Does God's Foreknowledge Interfere With My Free Will?

When understanding God’s foreknowledge versus our free will, we must remember that God does not live, move, or act in real time like us. Although He is fully existent with us daily, He is not limited to minutes, hours, days, and years. Instead, He operates in all times present, which means our past, present, and future are "right now” to God.

God already knows what our free will decisions will be in advance because He possesses all knowledge. In fact, He already knew from eternity past what we would do, think, and speak throughout our lives. Yet, His foreknowledge does not violate our ability to make those choices. Instead, our words, decisions, and actions are our responsibility, and we are accountable to Jesus for each of them.

To help you understand how God’s foreknowledge does not violate our free will, I have provided a few human examples below to demonstrate this truth on a very elementary level.

Example #1: Imagine the host of a young girl's birthday party offering the attending children a choice between chocolate cake or strawberry ice cream. Before presenting the kids with their options, each child's parent already knows their son's or daughter's choice based on their likes and preferences. Each parent's foreknowledge of their child's dessert choice does not violate or interfere with their son’s or daughter’s ability to choose when presented with the options. It just means they know what their decision will be ahead of time.
Example #2: Imagine a young man has watched a reality television series twenty times in a row. He is thoroughly knowledgeable about everything that occurred within the series. He knows who interacted with whom and when. He understands how each person’s choices and actions during filming affected everyone else in the reality series. He even knows how the season ended and why it concluded the way it did. However, this young man’s in-depth knowledge of the reality television series did not interfere with or affect each participant’s actions, choices, and activities during filming.