Divine Foreknowledge and Human Responsibility in Salvation

If someone insists these events could not have taken place, we respond that they might not have occurred, but it does not follow that if something is incapable of happening, it must either happen or fail to happen; events unfold not solely by necessity, but also as contingent possibilities, including the possibility of non-occurrence. The examination of what is possible engages both logical analysis and reflective insight, enabling one who turns inward to perceive the subtlety of arguments and grasp how even fortuitous occurrences do not obstruct the potential for something to be actual in multiple ways—one of many possibilities becoming real, not by compulsion. God foreknew that events would unfold not through necessity but as free possibilities, and the declaration that they would occur is not speculative guesswork but genuine foreknowledge. Let no one suppose we have remained silent on predestination as if it were a heavy burden, for Paul affirms we know that all things cooperate for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. Yet observe how the apostle immediately identifies the ground of this calling: those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be shaped into the likeness of his Son. Who, then, is more fitting for the righteous vocation grounded in God’s purpose than those who love him? Indeed, he makes clear the source of this calling lies within us—our purpose and foreknowledge: we know that all things work together for good for those who love God. For he nearly said that such cooperation occurs because those who love God are worthy partners in the good. At the same time, let us challenge those who speak contrary views and demand they answer us. Assume hypothetically that something depends on us; we will tell them they reject what depends on us until their argument collapses under the weight of the given hypothesis as unsound. Given that something depends on us, does God, by ordaining the sequence of future events, foreknow what will arise from what depends on us in each case where such dependence exists, or does he not? To claim he does not foreknow is to overlook the universal intellect and grandeur of God. But if they affirm he does foreknow, let us ask: is his foreknowledge the cause of what will come to pass, given that what depends on us exists? Or, since he foreknew, is foreknowledge entirely irrelevant as a cause of what depends on us? It was possible for some of these individuals, having answered otherwise, to have acted differently, and the self-determining creature brought into being could have chosen otherwise. In such discourses, the words 'Well done, good and faithful servant' are preserved, as well as 'You have been faithful over little; I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your lord.' Likewise preserved is the reasonable utterance of the wicked and slothful servant: 'You ought to have put my money to the exchangers.' Only justly spoken words will endure: to those on the right, 'Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,' because I was hungry and you gave me food, and what follows; but to those on the left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels,' because I was hungry and you gave me no food, nor what follows. Moreover, even if one were set apart for the gospel of God from the womb and had necessity imposed upon them, how could they consistently speak of subduing their body and leading into slavery if they had not yet been declared unapproved by others, and the woe would be theirs if they did not evangelize? Clearly, from this it follows that if they had not subdued their body and led into slavery, it would have been possible for them to be declared unapproved by others, and it was possible for woe to befall them had they not evangelized. Perhaps God both set them apart from the womb and for the gospel of God, together with perceiving the cause of the just separation: that they would subdue their body and lead into slavery, wary lest they themselves, while proclaiming, become unapproved; and knowing that woe would come upon them if they did not evangelize, they did not remain silent out of fear of God regarding the woe, but evangelized. And these things were seen by the one who set them apart from their mother’s womb and the one who set them apart for their own gospel: that there would be labors, imprisonments, beatings beyond measure, frequent deaths; by the Jews five times forty lashes minus one, three times beaten with rods, once stoned; and these things will happen to them.