Theological glossary · FaithLogic

Foreknowledge (of God)

God's knowledge of persons and events before they exist or occur — disputed in the election debate between 'advance knowledge of what people will do' and a relational 'setting his heart on' / choosing.

Greek prognōsis / proginōskō, 'to know beforehand'; renders and extends Hebrew yada, 'to know', which often carries elective, covenantal force.

Romans 8:29; 11:2; Acts 2:23; 1 Peter 1:2, 20; and the OT background of yada in Amos 3:2 ('you only have I known'), Jeremiah 1:5, Genesis 18:19.

The Arminian reading: God foreknew who would believe and chose them (election 'in view of' faith). The Calvinist reading: proginōskō has persons as its object (not their faith), and echoes the OT 'know' meaning 'choose to be in covenant with' — so foreknowledge is not the ground of election but a name for it. 1 Peter 1:20 (Christ 'foreknown before the foundation of the world') is cited as showing the verb means 'appointed', not merely 'known about'.

All the historic traditions except open theism affirm that God's foreknowledge is exhaustive and certain; they differ on its role in election and on whether it is 'bare' precognition or elective.

Cognitive vs. relational sense of proginōskō in Romans 8:29; whether foreknowledge of a free act fixes that act; the Molinist 'middle knowledge' proposal.

Open in the glossary for related terms and the doctrines this concept appears in.