The doctrine that God, possessing perfect knowledge, foresees all future events. The Scriptures offer abundant testimony of God’s ability to predict the future, and offer this ability as an evidence of His claim to deity ( Isa. 41:4 , 22 , 23 ; 42:9 ; 46:9 , 10 ; Dan. 2:28 ; Acts 3:18 ). No other so-called god can do so.
Seventh-day Adventists recognize three broad categories of predictive prophecy as attesting God’s foreknowledge. First are predictions of divine purpose independent of humanity’s will. For instance, God predicted the atonement of Christ and the final triumph of righteousness ( Gen. 3:15 ; Dan. 2:44 ; Rev. 11:15 ; 20:12–15 ; 21:27 ). The second class consists of predictions of humanity’s actions, as, for example, the many OT prophecies of the behavior of the Jewish people toward Christ ( Isa. 53 ). The Scripture reports a great many such prophecies of contingent events ( 1 Sam. 23:10–13 ; 1 Kings 13:20–26 ; 2 Kings 13:19 ). The third class consists of predictions of divine reward or punishment. Some of these are pronouncements of inevitable retribution for sins committed; others are of a conditional nature, in which the fulfillment will be reward in case of obedience or destruction in case of rebellion. Had Israel continued in obedience, the threats of retribution would never have been fulfilled (see Deut. 4:27 , 40 ; 6:3 , 18 , 19 ; 28:58–68 ; Lev. 26:27–33 ).
In Reformed theology, which follows Calvin’s lead, the divine decrees precede God’s foreknowledge.
God has decreed all things and has decreed them with their causes and conditions in the exact order in which they come to pass; and His foreknowledge of future things (and also of contingent events) rests on His decree (L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology, pp. 67, 68). Seventh-day Adventists, distinguishing between foreknowledge and predetermination, deny categorically that the evil deeds of men were fixed by divine decree. God foresees and foretells, but “the prophecies do not shape the characters of the men who fulfill them” (Ellen G. White, in Review and Herald 77:721, Nov. 13, 1900). God “did not work to bring about a certain condition of things, but He knew that such a condition would exist” (Ellen G. White, in SDACom 6:1082). The SDA view of divine foreknowledge approximates the Arminian position.