer if man sinned by planning to send His Son into the world to die for sinners if Adam sinned. A free will God can have contingency plans, and we see from many passages in the OT that He does.

JW But in fact, Edwards observes, God must have foreknown the fall of Adam with all its disastrous moral effects, because, for example, Paul says that from all eternity God has planned to give us saving grace in Christ Jesus as our Savior. “[God] has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity” (2 Tim. 1:9).

BH This grace “God, 2 Tim. 1:9, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began [given to us before age times (GraecaII font) thn doqeisan hmin en Cristw Ihsou pro crovwn aijwniwn]. Anyone who would be in Christ, the body of Christ, whether they were sinless because Adam didn’t sin (which didn’t happen), or because we were graced in the beloved as the corporate body of Christ because Christ redeemed us, either way, God did this before the foundation of the world.

JW In other words, God not only foreknew in eternity the sinful choice that Adam would make (and Lucifer before him), but he also planned to give us grace through Jesus Christ in response to the misery and destruction and condemnation resulting from the fall that he foreknew.

BH It doesn’t say that God foreknew Adams sinful choice. Christ was foreknown. 1 Pe 1:19,20 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 20 He indeed was foreordained [proegnwsmenou] before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.

JW Now add to this the teaching of Paul in Ephesians 1:4-6, and you see clearly how the glory of God is at stake in the denial of God’s foreknowledge of Adam’s fall and its consequent miseries. Paul says, “[God] chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace.” In other words, before the foundation of the world‹before the sinful choice of Adam (which Boyd says was not foreknowable by God)‹God chose us in Christ and predestined us for sonship through Christ so that the free and sovereign grace of God would be seen as glorious: “unto the praise of the glory of his grace.” But if God did not foreknow the fall, and (as some argue) was surprised by it, then Paul’s argument for the glory of God’s grace manifest in his eternal plan to rescue us from the fall is not valid. So again: if evangelicals love the glory of God manifest in Christ’s redeeming work planned before the foundation of the world, then we should affirm and cherish‹and not deny‹God’s exhaustive, definite foreknowledge of human choices.

BH Eph 1:4-6 can be viewed as a corporate election of the body of Christ to be holy and blameless in Him. We see in Eph 1:3 that God wants to pour out spiritual blessings. For Christians, we see that they are accomplished by the Father. Eph 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” This is a loving relationship. Other events: war, disease, murder, sure aren’t loving. What principles does God use? Jam 1:12-17 “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”

I want to zero in on one blessing the Father does just for the church. He chose us in Christ. Eph 1:4 “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world”. But what does “chose” mean? This word in the Greek can be translated I select, or I choose for myself. So the first thing we should know, is Jesus Christ is the selected/chosen one. Christ is the one in and by whom the Father accomplishes His blessings. Isaiah 42 prophesied: Isa 42:1-7 “Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. 2 He will not cry out, nor raise His voice, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. 3 A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench; He will bring forth justice for truth. 4 He will not fail nor be discouraged till He has established justice in the earth; And the coastlands shall wait for His law. 5 Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, Who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk on it: 6 I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness and will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people as a light to the Gentiles, 7 to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house.”

BH After healing a multitude of people, in Mat 12:16-21, [Christ] warned them not to make Him known, 17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: 18 “Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him, and He will declare justice to the Gentiles. 19 He will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. 20 A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench till He sends forth justice to victory; 21 and in His name Gentiles will trust.”

BH It also shows He was God’s chosen in 1 Pe 2:4, “Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious.” The election of men is only in Christ. When a person yields to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and believes that Christ died for him, then, he becomes a member of Christ’s body, the church. Outside of Christ there is no election of anyone. In Eph 1:4, God chose us in Christ. In 1:6, God granted the predestinated adoption to us. In 1:11, God definitely showed that we are inheritors in Christ. In 1:13, God sealed us in Christ. Therefore, we see love and blessings here, not fatalism.

BH So, we are chosen and sealed because we believed in Christ. Eph 1:4,12,13 “just as He chose us in Him 12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. 13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” Then we see in 1 Co 12:13, that “by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body - whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free.” He didn’t choose us to be saved. (He wants all to be saved, 1 Ti 2:4) He chose us to be holy and blameless. Eph 1:4 “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before Him in love.” He chose everyone who would believe in Christ to be holy and blameless. Christ paid with His life. He made it certain with predestination. Eph 1:5 “having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.” And He did all this by His grace, Eph 1:6 “to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved.”

BH So, God’s election is not to salvation, it is to perfection because we are in Christ. It is for our eternal security. We who trust in Christ as our Savior have this security. This is a spiritual blessing for the body of Christ alone. God gave man freedom – even to mess up.

JW A fair and earnest person will ask at this point: How do Greg Boyd and others defend their view biblically? The answer is that Boyd directs our attention to passages of Scripture that seem to demand a denial of God’s foreknowledge of human choices. For example, he refers to Isaiah’s prophecy to Hezekiah in Isaiah 38:1, “Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.” Then Hezekiah weeps and prays. To which the Lord responds, in verse 5, “I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.” Boyd argues that this change in God’s expressed intention shows that God did not know what Hezekiah would do when he threatened to end his life. But when God saw Hezekiah’s (unforeknown) sorrow and heard his (unforeknown) prayer, God changed his plan and added fifteen years to his life.

