Does God know the future?

That depends on which God you are talking about.

People who embrace a set of views known as “open theism” like to say that God does not know the future (either his own, or that of his world, or both – there are different versions).

I’m reading Isaiah 41-44 again, and am freshly struck by what is here. God sets out one test or characteristic that will distinguish him, the true God, from an idol or false God.

God can tell you what is going to happen; an idol cannot

Here is the test, for example, in 44:7

“Who is like me? Let him proclaim it.
Let him declare and set it before me,
since I appointed an ancient people.
Let them declare what is to come and what will happen.”

Whereas with the true God, the Lord,

“Behold, the former things have come to pass,
and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth
I tell you of them.” (42:9)

That is the black and white difference. If you want to know whether a proposed God is the living God or a false God, ask: Can this “God” tell you what will happen?

Which shows how tragically inverted open theism is. It means that open theism amounts to telling us that the living God shares a fundamental characteristic of an idol – that God is as useless as the false gods Israel were called to denounce. If this were the God we have, there might be no new creation, suffering might last forever, there might be no judgement, sin might go unpunished, and so on. Awful.

How wonderful that the reverse is true. This is the kind of God I want to worship today – one who knows what will come to pass and will tell us. Isn’t that the kind of God that it is a delight to have, one who can say, “Here is what will happen in the future”, and we can be sure that he’s got it right. Praise God that he is so glorious!