Predestination and Foreknowledge: Are They the Same Thing?

  In this past year of Set Apart Ministry’s (SAM’s) review of all things basic, we came upon a few concepts that were surprising to some among us.  The story of David hiding out in Keilah illustrated a very important point. When David inquired of YHWH as to whether or not the men of Keilah would surrender him and his men to Saul, YHWH told him, yes, they would.  Therefore David chose to leave the city.  Seems simple enough. 

   BUT the implication is that YHWH Could answer the question as to what the citizens of Keilah would do and at the same time, David was free to choose NOT to remain there!  His departure meant that it never actually happened that they surrendered him to Saul.  So Yah foreknew what would happen, but David was able to use that revelation to change what did happen.  For some among us, the reality that prayer can actually change things and that the future is not set in stone came with a shock, and yet release! 

   A sudden awareness of the awesome intervention of prayer in our lives dawned.  No, we do not pray just because we are told to do so, all the while thinking that it won’t really change anything, just doing our duty.  But David was free to choose what to do.  Now that he understood what Yah had told him the men of the city would do, he was free to change his course and thus change the outcome.  So YHWH foreknew the futu ...