God: does He know what will happen tomorrow?

Question:  Dear Dr. Roane, how does God know everything. Does He know what will happen tomorrow?

Answer: I think I basically answered this question a few newsletters back when I wrote on "middle knowledge" and Molinism. Here is a slightly different shorter version.

First of all, there are two questions here: One, "How does God know everything?" And, two, "Does He know what will happen tomorrow?"

An honest question deserves an honest reply: I simply do not know how God knows everything but He does. Some feel that He lives in the eternal now, and is able to see the end from the beginning. However, seeing and knowing are two different things. You may know something without seeing it. Concepts, and one's imagination work that way. It stands to reason that there is nothing to see before there is a there there—that is, before something happens. So, there must be some other way that God knows, without seeing. Could that be that He has perfect powers of predictability? An expert billiard players is about the closes that I can come to the concept. He sees the balls as they lay before him, and he can predict which holes they will go into when he hits the cue-ball in a certain way. So, it is with God. Since He created everything, including the ways they will interact with one another, then His predictability must be perfect. Thus, He knows everything, and knows what will happen tomorrow. How? The "how" is still a mystery. Since He is God, however, He must by definition have the ability to imagine with complete knowledge of the "resultant" end before it actually happens. Beyond that, it is best to lGeave the "how" up to Him.

Having said that, however, I must reiterate with Galileo Galilei (1564-1642):

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect had intended for us to forgo their use."

Reason, logical syllogisms, and all the philosophy in the world, however, will never substitute for a Divine encounter with His Majesty on High.

Trust this helps,

JimR_/