Foreknowledge and Free Choices: A Study of Semantic Complexity in Scripture

Seminary Commons

My poster addresses the problem of evaluating the different models proposed by sincere Bible students on how to interpret the semantic complexity of the teaching of Judeo-Christian Scripture on God’s foreknowledge and free choices. Competing perspectives include the Augustinian/Calvinist, the Molinist/Arminian, and the Open Theist models. Some Bible students propose that God does foreknow free choices. Others propose that God does not foreknow free choices. There is also diversity among those who affirm God’s foreknowledge of free choices. For example, God’s foreknowledge is understood variously as anticipating: the necessity of free choices; the certainty of free choices; the possibility of free choices; or the conditionality of free choices. Each of these views seeks and finds some support from Scripture. Therefore, evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of these different views may be enhanced by studying the semantic complexity of the biblical teaching on God’s foreknowledge and free choices.