"Omniscience" by Gordon H. Clark

The following is a quote from a chapter called, "Omniscience," in Gordon H. Clark's book, Predestination:

The last verse for this chapter is Genesis 50:20. After Joseph’s brethren had sold him into slavery and had later rediscovered him as the second ruler in Egypt, and after their father Jacob had died, they were afraid that Joseph would take vengeance upon them. Joseph replied, “As for you, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good.” God knew all the sins of Joseph’s brothers, and he also knew long before it happened that good would result from these sins.

Did God merely know these sins ahead of time, or did he predestinate and foreordain them? All this insistence on God’s knowledge, God’s knowledge of all things, God’s knowledge of all sins, centuries before they occurred, from eternity in fact, is preparation for the proper understanding of predestination. As will be seen, some who think they are Bible students get so confused with predestination and objections against this doctrine, that they have taken the extreme step of denying that God is all knowing. Surely enough has already been given to rule out such an impious refuge from the biblical doctrine of predestination.

Yet this impious refuge has some consistency to it. Whether or not God foreordains sinful acts, this chapter has made abundantly clear that he knows these sinful acts from all eternity. This knowledge of the future is not the same as alleged human knowledge of the future. We may say carelessly that we know it will rain tomorrow. We really do not know. We may have a plausible opinion that it will rain; but since our plausible opinions are several times mistaken, we cannot say that we really know. But God knows. He does not entertain a merely plausible opinion that may turn out to be mistaken. What he knows always happens. When Cain killed Abel, God knew that Joseph’s brothers would sell him into slavery. This evil act was therefore inevitable. It could not not-happen. Foreknowledge implies inevitability. If Joseph’s brothers had killed him, as they first thought of doing, then God would have been mistaken. The sale had to take place. Does this mean that God foreordains sinful acts? Well, it surely means that these acts were certain and determined from all eternity. It means that the brothers could not have done otherwise. Then who made those acts certain? The brothers could not have made them certain, for they were not yet born at the time of Cain and Abel. If God did not determine them, then there must be in the universe a determining force independent of God. You can escape this conclusion simply by denying that God knows all things.

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