What does God know and when does He know it?

Sunday Worship 1 March 2009
Speaker: Chen Boon Tai
Text: Isaiah 40-48

What do men say:

"Throughout the history of the church, Christians have discussed the nature and content of God's foreknowledge.... But now the debate is taking place not only in elite theological circles, but also in churches, on campuses, at denominational conferences and in popular Christian magazines (such as Christianity Today)," so wrote Beilby and Eddy in their book Divine Knowledge: Four Views (2001).

1. The Open-Theism View

This view states that God, by His own self-limitation, has no complete knowledge of the future; He is the God who takes risks, a God who learns, reacts, makes mistakes, regrets, changes His mind, as He interacts with men who are free beings and whose decisions God has no control over. All this is based on scriptural passages.

God has made Himself vulnerable by empowering others to make decisions that may grieve Him, but at the same time He has not given away more power to creatures than He can handle. Thus in the end, God is still sovereign and will still triumph over all. His sovereignty is a sovereignty of love rather than control.

2. The Simple-Foreknowledge View

God simply knows the future, because He can see everything including the future, and this is wholly compatible with human freedom, divine agency and enhanced providential control.

3. The Middle-Knowledge View

God's knowledge of the future is not based on his "looking' ahead and "seeing" what lies in the future. Rather God's knowledge is self-contained; it is more like a mind's knowledge on innate ideas.As an omniscient being, God has essentially the property of knowing all truths, including truths about future events. He knows what every creature would freely do under any circumstances.

4. The Augustinian-Calvinist View

God know everything, but this is not inconsistent with human accountability.

What does God say:

Isaiah 44

⁶ "This is what the LORD says—
Israel's King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty:
I am the first and I am the last;
apart from me there is no God.

⁷ Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it.
Let him declare and lay out before me
what has happened since I established my ancient people,
and what is yet to come—
yes, let him foretell what will come.

⁸ Do not tremble, do not be afraid.
Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago?
You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me?
No, there is no other Rock; I know not one."

²⁴ "This is what the LORD says—
your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb:
I am the LORD,
who has made all things,
who alone stretched out the heavens,
who spread out the earth by myself,

²⁵ who foils the signs of false prophets
and makes fools of diviners,
who overthrows the learning of the wise
and turns it into nonsense,

²⁶ who carries out the words of his servants
and fulfills the predictions of his messengers,
who says of Jerusalem, 'It shall be inhabited,'
of the towns of Judah, 'They shall be built,'
and of their ruins, 'I will restore them,'

²⁷ who says to the watery deep, 'Be dry,
and I will dry up your streams,'

²⁸ who says of Cyrus, 'He is my shepherd
and will accomplish all that I please;
he will say of Jerusalem, "Let it be rebuilt,"
and of the temple, "Let its foundations be laid." '

Isaiah 45

⁷ I form the light and create darkness,
I bring prosperity and create disaster;
I, the LORD, do all these things.

¹¹ "This is what the LORD says—
the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker:
Concerning things to come,
do you question me about my children,
or give me orders about the work of my hands?

¹² It is I who made the earth
and created mankind upon it.
My own hands stretched out the heavens;
I marshaled their starry hosts.

¹³ I will raise up Cyrus ^b]">[b] in my righteousness:
I will make all his ways straight.
He will rebuild my city
and set my exiles free,
but not for a price or reward,
says the LORD Almighty."

Isaiah 46

⁹ Remember the former things, those of long ago;
I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me.

¹⁰ I make known the end from the beginning,
from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say: My purpose will stand,
and I will do all that I please.

¹¹ From the east I summon a bird of prey;
from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose.
What I have said, that will I bring about;
what I have planned, that will I do.

Isaiah 48

³ I foretold the former things long ago,
my mouth announced them and I made them known;
then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.

⁴ For I knew how stubborn you were;
the sinews of your neck were iron,
your forehead was bronze.

⁵ Therefore I told you these things long ago;
before they happened I announced them to you
so that you could not say,
'My idols did them;
my wooden image and metal god ordained them.'

⁶ You have heard these things; look at them all.
Will you not admit them?
"From now on I will tell you of new things,
of hidden things unknown to you.

⁷ They are created now, and not long ago;
you have not heard of them before today.
So you cannot say,
'Yes, I knew of them.'

⁸ You have neither heard nor understood;
from of old your ear has not been open.
Well do I know how treacherous you are;
you were called a rebel from birth.

⁹ For my own name's sake I delay my wrath;
for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you,
so as not to cut you off.

¹⁰ See, I have refined you, though not as silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

¹¹ For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this.
How can I let myself be defamed?
I will not yield my glory to another.