JW But the fact is that both Boyd and I would say that God’s first prediction contained an implicit condition. Both of us solve the problem of the apparent untruthfulness of the first prediction (“You will die”) in the same way: God was saying in his own heart: “This I will do unless you repent.” The difference between Boyd and me is that he thinks God was thinking implicitly, “I will do this unless you repent, and I don’t know if you are going to repent.” And I think God was thinking implicitly, “I will do this unless you repent, and I know you are going to repent.”

JW Boyd would ask, “What’s the point of saying Hezekiah is going to die (if he doesn’t repent), when God knows that he will, in fact, repent?” I would respond by saying, God has his reasons for the way he acts that we cannot see (“Who has ever been his counselor?” Romans 11:34). But another answer would be: God warns him that he will die because he wants to move him to repentance and save him. In other words, the threat of death is the means of life.

BH John put a different interpretation on this incident than God. God told him he was going to die. Hezekiah did not repent. Instead, 2 Ki 20:2,3, “he turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying, 3 Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight.” God responded to this. In another passage, God repented when Hezekiah prayed: Jer 26:2,3,13,18 “Thus says the Lord: Stand in the court of the Lords house, and speak to all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the Lords house, all the words that I command you to speak to them. Do not diminish a word. 3 Perhaps everyone will listen and turn from his evil way, that I may repent concerning the calamity which I purpose to bring on them because of the evil of their doings. 13 Now therefore, amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God; then the Lord will repent concerning the doom that He has pronounced against you. 18 Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts: Zion shall be plowed like a field, Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, and the mountain of the temple like the bare hills of the forest. 19 Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah ever put him to death? Did he not fear the Lord and seek the Lords favor? And the Lord repented concerning the doom which He had pronounced against them. But we are doing great evil against ourselves.”

JW Another group of texts to which Boyd refers are the texts concerning God’s being sorrowful that he did something. For example, in 1 Samuel 15:11, God says, “I repent that I have made Saul king; for he has turned back from following me.” And Genesis 6:5-6, “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earthŠ. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” Boyd asks, “How could the Lord possibly have regretted something he created if he was perfectly certain what would happen an eternity before he created it?” (12)

JW The implication for Boyd is that God could not regret or repent of what he foreknew. Therefore, God could not foreknow the fall and its disastrous consequences. And he could not foreknow that Saul was going to be a disobedient king.

JW My answer to this is threefold. First, these texts do not say or teach that God does not foreknow the future in question. Rather, Boyd infers this. In fact, no text in the Bible says that God does not foreknow human choices. This is always an inference based on what someone thinks is possible for God to do or say.

BH God has no need to foreknow anything but His own plans. He determines His own plans, then makes them happen. On the other hand, God does not say He foreknows the human choices of man. His foreknowledge is very explicit. John may not realize it, but the idea that God knows everything like it is an eternal now comes from Greek philosophy.

JW Second, we have seen from 2 Timothy 1:9 that God “has saved us according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.” So the gracious work of Christ, redeeming us from the curse of the fall, was planned in eternity, and grace was given to us “from all eternity.” The implication of this verse is just as strong that God foreknew the fall in Genesis 6:6 as that he did not foreknow the fall.

BH I’ve already responded to this assertion, but I would like to ask one question. After Gen 1:31, when “God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.”, why did He destroy the earth? It tells us: Gen 6:5-7 “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord repented that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am repent [lit. it repents Me] that I have made them.” This Hebrew word, (µjn) is applied by God to himself over twenty times.

JW Third, in the very context of God’s repentance over Saul (1 Sam. 15:28-29), Samuel says to Saul, “’The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you. And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or repent; for he is not a man, that he should repent.” So in verse 11 God says, “I repent that I have made Saul king.” And in verse 29 Samuel says, “The Glory of Israel will not lie or repent; for he is not a man, that he should repent.”

BH Why did God say He wouldn’t repent in 1 Sa 15? In this situation, God told King Saul to attack the Amelikites for what they did to Israel when Israel came up from Egypt. He told him in verse 3, to “utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.” Saul did what God said. He attacked the Amalekites, but he also disobeyed God. Here is what he did in verses 8 and 9: “He also took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. 9 But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.” So, what did God do? He repented, was sorry, changed His mind in regard to King Saul. Verse 11 says, “I repent that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments.” The next day Samuel went to Saul. When Saul saw him, he said in verses 13-29, “Blessed are you of the Lord! I have performed the commandment of the Lord.” But Samuel got right to the point. 14 Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?” 15 And Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.” 16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Be quiet! And I will tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” And he said to him, “Speak on.” 17 So Samuel said, 18 “Now the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ 19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do evil in the sight of the Lord?” 20 And Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 21 “But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.” 22 Then Samuel said: “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.” 24 Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. 25 Now therefore, please pardon my sin, and return with me, that I may worship the Lord.” 26 But Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.” 27 And as Samuel turned around to go away, Saul seized the edge of his robe, and it tore. 28 So Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you. 29 And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent. For He is not a man, that He should repent.” God would not repent of this specific statement. Why? Verse 23 again, “Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.” God would not repent of this, probably because Saul was not truly repentant. Then verse 35 repeats God’s repentance in making Saul king to begin with, 35 “And Samuel went no more to see Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul, and the Lord repented that He had made Saul king over Israel.”

