Does 'Foreknowledge' Refer to 'Foreordination'?

J.C. Thibodaux


  God's choosing (election) of people from the foundation of the world is, in my opinion, one of the greatest mysteries that the human mind can even begin to grasp. As I pointed out in my article on election, we are given only the minimal details of why God chose us, but the one that is by far the most contested is the fact that God elected us according to His foreknowledge. Election according to foreknowledge (prescience: knowing the future before it occurs) simply does not fit into the Calvinist scheme of logic, however, and they therefore strive vigorously to reinterpret the scriptures to suit their doctrinal position. The two primary texts they dispute the meaning of are 1 Peter 1:2 and Romans 8:29.

"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."

1 Peter 1:2



"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."

Romans 8:29


  Elsewhere, I have addressed the Calvinist claim that 'foreknow' means 'forelove' (see my article on forelove), which does not find much support biblically or linguistically; the assertion that 'foreknow' means 'foreordain' carries a bit more weight though. The arguments here center around 1 Peter 1:2, but gravitate towards Romans 8:29 as well, as harmony between the two is necessary. Now while I must acknowledge that the word 'to know' in the Bible has a broad variety of applications depending on the context, and that 'foreknow' can mean more than just 'know beforehand,' the primary meaning of the words as attested to in Greek literature do in fact indicate prescience, and should be understood as such unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. That being said, let us examine the evidence for this Calvinist claim.

1. 'Foreknowledge' means 'foreordination' in Acts 2:23 by the Granville-Sharp rule, establishing that 'foreknowledge' in the divine context refers to 'foreordination.'

2. 'Foreknow' in 1 Peter 1:20 refers to foreordination, indicating that 'foreknowledge' in verse 2 of the same chapter refers to the same.


  As can be seen by the preceding articles, the idea that 'foreknow' necessarily implies foreordination finds no real grammatical support from scripture. What about any external support? Well, if 'foreknowledge' really means 'foreordination' in those contexts, then someone really needs to alert the early church fathers to that fact.

"And that he would be sent into the fire with his host, and the men who follow him, and would be punished for an endless duration, Christ foretold. For the reason why God has delayed to do this, is His regard for the human race. For He foreknows that some are to be saved by repentance, some even that are perhaps not yet born."

Justin Martyr, First Apology, chapter XXVIII



"So that what we say about future events being foretold, we do not say it as if they came about by a fatal necessity; but God foreknowing all that shall be done by all men, and it being His decree that the future actions of men shall all be recompensed according to their several value, He foretells by the Spirit of prophecy that He will bestow meet rewards according to the merit of the actions done, always urging the human race to effort and recollection, showing that He cares and provides for men."

Justin Martyr, First Apology, chapter XLIV



"And that God the Father of all would bring Christ to heaven after He had raised Him from the dead, and would keep Him there until He has subdued His enemies the devils, and until the number of those who are foreknown by Him as good and virtuous is complete, on whose account He has still delayed the consummation-hear what was said by the prophet David. These are his words: "The Lord said unto My Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool."

Justin Martyr, First Apology, chapter XLV



"And in short, sirs," said I, "by enumerating all the other appointments of Moses I can demonstrate that they were types, and symbols, and declarations of those things which would happen to Christ, of those who it was foreknown were to believe in Him, and of those things which would also be done by Christ Himself. But since what I have now enumerated appears to me to be sufficient, I revert again to the order of the discourse."

Justin Martyr, Dialogue of Justin, chapter XLII



"And this prophecy proves that we shall behold this very King with glory; and the very terms of the prophecy declare loudly, that the people foreknown to believe in Him were foreknown to pursue diligently the fear of the Lord."

Justin Martyr, Dialogue of Justin, chapter LXX



"And he died before Christ came to the dispensation on the cross which was given Him by His Father. And when Herod succeeded Archelaus, having received the authority which had been allotted to him, Pilate sent to him by way of compliment Jesus bound; and God foreknowing that this would happen, had thus spoken: `And they brought Him to the Assyrian, a present to the king.'"

Justin Martyr, Dialogue of Justin, chapter CIII



"And our Lord, according to the will of Him that sent Him, who is the Father and Lord of all, would not have said, `They shall come from the east, and from the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness.' Furthermore, I have proved in what has preceded, that those who were foreknown to be unrighteous, whether men or angels, are not made wicked by God's fault, but each man by his own fault is what he will appear to be."

