God over Time

“Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’”  Isaiah 46:8-10

God is beyond time, yet He communicates to us in reference to it which makes it easier for us to comprehend. In His desire for us to understand Him, He will use anthropomorphic language to describe allegorically what cannot be understood in normal terms. We find this throughout the scriptures, and we must be careful to interpret these correctly. Some things appearing allegorical are not, and some that do not sound allegorical are. This is where our relationship with the Holy Spirit, our unerring interpreter, is important. Does the reference, if taken literally, make sense with the rest of scripture? For example, we read in 2 Samuel the following.

“Then the channels of the sea were seen; the foundations of the world were laid bare, at the rebuke of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.” 2 Sam 22:16.

We know God is spirit and therefore has no nostrils. But we can take this and easily visualize what is meant.

With that said let’s examine our focus verse. God is speaking to the Israelites who were falling into idolatry, telling them to stand firm in the things of old, with Him as their God. He reminds them He is the only God, and there is no other. The false gods of this world are not true gods, they are imperfect. They do not have all power and/or all knowledge. For example, He declares that He knows the end of all things and has from the beginning of all things. Nothing can change this, for He will accomplish all He has purposed. He said this to show He is above all idols that are worshiped, and He only sees all time; past, present and future.

But there is much more I would like to explore in verse 10. It reads,

“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’;’” Isaiah 46:10.

This verse has some intriguing implications. First, nothing surprises God. There is nothing you can do that will catch Him off guard. Everything you have done, are doing, and will do is known to Him. This can be both comforting and unsettling. If someone other than God knew everything about us; past, present and future, we may not be happy about that for we have no idea how they will accept it. However, God loves us with a love that transcends all human comprehension. He accepts us because of the work Christ did on the cross. He has clothed us in the righteousness of His Son. And get this, He accepts us knowing what we would do. This to me is a profound truth. We cannot think this way, for we do not love like He loves. We tend to look at what people do and judge their character based on their actions. And thus, our love is measured. Furthermore, we tend to make judgment without complete knowledge. Many a person has been condemned in the court of public opinion for something he has not done. But God knows all things, and as true Christians, we are not condemned. What a beautiful truth.

The second thing is this, along with other verses, is a repudiation of Hyper-Calvinism. First, Let us look at a verse that helps make clear what I mean. Paul  wrote to the Romans the following,

“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” Romans 8:29.

The word in the Greek translated ‘foreknew’ is προέγνω, which denotes ‘knowing beforehand.’ This verse and its meaning has been the subject of dispute for some time. Many in the Hyper-Calvinist camp believe those whom He foreknew He made Christians, and those not in this camp believe that those He foreknew would become Christians. It is very apparent He foreknew those who would become Christians because He knows the end from the beginning. So it is no surprise He would know ahead of time. However, did He choose whom to save? This is the stance of the hyper-Calvinist. I will say definitively, no. Let us look at a verse in 2 Peter. 

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9. 

God desires that no-one perish but all repent and be saved. However, not all will repent because not all desire it. He made a way for all, but not all will accept it.

And lastly, since He sees the end from the beginning, clearly seeing past, present and future as already determined, our future is fixed. If it was not, our future would be contingent. And things contingent cannot be fully known. Therefore, due to the fact God knows all things, including the very details of each and every moment of each and every life, our futures must therefore be fixed. Now, how can our futures be fixed if we have free will? That is a good question. The answer lies in perspective. Through who’s perspective are we seeing our future? Let us take a moment to examine each of these.

First from God’s perspective. Before He created us, He knew us. He knew the day we would be born and the day we would die, and all days in between. He knows the number of hairs on our head, no matter how much we lose. There is no future to God, only now. That is why He declared His name as ‘I AM.’, without adding ‘I WAS’ and ‘I WILL BE.’ As far as God is concerned, our future is as sure as our past. It is known by Him completely. And since His omniscience is perfect, as the rest of His attributes are, He has perfect knowledge of our future. And perfect knowledge is not contingent but is fixed. For example, if you have perfect knowledge of a specific computer program, you will know every aspect of that program. Nothing would surprise you because you would know every outcome of no matter what input was entered or key pressed. You would also know all the strengths and weaknesses of that program. You would know all the bugs in the computer code. You would know exactly the outcome for every keystroke and process. There would be no surprises, no anomalies. This is not a perfect example, but it does help explain why our future is not contingent. Contingency denotes unknowns, and since God has no unknowns, He has no contingencies, and thus the future is fixed.

Now let’s look at the future from man’s perspective. With man, our futures are contingent. There are many choices to make, and each choice has its own effect on our future. We are unable to look beyond the present, because anything beyond the present is contingent on what we do. We may be able to guess, but we can never be absolutely sure. There are variables which bring uncertainty. If you roll one die, one of 6 outcomes are possible. If you randomly choose one card from a complete deck you have 52 possible outcomes. You have no idea which number on the die shows up, or which card gets selected. Let’s take it to another level. Selecting a day in the future for an outdoor party. The weather may not allow for the party to take place. A natural disaster could happen. A foreign country could drop a nuclear device on your yard. What I am getting at is we may think we know what our future holds, but we can never be absolutely sure. Examine the contingencies above, and these are just a few of many outcomes that could occur. And the farther into the future we go, the more contingencies arise.

To sum up these two perspectives. God knows everything about everything. There is nothing outside of His knowledge. We only have knowledge of past and present events we have become acquainted with. We have free will, and God knows what the outcome will be, as opposed to us who only know the choices but not the actual outcome. Thus, free will and a fixed future are compatible. It is how we look at it.

In my next blog post, I will continue to discuss time as a created entity. However, let us remember that God knows our future in totality and this should give us reason to rejoice because He can guide our footsteps completely in the direction He desires. More importantly, because He has accepted us into His family, knowing what we will do and accepting us anyway, we can be assured His love will never lessen and our salvation will never lose its assurance. He is never surprised; thus He can never be disappointed. Let us not view God anthropomorphically, because this takes away the infinite grace and mercy He has for us. He is infinite, and any attempt to place human attributes on Him is to attempt to bring Him to our level. We are to  have His love, His grace, His mercy, and His forgiving ways. We should strive to be like Him, not strive to make Him like us,  understanding time has no relevance when discussing God and His nature. He knows our failures; past, present and future. And He accepts us, anyway, loving us with an everlasting love. Knowing this helps me understand my hope is assured, helping me strive to be what He wants me to be. I am thankful He is not like man, for then our hope would be contingent, thus no hope at all.