At the outset of this next section, I need to first explain the concept of the foreknowledge of God, which is a biblical truth that is revealed to us by both the apostle Paul (Romans 8:29) and the apostle Peter (1 Peter 1:2). There are two aspects to the foreknowledge of God. The first is God’s perfect knowledge of everything about His creations before He ever creates them. The second is God’s perfect knowledge of all of the future of all of His creations before He ever creates them. When the bible teaches us about God’s election and predestination, it always links that concept to the foreknowledge of God. And so, when the bible teaches us that God predestines us based on His foreknowledge of us, it is referring to the first aspect of God’s foreknowledge of everything about us, not the second aspect of God’s foreknowledge of all of our future. In other words, God does not place the cart before the horse. And so, the sequence is as follows; God first foreknows everything about us, and based on His foreknowledge of everything about us, He then predestines our lives accordingly, and based on His predestination of our lives He then knows all of our future, and it is only then that He physically creates us and places us into His creation.
Michael E.B. Maher
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