And now, what do you say?

Ecclesiastes 5

2Do not be quick with your mouth,
do not be hasty in your heart
to utter anything before God.
God is in heaven
and you are on earth,
so let your words be few.

Ecclesiastes 12

¹³ Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.

¹⁴ For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil.

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Justified!

Sunday Worship 22 February 2009
Speaker: David Tan
Text: Galatians 2
Message: Justified

The morning’s message was framed by 2 stories: the first, regarding Peter and his vision, and the other illustrating the extent of God’s justification of sinners.

We were first introduced to Acts 10 which provides a little background about the spread of the gospel after Jesus’ ascension (to people other than Jews), and a comment on Paul’s public disagreement with Peter in Galatians 2.

In this story, a devout and generous centurion by the name of Cornelius is visited by an angel. The centurion is commended for his devotion and kindness and is told to send for a man called Simon. The implication is clear that God does notice the good that all people do, regardless of their religious persuasion. In this case, God arranges for Cornelius to hear the gospel.

Meanwhile, Peter who was praying on the roof at midday falls asleep and has a strange vision and learns an important lesson as events unfold and he meets Cornelius. Peter says:

"I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right. You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.” Acts 10:34-36

Defending freedom in Christ

In what has been called the ‘Incident at Antioch’ Paul rebukes Peter who had withdrawn himself from fellowship with Gentile believers when influential Jews sent by James arrives. These influential Jews were Judaizers who insist that all Gentile believers submit to Old Testament customs - such as circumcision and dietary laws - if they wished to be recognized as genuine followers of Jesus.

At the center of the disagreement was the key issue regarding salvation: If salvation comes to us on the basis of Jesus’ death on the cross, should not Old Testament rituals be set aside by now as incompatible with God's grace? People who insisted on such conventions were contradicting “our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus,” said Paul.

Justification by faith alone

Galatians 2:15,16 spell out Paul’s convictions:

"We who are Jews by birth and not `Gentile sinners' know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.”

Paul’s challenge of the Judaizers’ Faith + OT customs (works) formula for salvation would surface again in the days of Martin Luther (1483-1546). The great protestant reformer once struggled with God’s holiness and forgiveness until the letters of Paul opened his eyes to the truth. As Luther put it, today the church stands or falls on the doctrine of justification:

“This doctrine (justification by faith) is the head and the cornerstone. It alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves, and defends the church of God; and without it the church of God cannot exist one hour...” Martin Luther

Back in the days of Paul, the apostle objected to legalists who demanded adherence to OT customs as prerequisite for salvation. Instead he referred to the language of the courts on one hand to explain how God by his grace declares sinners righteous. Elsewhere in Romans 10:10 Paul also wrote:

“For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”

Crucified with Christ

There is nothing humanity can do; there is only that which God has done – by sending Jesus to die in our place on the cross. We were identified with Jesus in his crucifixion, and Jesus became sin in our place. When Jesus died and rose again, his righteousness was 'imputed' on undeserving sinners. Such grace offers forgiveness freely to all Jew and Gentile, canceling out any requirement for performance good of works or legalistic rituals.

But if such forgiveness brings justification, does that mean Christians are free to live as they like? No, because the Christian who is justified is also one who has been crucified with Christ.

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Gal 2:20

The person who has truly found forgiveness enters into a new relationship with the living Christ, and will desire nothing more than to let Jesus live in him. It will mean a new sense of direction – new ambitions, new desires, new passion, new priorities.

In conclusion, the story of Duch was told to illustrate the depth of God’s grace and how it justifies even the worse among us. Duch was the jailer and executioner at Cambodia’s infamous Toule Sleng Prison. According to reports Duch was personally responsible for the deaths of between 16,000 and 20,000 prisoners. But in 1995 he became a Christian, and became a lay pastor and was working with World Vision for a time before he was arrested in 1999.

The recently convened UN supervised Genocide trial saw Duch stand accused for crimes against humanity committed during the Khmer Rouge’s rule in Cambodia. Duch was the only Khmer Rouge officer to admit guilt and express remorse. He reportedly said:

"I have done very bad things in my life. Now it is time to bear the consequences of my actions. I thought that God was very bad. I did not serve God, I served communism. I feel very sorry about the killings. We killed them like chickens. . . . I guess I will go to jail now, but it is OK. The killings must be understood. The truth should be known."

God freely forgives and freely justifies. Whether Jew or Gentile, an ordinary person or a notorious criminal, God’s salvation is free, with no conditions attached - even for men like Duch. But the evidence of transformation will be seen in the life that is lived “by faith in the Son of God.”

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Romans 5:9,10

More on Duch: Is there anything God can't forgive?