SUNDAY: Bible Study - 9:00 AM | Worship - 10:00 AM | PM Worship - 6:00 PM WEDNESDAY: Bible Class - 7:00 PM ~ 8110 Signal Hill Road Manassas, Virginia | Office Phone: 703.368.2622

TwilightZoneSince you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.  For you know that it was not with perishable things such a silver and gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through Him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. I Peter 1.17-21.

            We all think we want to know the future. We could make lots of money from bookies and brokers (is there a difference?), if we knew, ahead of time, which horse or which stock would perform better than expected. But do we really want to know? How would we behave differently if we know the future? If I knew for certain that 5 years from now I will develop a melanoma would I double down on the sunscreen? Would an extra, daily layer of SPF 50 prevent the melanoma?  It could be that there is an ingredient in the sunscreen that will be found to be carcinogenic – thus my action to avoid the cancer could actually achieve the future I sought to change.

            This is exactly what happened to Oedipus. In trying to avoid the destiny given to him, he fled to what he thought was a foreign country, and actually made possible the fulfillment of the prophecy that he would kill his own father.

            There was a television program a few years back called Early Edition in which a stock broker got the morning paper a day ahead of time. He saw the headline for the next day, and then spent the next hour rearranging things to avert catastrophe. I doubt things would work that way. I think Rod Serling had it right. In two Twilight Zone episodes: “A Most Unusual Camera” from season 2, and “What’s in the Box” from season 5, people who are given a glimpse of their futures, are powerless to escape them.

            In the first, a group of horse players get a Polaroid camera that takes snaps of the future.  They use it to photograph the board at a race track, in order to see the win, place, and show horses ahead of time.  In the second, William Demarest can see the near future of his tawdry life on his own television. In both episodes bad people come to bad ends because of their bad behavior despite seeing the future. This is a more probable outcome of human foreknowledge.

            The passage above is about redemption. We are saved because Jesus was sacrificed for us- a spotless, innocent Lamb. His death accomplishes our salvation, the possibility of faith, and Jesus’ own glorification. Our sin necessitates Jesus’ death.  We know this. It is the central truth of Christianity. The passage above is also about foreknowledge. It tells us that God knew Jesus would die before we were even created.

He was chosen before the foundation of the world (I Peter 1.20).

            God knew before He said “Let there be light” that Jesus would have to die – and He created us anyway. God knew ahead of time that most of us would reject the salvation Jesus’ death provides – and He created us anyway. God knew that most of us would allow the spirit He puts in us to die and to stay dead – and He created us anyway. Amazing. This is the outcome of Divine foreknowledge.

            Any speculation about the possibility of human foreknowledge is futile – none of us will ever have it; and unnecessary – God has already told us the outcome of things.  Are we sufficiently in awe of a God who loves us enough to create us, despite knowing how much hurt we would bring?

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