BH Psalm 110:4 is another passage which says God would not repent. “The Lord has sworn and will not repent. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” When God swears, it is unchangeable just as His counsel is. That’s why the two are combined in Heb 6:17,18, “Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, 18 that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.” Therefore, Christ’s priesthood was absolute. Nothing could change that. God does not repent of a sworn oath.

BH The next passage is Malachi 3:6 “For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.” Remember, immutability means unchanging. There are some portions of Scripture which say God does not change. First, “I do not change” are the words yt!yn!v* aO not <jn This passage shows God’s trustworthiness. He is not going to go back on His promise to David even though David’s people have become so corrupt. That’s what Psa132:10,11 shows, “For Your servant David’s sake, do not turn away the face of Your Anointed. The Lord has sworn in truth to David. He will not turn [bWvy*] from it: ‘I will set upon your throne the fruit of your body.’” This passage in Malachi, then, is made because of God’s specific promise to David.

BH Psa 89 is the most comprehensive in showing God’s faithfulness to David as shown in Malachi. Please read these parts of Psalm 89. Verses 2-5,20,21,24,27-37 For I have said, “Mercy shall be built up forever; Your faithfulness You shall establish in the very heavens. 3 I have made a covenant [unconditional] with My chosen, I have sworn to My servant David: 4 ‘Your seed I will establish forever, and build up your throne to all generations.’” Selah 5 And the heavens will praise Your wonders, O Lord; Your faithfulness also in the assembly of the saints. 20 I have found My servant David; With My holy oil I have anointed him, 21 With whom My hand shall be established; Also My arm shall strengthen him. 24 But My faithfulness and My mercy shall be with him, and in My name his horn shall be exalted. 27 Also I will make him My firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. 28 My mercy I will keep for him forever, and My covenant shall stand firm with him. 29 His seed also I will make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven. 30 If his sons forsake My law and do not walk in My judgments, 31 if they break My statutes and do not keep My commandments, 32 then I will punish their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. 33 Nevertheless My loving kindness I will not utterly take from him, nor allow My faithfulness to fail. 34 My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips. 35 Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David: 36 His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before Me; 37 It shall be established forever like the moon, Even like the faithful witness in the sky.” Selah.

BH Finally, in Jeremiah 33:17,20-22, the Lord said, “For thus says the Lord: David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel. 20 Thus says the Lord: If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, 21 then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Levites, the priests, My ministers. 22 As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the descendants of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me.”

BH This should be enough to show that God made a specific, unconditional promise to David. He will not go back on His covenant with David. That’s what it means in Malachi 3:6 when He said “I will not change.” I believe I have shown that God repented or changed His mind in many portions of Scripture. They were changes in His stated actions toward man. Our God is a God of mercy, love and compassion. What a wonderful God is He!

JW So my alternative way of thinking about these texts is: God foreknows the grievous and sorrowful effects of some of his own choices—for example, to create Adam and Eve, and to make Saul king. These effects are genuinely grievous to God as he sees them in themselves. Yet he does not regard his choices as mistakes that he would do differently if only he foreknew what was coming. Rather, he wills to do some things which he then genuinely grieves over in part when the grievous effect comes to pass.

JW Now if someone should say, This does not sound like what we ordinarily mean by “regret” or “repentance,” I would respond that this is exactly why Samuel said: God “will not lie or repent; for he is not a man, that he should repent” (1 Sam. 15:29). In other words, Samuel means something like this: when I say “[God] repented that he made Saul king” (or when Moses said that God repented that he created Adam and Eve), I do not mean that God experiences repentance precisely the way ordinary humans do. He is not a man to experience “repentance” this way. He experiences it his way—the way one experiences “repentance” when one is all-wise and foreknows the entire future perfectly. The experience is real, but it is not like finite man experiences it.

BH Unfortunately for John, there are too many places where his interpretation will not work.

JW Which brings us to the main and final point. When Samuel protests in 1 Samuel 15:29, “The Glory of Israel will not lie or repent; for he is not a man, that he should repent,” what is he protesting against? And what is he protesting for? The wording of the verse gives the answer. He is protesting against making God like a man. “God is not man.” And he is protesting for the glory of God. “The Glory of Israel will not...repent.”

JW Therefore I say again, as earnestly and hopefully as I know how: the issue of God’s foreknowledge of human choices is about the glory of God. And if you love the glory of God, if his glory is your treasure and your portion in this life and the next, then I urge you to say with Samuel, “The glory of Israel is not like a human being, he does not repent”—as though he did not know the future! Rather, as Jonathan Edwards said, God’s foreknowledge is “his peculiar glory, greatly distinguishing him from all other beings.

BH John added nothing in his closing argument here, but I wanted to include it to show his close.