Summary
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The article explores the differing understandings of “foreknowledge.” It begins, “Foreknowledge is understood variously as God’s eternal loving regard and saving purpose, or merely as his passive awareness of the future choices of free individuals.” While all “orthodox believers have affirmed that God knows all things in advance,” interpretations differ.
Reformed interpreters argue God’s “foreknowledge” “entails notions of foreordination,” signifying “to elect” or “to set favor on,” with “pretemporal intention.” “God’s foreknowledge is causative,” closely “related to the terminology of predestination and election.” Conversely, non-Reformed interpreters understand “foreknow” as “knowing in advance” based on “foreseen faith.” The Reformed perspective asserts this “fails,” as “God’s knowledge is not learned from without; his knowledge is grounded in himself.” Therefore, “God’s foreknowledge… is a causative concept closely related to the doctrine of predestination,” connoting “divine favor—God’s electing love and saving purpose.”