Justin Martyr, Dialogue of Justin, chapter CXL



"But if the word of God foretells that some angels and men shall be certainly punished, it did so because it foreknew that they would be unchangeably [wicked], but not because God had created them so. So that if they repent, all who wish for it can obtain mercy from God: and the Scripture foretells that they shall be blessed, saying, `Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not sin..."

Justin Martyr, Dialogue of Justin, chapter CXLI



If, therefore, in the present time also, God, knowing the number of those who will not believe, since He foreknows all things, has given them over to unbelief, and turned away His face from men of this stamp, leaving them in the darkness which they have themselves chosen for themselves, what is there wonderful if He did also at that time give over to their unbelief, Pharaoh, who never would have believed, along with those who were with him? As the Word spake to Moses from the bush: "And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, unless by a mighty hand."And for the reason that the Lord spake in parables, and brought blindness upon Israel, that seeing they might not see, since He knew the [spirit of] unbelief in them, for the same reason did He harden Pharaoh's heart; in order that, while seeing that it was the finger of God which led forth the people, he might not believe, but be precipitated into a sea of unbelief, resting in the notion that the exit of these [Israelites] was accomplished by magical power, and that it was not by the operation of God that the Red Sea afforded a passage to the people, but that this occurred by merely natural causes.

Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book 4, Chapter XXIX, para. 2



"We-who were but lately created by the only best and good Being, by Him also who has the gift of immortality, having been formed after His likeness (predestinated, according to the prescience of the Father, that we, who had as yet no existence, might come into being), and made the first-fruits of creation -have received, in the times known beforehand, [the blessings of salvation] according to the ministration of the Word, who is perfect in all things, as the mighty Word, and very man, who, redeeming us by His own blood in a manner consonant to reason, gave Himself as a redemption for those who had been led into captivity."

Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book 5, Chapter I




  Justin and Irenaeus, themselves both fluent in Greek and well-schooled in Christian doctrine (Irenaeus was a disciple of Polycarp, a disciple of John, Justin was a major apologist who was killed for not sacrificing to pagan gods), apparently did not glean such an abstracted definition of 'foreknowledge' from the scriptures. If 'foreknowledge' in the context of election so obviously means 'foreordination' and not 'foreknowing', then why did learned Christian men who were versed in the word of God and fluent in the language that the New Testament was written in not recognize it?

  Additionally, there are more problems associated with changing the meaning of 'foreknow' to 'foreordain;' such as Romans 8:29,

"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."

Romans 8:29


If 'foreknow' in relation to election actually means 'foreordain' in every case, then what in the world does 'predestinate' mean? The proponents of such a view usually try to break the word down into its components (pro-orizu, 'pro' = 'before', 'horizo' can mean 'to set up bounds', though it also means 'appoint', 'ordain', 'decree', or 'determine'), and declare that 'predestinate' simply means 'to pre-set up boundaries for;' so whoever God foreordained to salvation, He also pre-set up limits for them so they would be saved, or at least that's what is says according to this crowd. Interesting verbal gymnastics. Let's compare from the other uses of proorizu in scripture to see how the historical understing of 'predestinate' (foreordination, pre-appointment) stands up to this novel view (pre-setting of boundaries, pre-limiting).

"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: Having [preset limits for] us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will..."

Ephesians 1:4-5


Seems like 'foreordain' would fit there a bit better.


"For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel [pre set-up boundaries] before to be done."

Acts 4:28


That doesn't sound quite right.

"But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, [even] the hidden [wisdom], which God [set up limits for beforehand] before the world unto our glory..."

1 Corinthians 2:7


??

  It's fairly evident from its usage in various other biblical passages that the selective redefinition of 'predestination' in Romans 8 is simply to accomodate the mistaken redefinition of 'foreknowledge' in 1 Peter 1:2. There is then no reason, grammatically, contextually, or historically to assign to the Greek word 'prognosis' in 1 Peter 1:2 any meaning other than its primary definition: fore-knowledge. To force any other meaning on the passage is driven strictly by doctrinal presuppositions, not valid scholarship or sound biblical exegesis.


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