Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 40:160 (Oct 1883)
Article: Recent Theories Of The Divine Foreknowledge
Author: William Henry Cobb

BSac 40:160 (Oct 1883) p. 655

Recent Theories Of The Divine Foreknowledge1

Rev. WM. Henry Cobb

The intellect of man is ever puzzled by the attempt to conceive of God as he is. It seems to be a necessity of our thinking that the attempt should be constantly renewed, and as constantly baffled. The wrecks of many a system of speculative philosophy warn us that we cannot by searching find out God. And so the Christian consciousness looks thankfully in at the window of Holy Scripture, the revelation which the Father himself has been pleased to give to his children. No doubt many truths concerning God can be ascertained and verified by those who wholly discard the Bible; but the normal order of intellectual growth in the knowledge of God is the establishment, first, of the existence of our Creator, then of his relation to us, then of the revelation of his mind and will. Next comes the searching out of its testimony respecting God; next, the further operation of reason, enlightened by this revelation, and directed upon both the works and the word of God; lastly, the rational development of the knowledge already gained into a connected system of thought. This process must remain imperfect (at least, under the limitations of our existence in this life); and yet the church in every age, studying intently what may be known of God, should transmit to the age which follows a clearer impression of the Divine image.

BSac 40:160 (Oct 1883) p. 656

Our own age is a period of restless upheavals and bold innovations; while we rejoice, and should rejoice, in its freshness and vitality, there is danger that we drop out of conscious possession the solid achievements of the past. The doctrine of God, in particular, which has been slowly elaborated for many centuries, is assailed on every side, and as might be expected from the nature of our Zeitgeist, the attribute of immutability is either questioned or quite given up. A single relation of this doctrine — its connection with the divine foreknowledge — has suggested the following article.

Many able writers, besides those whose names appear in the foot-note, have contributed to the discussion; e.g. in Germany, Weisse, Martensen, Schleiermacher, and Julius Müller; but since each of those I have there mentioned represents a somewhat different phase of belief, and since, aside from these phases, no important modification of the commonly received doctrine is proposed, so far as I am aware, we may confine our attention to their positions.

By the phrase “recent theories” I would not be understood as asserting that the same views essentially have not been held in former times; but as the modern statement, in I each case, seems to possess some measure of freshness a...