Published on Facebook, December 11, 2009

By Bud Powell

Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:” (Is 46:9-10)

The biblical data is clear. God knows the future. He knows the future because He predestinates and He creates all things, all events, all actions and all persons. This is true because of the biblical doctrines discussed below. For those who are interested, the rule of this discussion is to confront the Scripture. I do not want unsupported emotional opinion. I have enough of that garbage of my own.

It is not the purpose of these writings to make the doctrine of God as set forth in Scripture pleasing to the atheist. The atheist is not an atheist because Christians are stupid; he is an atheist because his mind is darkened. “The fool said in his heart there is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.” is the way Scripture puts it. This is a man who lives as if there were no God. He may have some flutter in his head about something he calls god, that he evokes to support his own thinking; but God does not exist to give man’s thinking validity. When there were no men, God still lived.

There are those who are ashamed of the biblical doctrine of God, but they are not ashamed of the spoutings of the atheist. Because they are ashamed of the biblical doctrine of God, they seek to hide things that the Bible says, to make the doctrine more attractive to the atheist. This is folly, and God will reveal their folly in their own minds, for they are soon as foolish as the atheists. Isn’t it amazing that those who believe in “libertarian free will” give a pass to atheism because of stupid Christians?

I. The unity of God. This is demonstrated throughout Scripture, but we will cite only a few Scriptures.

A. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” (De 6:4-5 AV) Because there is but One God, every man’s heart is to be united in the love and fear of God. There is, and can be only one God. Ex 34:14 “For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:” De 6:15 “(For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth.”

B. God’s being is without limits. He is invisible and Immense. 1Ki 8:27 “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?”

1. To be infinite, or without limits, means that there are no boundaries with God. He has no beginning and no ending, anywhere in His being. If He could change his mind then something would end in Him and something else begin, and He would not be without limits. He is Alpha and Omega. Ps 102:27 “But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.” Even each “year” with the Lord has no beginning and no ending, for a thousand years is a day and a day as a thousand years. Time simply has no reference to God, for He transcends time but is wholly present in every point of time and every point of space. Jeremiah 23:24 “Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see Him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.” There are no limits to His knowledge [Ps. 139], his power, his glory, his wisdom and knowledge.

2. 24 I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations. 25 Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. 26 They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: 27 But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end. –Psalm 102

3. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth….” Gen. 1:1. In the beginning of what? There was a beginning of Time and Space. Isa 41:4 “Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.” He inhabits eternity—Is. 57:15. and is therefore outside of time and space—they exist in Him, He does not exist in them. Space and time simply do not apply to Him. “Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.” (Jer 23:23-24) Isa 64:4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.

4. These attributes of God can also be denominated “transcendence” and “immanence” and should be what we mean when we pray “Our Father which art in heaven” meaning that He is not in our world of space and time, but not absent from any part of it. He is both above all and in all [Ephesians 4]. Time and space and all things in them belong to Creation, and do not limit God in any way. This includes cause and effect and ratiocination, for they do not apply to God, but to creation.

II. The unity of God requires that none of his attributes can be separated from each other. There is not a just God, a loving God, a powerful God, a wise God, and a good God. or so. The attributes permeate His being and each other.

A. An attribute is a descriptive, something that we are instructed to think about God when we read the Bible. Independence, Immutability, Infinity, and Unity are attributes that belong only to God and they include omnipresence, omnipotence, eternity, immensity, invisibility, goodness, truth, will, etc.

B. This means that God’s will is good, true, powerful, invisible, Infinite, independent, holy, just and good. So is His love, His power, and all his other attributes. Because He is perfectly at peace with Himself, there is no conflict between His love and power, His love and will, His justice, His truth, and His grace and mercy. Isa 57:20 “But the wicked [are] like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt” is the biblical condemnation of Hegelianism and all who follow its filth.

C. For additional information on these established theological ideas, consult my page at http://basketoffigs.org/Openness/Index.htm or any standard theology, Berkhof, Calvin, Charnock, the Westminster Confession of Faith, Charles Hodge. It will not do to seek this wisdom from television or the New York Times.
D. A name might be considered a name for a collection of attributes. When we say “tree” we think of a larger plant, with leaves, a trunk, branches, roots, etc. To change the attributes is to bring confusion into conversation. To take God’s name in vain is to disregard His attributes of truth, integrity, holiness, glory, and power.

