Predestination And Foreknowledge – The Difference

Simeon in Luke 2:26 (“And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ”) illustrates well the difference between Predestination and Foreknowledge (called “determinate counsel and foreknowledge” in Acts 2:23.) Does the fact it was prophesied Simeon would not die until he had seen Jesus mean Simeon could go jump off a cliff and God would protect him; he would just glide like a bird down to safety? Or did it mean God knew ahead of time Simeon wouldn’t be jumping off any cliffs? I suggest the latter.

This is similar to Jesus knowing ahead of time that Judas would be the betrayer (John 13:21,26, Matt 26:21,25), but that doesn’t mean God forced Judas to sin by betraying Jesus, that Judas didn’t have a free will choice in the matter. Likewise, Jesus “prophesied” that Peter would deny him three times (Matt 26:34), but this doesn’t mean Peter was forced to deny Jesus in order to fulfill that prophecy, does it? No God does not even tempt men to sin, much less force them to (James 1:13). One other illustration: I knew every day when I got home from work my ten-year old son Wesley was going to ask me to play ping pong, but I didn’t force that; he had a free will choice in the matter. I just knew from what he had done 100 days straight what he was going to do the next day.

On the other hand, predestination is when God causes something to happen. The virgin birth of Jesus is a good example of that. It wasn’t just that God knew ahead of time something was going to happen without making it happen. Without God’s direct miraculous intervention, a virgin birth can never happen. God had to make it happen.

See the difference between predestination and foreknowledge? What Calvinists don’t believe is that God is smart enough to predict something is going to happen with 100% certainly without forcing that something to happen. As a matter of fact, they don’t believe such is even possible for God. You see, they don’t really believe in the full power and sovereignty of God.

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