Does God really know the future?
Any discussion about God and the future has to begin with the recognition that God is outside of time. That is, He is above time itself, being its Creator. He is not bound by time, nor is He constrained by a linear time-frame, the way we are. "Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end" (Ecclesiastes 3:11). God has chosen to reveal to us the existence of eternity and time, but He has not allowed us to see past our own timeline. We know our own past, but not our future. God, however, does know the future.This is proven by the vast number of accurate prophecies in Scripture. Studies of the prophetic content in the Bible has shown that the fulfillment of biblical prophecy cannot be coincidence. There are many, many Old Testament prophecies concerning the Jewish Messiah, which are fulfilled in the life of Jesus. An example is the prophecy in Micah 5:2, which clearly states that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem of Judea, exactly the location where Jesus was born, seven centuries later (Luke 2:1–20; Matthew 2:1–12). But let's say there were only eight of these fulfilled prophecies. Even with only eight fulfilled prophecies, the chances that all eight could be randomly fulfilled in the life of the same person is 1 in 10 to the 17th power. That's 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000!
The only way to achieve this is by knowing what will happen in the future. God inspired the Old Testament, and spoke through the prophets. The fact that the prophecies all came true is a sure sign that God does indeed know the future. If the odds were not enough to tell us, God Himself tells us: "remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose'" (Isaiah 46:9-10).
God is eternal (Psalm 90:2) and He knows everything that is and everything that is going to happen. He Himself exists in past, present, and future simultaneously: the God "who is and who was and who is to come" (Revelation 1:8). Because of the accuracy of past biblical prophecy, and God's assertion that His purpose will come to pass, we can be confident that prophecies concerning our future will also come to pass. In particular, Jesus' declaration that He will return for us and take us to our eternal home with Him (John 14:3).
The attributes of God, what are they?
Is God omniscient? What does it mean to be omniscient?
If God knew the Fall was going to happen – that Satan would rebel and Adam and Eve would sin – why did He create them?
Is God sovereign or do we have free will?
What is the relationship between God and time?
Truth about God