III. This means that God knows the future perfectly and completely. There is no limit to His knowledge and He never forgets and never remembers; He knows everything all at once and eternally. He knows the future because He is there in power, knowledge, mercy, justice, and wisdom and glory. One of the most intense passages, perhaps, in the Bible that reveals this comforting truth is a central portion of Isaiah [40-48] that concerns God naming Cyrus to rebuild Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity; many, many years before Judah ever even went into captivity in Babylon, Note the following:

A. In the beginning of Is. 43 God promises that that He will do them good and restore them to their land.

B. He calls all nations to understand that Jacob are His witnesses: 43:10 “Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he, before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, and the LORD; and beside me there is no savior.” At the end of this chapter, he says it is not because of their offerings or their sacrifices [for they did not offer them], but they had even wearied him with their sins and inequities, but he would forgive and blot out their sins for His own sake and for His own glory. 43:22-28

C. Throughout this passage He affirms over and over again that He is the only true God and that there is no other. In Is. 44:6-16 He mocks idolaters and the worshipers of idols that they made with their own hands. He affirms His power: He “frustrates the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish;” (Isa 44:25)

D. In Is. 45:1-12 God affirms that He is the cause of all things: “I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee [Cyrus], though thou hast not known me: That they may know from the rising of the sun, and form the west, that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things, Woe to him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth….” [Pick on someone your equal—pick a fight with another broken pot—don’t mess with the Potter.]

E. Then, in case any one wonders, the Lord says this, after a dramatic scene of the overthrow of Babylon and another mocking of idolatry the Lord says: “Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:” (Isa 46:9-10 AV) How much plainer can it be? How does God know the future, how can He declare the end from the beginning? because the future is the result of His counsel and His will. Isaiah connects foreknowledge to God’s wisdom and will to do His pleasure. When the things come to pass they will be according to His counsel and the pleasure of His will. Bud Powell didn’t say that, Isaiah did under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.

IV. But there is more: Why does God give prophecy? Why does He tell us the future? He also speaks of that subject in Isaiah 48:3-8

“I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass. Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass; No Palantier in Heaven. How, then, Does God Know the Future?

The biblical data is clear. God knows the future. He knows the future because He predestinates and He creates everything, all events, all actions and all things. This is true because of the biblical doctrines discussed below. For those who are interested, the rules of this discussion is to confront the Scripture. I do not want unsupported emotional opinion. I have enough of that garbage of my own.

It is not the purpose of these writings to make the doctrine of God as set forth in Scripture pleasing to the atheist. The atheist is not an atheist because Christians are stupid; he is an atheist because his mind is darkened. “The fool said in his heart there is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.” is the way Scripture puts it. This is a man who lives as if there were no God. He may have some flutter in his head about something he calls god, that he evokes to support his own thinking; but God does not exist to give man’s thinking validity. When there were no men, God still lived.

There are those who are ashamed of the biblical doctrine of God, but they are not ashamed of the spoutings of the atheist. Because they are ashamed of the biblical doctrine of God, they seek to hide things that the Bible says, to make the doctrine more attractive to the atheist. This is folly, and God will reveal their folly in their own minds, for they are soon as foolish as the atheists. Isn’t it amazing that those who believe in “libertarian free will” give a pass to atheism because of stupid Christians?

“I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass. Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass; I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I showed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them. Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I have showed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them. They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them. Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.” (Isa 48:3-8) Not from some fictional dream of the age of accountability--from the womb. Go argue with God about it if you don’t like it, but it would be better to choose a broken pot like Bud Powell, but you still won’t win. Scripture cannot be broken, even if spoken by a broken pot.

God told Israel ahead of time what would happen, what His will and His wisdom would accomplish, because He knew the wickedness and evil of their hearts. He knew their neck was obstinate and their brow like brass. If God hadn’t told them ahead of time, they would have given credit to their images and idols, their false causes like “limited free will,” They would have smugly said “I knew it.” They were “transgressors from the womb and would deal very treacherously, not since the age of accountability, but from the womb. But even so, God would refine them in the furnace of affliction, but it would be for His own sake. He will not give His glory to another.

As a beloved professor told us more than fifty years ago, “There isn’t much you can say about this except, ‘I don’t believe it.’”

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