Background:

My last post about the omniscience of God motivated me to look at the LDS topical guide under God, foreknowledge of. I quickly realized that foreknowledge is a very complicated concept in protestant Christianity and in LDS teachings. Before we tackle the references under God, foreknowledge of, Election, Foreordination, and Predestination we need to work through what each word means, how they relate, and how they are different.

One of the issues with each word is that their definitions are nuanced by the various beliefs of each Christian theology. Here, I will just focus on the LDS belief that God’s children had a life as agents before they came to this mortal existence. We have given this time the name of premortal existence and sometimes use the shorter, but less accurate, phrase pre-existence to identify this time.

Foreknowledge and the Pre-Mortal Existence

Latter-Day Saints have a clear and foundational belief of a pre-mortal life as agents living in God’s presence.¹ We believe that, as agents, we made salvatory choices in this pre-mortal state. Some chose to ignore the light of God, but others moved to the light and prepared themselves for blessings, callings, and responsibilities in this mortal existence. We see most scripture verses that reference predestination, election, and foreordination with this belief background.

Our time and relationships did not begin on this earth. We had a sufficiently long period to develop relationships with each other and our God. In that earlier beginning, we were agents that were allowed to chose to love God and grow in His light. Foreordination was a result of our choices and growth. In fact, LDS theology sees the eternal plan of salvation & creation of this existence as a collaborative choice with our Eternal Father. We were allowed to work with God to establish a plan that could help us be all that He is.

I believe the LDS view of a premortal life provides a more fertile ground for understanding foreknowledge scripture as it relates to the concept of God having an open future.² For example, Romans 8:28-29 says,

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

We would go farther than the Calvanists³ and describe this love as the loving relationship that God built with us in our premortal life. He foreloved us based on the relationships that we had with him.

The Greek roots

• predetermine, predestine, or foreordain: To predetermine the established limits or boundaries.
• foreknow or foreordain: to know beforehand.

The Greek roots of the word predestinate do not have near as stringent a definition as to the damnation or salvation of individuals which LDS theology strongly refutes. However, I do think we would accept that God has established limits and boundaries for each of our lives on this earth. Perhaps we worked with Him in our premortal life to establish our limits and boundaries.

To foreknow merely is to know beforehand. There is a wide range of methods for knowing beforehand. One of them could be a fixed future omniscience. However, it could also be the knowledge that comes with omnipotence. In the face of an agent’s choices He can still foreknow how to respond to bring His plan about. I like the ending scene in Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jnr. version) for how it shows this idea.

Latter-Day Voices on Foreknowledge

Notice how Joseph Smith establishes the LDS belief of foreordination. The critical events of salvation are foreordained⁴ and God will make sure that those foreordained points come to be. He also foreknows the choices that can be made by his children but does not bring them to pass. He allows us to chose as agents within his plan. He foreknows all possible choices that we could make.⁵

I believe in the fall of man, as recorded in the Bible; I believe that God foreknew everything, but did not foreordain everything; I deny that foreordain and foreknow is the same thing. He foreordained the fall of man; but all merciful as He is, He foreordained at the same time, a plan of redemption for all mankind. I believe in the Divinity of Jesus Christ, and that He died for the sins of all men, who in Adam had fallen. -Joseph Smith

Next, we have a few eloquent arguments about foreordination and agency. The quotes below were in rebuttal to another LDS philosopher stating that Latter-Day Saints believed in fixed determinism.

Passages speaking about God’s election do not address individual election; rather, they speak of the corporate election of Israel, or the church, or of God’s people as a whole. In a sensitive and careful analysis of the doctrine of election, William G. MacDonald demonstrates that the biblical doctrine of election invariably refers to corporate rather than individual election. The same conclusion was reached by William W. Klein. Election is not a reward for an individual exercise of free will, but a divine decision unilaterally made to elect a group of people as his ‘chosen’ or ‘promised’ people. Although the election is certain, the promises made to any individual member of the elect group are conditional upon faithfulness to God. Such corporate election is not inconsistent with individual free will. Ostler (1998) pg 53

…

The foreordained person is called with a ‘conditional calling.’ The realization of the calling depends on whether the person is faithful to the calling in this life. In Joseph Smith’s interpretation, Jeremiah could be foreordained before birth not because of God’s foreknowledge, but simply because he already existed in the pre-existence as an actual person. Such an action no more entails foreknowledge than the act of ordaining a person to the priesthood in this life. This last point is critical. Though Joseph Smith was foreordained a prophet, no prediction regarding any individual act in a certain situation is remotely implied in the doctrine. For example, Joseph Smith was told by God that he was ‘chosen to do the work of the Lord, but because of transgression, if thou [Joseph] art not aware thou wilt fall’ (D&C 3:9). Thus, there is always the possibility of ‘falling’ even if one is foreordained as a prophet. To imply determinism, foreordination would have to entail a single act necessitated by causal conditions at a given time. Even if it is assumed that a prophet (or anyone else) is foreordained to perform specific tasks in his lifetime, such an assumption in no ways entails that the specific acts to fulfill that task must happen at any particular time (tn). Thus, even if Joseph Smith had been foreordained to translate the Book of Mormon, such a task in no way implies that the task must happen at tn. Thus, at tn Joseph could still have alternative courses of action open to him though the task is certain to be accomplished prior to his death at some later time, say tn+5. Moreover, the Mormon scriptures rather clearly state that Joseph Smith could have failed in his foreordained calling and another would have been called ‘in his stead’ (D&C 35:18). The Mormon doctrine of foreordination not only does not guarantee a specific act at a given time, it does not even guarantee that the person foreordained will fulfill the calling! Ostler (1998) pg 49

Finally, in an opinion piece in the Deseret News Orson Scott Card says,

God’s perfect foreknowledge needs to be no more than this: In this life, we will freely show who we are, so his judgment will be just. That is the end, and he knew it from the beginning; all his promises are fulfilled in this. Orson Scott Card

Conclusion

Thus, I see the foreknowledge of God as His previously established loving relationship with us. It can be His knowledge from the fore-mortal or before-mortal of our choices and the plan we worked with him to create. God does foreknow the plan of salvation and can use his agency to provide the plan of salvation. He will also lovingly persuade us to use our agency to partake of his plan and love.

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