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GOD'S FOREKNOWLEDGE
Not a Determining Cause
PROPHECY is one of the specified gifts of the Spirit, and one of the distinguishing graces of the Church of Christ. If there be prophecy there must be prophets, men through whom the purposes of God are made known to the people at large. Prediction of events more or less remotely future is a prophetic function, though constituting but part of the gift of prophecy.
Divine revelation of what is to come is proof of foreknowledge. God, therefore, knows, and has known from the beginning, what shall be, even to the end of the world. The transgression of Adam was foreknown, even before the man was embodied in flesh; and because of the results entailed upon humankind a Redeemer was chosen, even "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." The earthly life, ministry, and sacrificial death of the Savior were all foreseen, and their certainty was declared by the mouths of holy prophets.
The apostasy of the Primitive Church, the long centuries of spiritual darkness, the restoration of the Gospel in these latter days in a land specifically prepared as the abode of a liberty-loving nation—each of these epoch-marking events was known to God, and by Him was revealed through prophets empowered to speak in His name.
But who will venture to affirm that foreknowledge is a determining cause? God's omniscience concerning Adam cannot reasonably be considered the cause of the Fall. Adam was free to do as he chose to do. God did not force him to disobey the Divine command. Neither did God's knowledge compel false Judas to betray the Christ, nor the recreant Jews to crucify their Lord.
Surely the omniscience of God does not operate to make of men automations; nor does it warrant the superstition of fatalism. The chief purpose of earth life, as a stage in the course of the soul's progression, would be nullified if man's agency was after all but a pretense, and he a creature of circumstance compelled to do as he does.
A mortal father who knows the weaknesses and frailties of his son may by reason of that knowledge sorrowfully predict the calamities and suffering awaiting his wayward boy. He may foresee in that son's future a forfeiture of blessings that could be won, loss of position, self-respect, reputation, character, and honor. Even the dark shadows of a felon's cell and the night of a drunkard's grave may loom in the visions of that fond father's soul. Yet, convinced by experience of the son's determination to follow the path of sin, he foresees the dread developments to the future, and writhes in anguish because of his knowledge.
Can it be truthfully said that the father's foreknowledge is even a contributory cause of the evil life of his boy? To so hold is to say that a neglectful parent, who will not trouble himself to study the character of his son, who shuts his eyes to sinful ways, and rests in careless indifference as to the probable future, will by his very heartlessness benefit the boy, because the father's lack of forethought diminishes the son's tendency toward dereliction.