Jeff in Indianapolis, Indiana, listening on the Catholic Answers app, you are on
with Jimmy Akin. What's your question? So I am a convert to the Catholic faith
from more the Reformed background, and my question is: what's the difference between
God's foreknowledge of our salvation and predestining us for salvation? And is it
possible for someone to really earnestly desire salvation, but not be able to
receive it because they're not predestined? Okay.
There's no single answer to this question because there are different
ways of understanding foreknowledge and predestination and how they relate. And
so I can't give you a single up or down answer here. In general,
foreknowledge, based on just where the word comes from, would mean knowing something
in advance. And when we apply that to God, we have to be a little careful because
God exists outside of time and so there's not really a before or after
where God is--in eternity. He sees all of history all at once and knows everything
we do from that eternal perspective, and there's not really a before or after
there. So from a human perspective I could say "Well, God knows what I'm going
to do, let's say in the year 2030, now." You know, so "In 2017, God knows what
I'm going to do in 2030." But where God is, there's no distinction between 2017 and
2030 in terms of His existence, because 2017 and 2030 are years that exist in
history and He exists outside of history; and so really the proper way to say it
is "In the eternal Now, God knows what I'm doing in both years." But from an
accommodated human perspective--because let's say, if God sent a prophet
today, he could say "Jimmy Akin, thou art going to do this in 2030," you know, that
gives an experience for us of foreknowing something and that's
really what we're talking about when we talk about foreknowledge in that sense.
However, the term "foreknow" can also be understood other ways. One of the things
that some people have proposed is that it involves an intimacy, because in
Scripture, obviously there's "knowing someone" in the Biblical sense, as in "Adam
knew his wife" means "Adam was intimate with his wife." Well, it can also
be understood in other senses that don't have a sexual dimension but
nevertheless illustrate a kind of intimacy. Like when Jesus says "On the
last day, many people are going to say to me, 'Lord, Lord didn't we do all these
great things in your name?'" and he's going to say "I never knew you." Not meaning he
didn't know who they were, in his divine omniscience, but he was never
close with them, he was never intimate with them, because their hearts were evil.
And so some people have proposed that, at least in some biblical texts where it
talks about foreknowledge, it really it doesn't just mean God factually knowing
stuff about the future, but God being intimate with people from his eternal
perspective. In terms of how that relates to predestination: predestination is
understood in different senses. It can mean God assigns a particular
destiny; the question is on what basis does he do that? Some people, particularly
in the Calvinist community, would say that God assigns people's destinies
either to heaven or hell for no reason. He just says "This person's going to
heaven, this person's go to hell," has no reason beyond his own "fiat." That's
something that the Catholic Church wouldn't go along with; and so you have
different schools of thought which, I can't really go into all the differences
between them here, but if you look in the Catechism, it leans towards the idea that
predestination is based on God's knowledge of what people will freely
choose to do. And so it talks about God foreknowing
what people's choices are going to be, and so if He foresees that
they will choose to cooperate with his grace, then on that basis he predestines
them to glory. If He foresees that they're not going to cooperate with
his grace, then He doesn't predestine them to glory. And so there's a robust
role for free will in this understanding. There's also another way of taking
predestination, which is kind of a corporate understanding of
predestination. One of the things that we find when we read the Biblical texts that
talk about this concept is they talk about being predestined "in Christ." And
some people have proposed that what that means is, as long as you have a saving
union with Christ, as long as you're in Christ as a living member of his body so
you're in a state of grace, then as long as that's the case, you're among the
predestined. But if you cease to be a living member of the body of Christ--you
commit mortal sin, you turn your back on God, you leave the Church, things like
that--then you cease to be a living member of the people that are
corporately predestined, and thus lose predestination in that sense. So there's
a lot of options here. In terms of your second question, could someone really
desire salvation and yet not end up receiving it in the end? Well, it's
possible, but it's something that's going to be based on your choice. Because if
you stay with God, if you continue to respond to his grace, then your desire
will be fulfilled. But if you say, "Meh, I don't care about God, I'd rather do this
sinful thing that I know is going to separate me from Him," then you
commit a mortal sin, and if you die in that state you won't go to heaven. So
if you don't achieve salvation, if you don't receive salvation in the end, it's
going to be because of your choice. And in terms of worrying about the mechanics
beyond that, we really don't have access to that. We don't have access
to God's hidden divine counsels, and so I don't advise people to to fret about
that. Just rest in the fact that you know God loves you, He sent His son to die for
you, and as long as you respond to his grace and his offer of salvation, you'll
receive it. Thank you very much, Jeff.