Does God "foreknow" which person(s) will accept His gift of salvation, and which ones will not?
I believe and The United Methodist Church teaches that God does NOT “foreknow” which individuals will accept God’s gift of salvation.
The word that Paul uses for “Foreknow” in Romans 8:29 is used 5 times in the New Testament. 2 of these uses (Act 26 and 2 Peter 3) are referring to people knowing something before now. These 2 uses are not in reference to God. They don’t help us here. One is used (1 Peter 1) for God foreknowing Christ. This seems to be a special case that doesn’t effect us.
The other 2 uses (Romans 8 and 11) are pretty interesting. At chapter 11 Paul talks about how God “foreknew” the nation of Israel. Paul admits that he is a part of the nation of Israel. About 2000 years before Paul was born, God promised to protect and bless the nation of Israel. Paul is saying that he is a part of that blessing because he happened to be Jewish.
Paul is not saying that God foreknew Paul and he is blessed because he is Paul. He’s saying that God foreknew a group called Israel.
In the same way in this passage, God foreknew a group called Christian. Those who fit the description of Christian will fit into the blessing.
In Chapter 11, the word “foreknew” is not taking about God foreknowing Brother Joseph who was born of sister Martha being a member of chosen Israel. Paul is talking about anyone born under the scope of Israel as being God’s chosen.
The same word is used by the same author in chapter 8. The word “foreknew” must have the same meaning here. Paul must be talking about God foreknowing a group who would be known as believers. He’s not talking about Brother Hector who God knew would come to Jesus on his deathbed. He’s talking about knowing a group who would accept Jesus into their life.
God didn’t determine who will be in and who will be out of heaven. God makes provisions for us to take advantage of evangelisms activities. We must decide if we are in or out of God’s party.
God knows us even better than we know ourselves. God knows who is interested in the spiritual realities and who is not. We are not going to surprise him. He knows what we are going to do. He knows who will end up with him. That could look like foreknowing to us. As God is outside of time as we understand it, he could know before we do. But, he’s not going to “force” us to follow him.
