In his City of God, the well-known saint refers to Cicero's argument that men have free will, and God, as a result, cannot have foreknowledge. This seems like a logical argument enough, from the perspective of every day human reasoning. After all, if we have free will, or power over our "domains" (and it is apparent that we do), then God cannot at the same time have foreknowledge, or an eternal understanding of what each person will do in every situation. For him to do that would mean that we would be robots. So, Cicero's right, end of story.
Thankfully, though, Augustine puts his foot down right where Cicero leaves off. See, he says, "...he both denies the the foreknowledge of God, and attempts by vain arguments...to overthrow all prophecy, even such as is clearer than the light..." And right here we, as Christians, have an interesting dilemma. If we believe Cicero's seemingly logical claim, then we must deny the lordship of Jesus Christ. We know him to be the Messiah because it has been prophesied. Augustine points out that prophecy is...foreknowledge. So, Cicero, at the very least, must make an exception for prophecy.
I'm not sure if Augustine was chuckling or snarling as he wrote his next paragraph, but at any rate he showed what is unquestionably the most serious flaw in Cicero's thinking: If he's right, the Bible's wrong. And if the Bible's wrong...God. Isn't. God.
See, the Scriptures tell us outright that God is omniscient. This is Latin for all-knowing (for an explanation, see my series on the beauty of English). We hold the Bible to be inerrant, so this means that if what we believe is true...God must, by necessity, have foreknowledge.
This takes us to something Cicero says before reaching his conclusion. The problem, he points out, is that if God knows everything beforehand, we cannot possibly have free will. We've already taken out his other point, so let's examine this. What is free will? Basically, it is the idea that we have some kind of power and freedom over our lives and choices. As interesting as it would be to try to imagine a world where God planned every decision we'd make, it just doesn't work that way. That would be saying that we are robots, and that God plans sin, because we all sin by nature. God, being a perfectly righteous being, cannot make us sin.
Once again, Cicero's wrong...and Augustine's right. Before we examine the implications of this, though, let's take a quick rabbit-trail and put forward some clarifying definitions. A lot of people easily get the concepts of predestination and foreknowledge mixed up. By definition, foreknowledge is the idea that God knows everything we will do in advance. Predestination is an relative of foreknowledge (the common ancestor being the future), wherein God mysteriously chooses those who are his elect, regardless of actions or opinions on earth, only dependent on his grace to save.
With that cleared up, let's look briefly at the implications of this dual-theology. How does it work that God knows everything, but allows us freedom? The answer is that we can't quite know. What I'll do to try to help you understand this, though, is to give you two of everything: two analogies, two do-not's, and two to-do's.
First, our analogies. My favorite one that I've heard from a variety of people is this: God is the author, we are his characters. He's writing a book, and he knows exactly what his will is, and where his story is going to end up. But, as a good author, he lets us put in our own dialogue, choices, preferences, rabbit-trails on his story, even. Everything is accomplished for his purposes in the end, but we are free-roaming characters all the same. The exception to this rule, of course, is for those who have not seen the light. As Martin Luther put it, their wills are in bondage to sin. The other analogy I like, though it may be a little more philosophical, is the analogy that we are given "domains" to rule in and subdue (Genesis) because we are made in God's image. God is all-knowing and all-powerful. If we are made in God's image, and he is all-knowing and all-powerful, then we must have some kind of knowledge and power. It's part of his design.
Okay, analogies: check! Now to look at what we should not do with this theology. First, don't take the analogy of the clockmaker, or with this exact theology, a variant of it. What this variant does is it says that since God knows everything, he winds up the clock of the world and lets it go, knowing what'll happen anyway. (The traditional version is that he sits back and watches to see what will happen). Now, this clockmaker mentality, while supporting our theology on the surface, doesn't match up underneath. The theology Augustine suggests is rooted in God's character. The clockmaker approach is rooted in our theology. God's character is loving and involved, because he is love. Viewing God as a clockmaker is deistic.
Another mistake not to make is that of over-emphasizing either foreknowledge or free will, while forgetting the other one entirely. The problem with this is that it is not balanced, and against God's nature because God is a God of order, of which balance is a part. Practically speaking, this doesn't work, because either the person doing this will end up abusing free will and falling into deeper and deeper sin, while forgetting the grace of God; or he will end up abusing God's foreknowledge and doing nothing to advance the Gospel of grace.
So we know what Cicero said, how Augustine replied, who was right and why, what it looks like, and what we should not do with it. That leaves one more question: what should we do? My first piece of advice is look at this as both an opportunity to get to know God and yourself better, understanding the nature of each in its proper place. Because, as Augustine points out, without foreknowledge a god cannot be God, and and without free will humans cannot be human. (For more on what this means, see my post "Conquistadors"). So rejoice and get to know yourself, and the God who created you, at a whole new level!
Finally, take Augustine seriously when he says, "Love God, do as you please." In other words, if you love God, you will seek, in your realization of his foreknowledge and out of your free will, to do his will.
Grace and Peace.
Meridian
