God has access to and knows all that has happened, is happening, and will happen. Since God is not confined to space and time, He knows the present from the past and the future from the present. He has full knowledge of all and everything. Foreknowledge, therefore refers to the all-knowing, omniscient nature of God whereby He knows reality before it is real, all things and events before they happen, all people before they exist and finally all things before they come into being. God is infinite in himself and in all that he is. His knowledge of events is therefore unlimited; He is omniscient; he knows all things. The Psalmist therefore says in Psalms 139:2-4 “Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. 3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. 4 For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.” In a similar vein, the writer of the Hebrews 4:13 affirms: “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
The foreknowledge of God is revealed both in the New and Old Testaments. The Bible teaches that God’s children were chosen beforehand, and God’s foreknowledge was involved. The elect are those “who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father” I Peter 1:2 “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.” Further in Romans 8:29, we learn “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” But God’s choice of the elect was not simply based on His foreknowledge of events; it was based on His good pleasure: Ephesians 1:4-5 “ According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.”
The apostle Peter teaches that God had foreknowledge of His Son’s sacrificial death long before Jesus died. I Peter 1:19-20 “19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,” Revelation 13:8 “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Jesus’ death on the cross was part of God’s eternal plan of salvation before the creation of the world. Through God’s foreknowledge, the prophets spoke of the coming Messiah. Jeremiah 23:5-6 “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch and a King shall reign and prosper and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. 6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Through Daniel, God made known the future rise and fall of various kingdoms.
Dr Ashwin Drummond
Laddertoheaven.co.in