The Lord Does the Future (1 Nephi 9:6)

J. Hathaway

- 5 minutes read - 857 words

As I have studied specific verses around God’s knowledge, I don’t see fixed future omniscience coming from the scripture. Still, I do see how many verses could confirm a preconceived belief in fixed future omniscience. 1 Nephi 7:12-13 and 1 Nephi 9:5-6 are two scriptures blocks that might confirm fixed future omniscience at first read.

One of the complicated issues of fixed future omniscience is that it is often a lens that most of Christian society looks through to interpret scripture. Most gospel topics have this problem and if we are not careful, we find ways to confirm our preconceptions instead of letting scripture help us conceive. Nephi speaks without an imposed Aristotelian lense where we see him persuading his brothers to trust in God because of His power to control the future without the invocation of God’s omniscience into the future.

In 1 Nephi 7:12-13 Nephi says;

Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him? Wherefore, let us be faithful to him. And if it so be that we are faithful to him, we shall obtain the land of promise; and ye shall know at some future period that the word of the Lord shall be fulfilled concerning the destruction of Jerusalem; for all things which the Lord hath spoken concerning the destruction of Jerusalem must be fulfilled.

It is fascinating to me that Nephi’s persuasive argument is that the ‘Lord can do all things according to his will’ where our choice to exercise faith in him’ binds him in His desire to help His people ‘obtain a land of promise.’1 Notice that God’s fixed future knowledge is not the key that drives his power to know the future, but His ability ’to do all things’ that creates the future. Nephi reiterates this point in 1 Nephi 9:5-6 where he states why God prompted him to create the small plates of Nephi. Notice how Nephi uses the concepts of wisdom and power when explaining God’s handling of the future and then uses knowledge when he explains God’s history (‘all things from the beginning’).

Wherefore, the Lord hath commanded me to make these plates for a wise purpose in him, which purpose I know not. But the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men; for behold, he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words. And thus it is. Amen.

1 Nephi 9 adds extra explanation to 1 Nephi 7 to help us understand how the Lord ‘prepares a way’ so that He is ‘able to do all things’ because he ‘has all power unto the fulfilling of all His words.’ This concept of ‘fulfilling all of His words’ that Nephi conveys lines up well with a quote I shared in a previous post2 by Gregory Boyd in response to Isaiah 46:9-11 on its use as a timeless omniscience proof text.

To distinguish himself from the dead idols Israel was devoted to, the Lord displayed his ability to do what dead idols cannot do: namely, control the flow of history. … For God to have this foreknowledge he need only know his own purposes and intentions.

I see the Nephi testifying that the Lord does the future. God can work with His agents to control the flow of history.

  1. In the Articles of Faith book by James E. Talmage we see him explain the interaction of the faith of man and God, ‘But, it may be argued that faith of itself is not a source of power; that its effect is due to an external interposition of Divine aid, which faith merely secured; and the skeptic may add that an omniscient God, if truly loving and kind, would act independently and give without waiting to be invoked through faith or prayer. A sufficient answer is found in the abundant proof furnished by the scriptures, that the Almighty operates in accordance with law; and that arbitrary and capricious action is foreign to His nature. However the laws of heaven may have been formulated, the application of their beneficent provisions to humanity is dependent on the faith and obedience of the mortal subjects. Consider the defeat of Israel by the men of Ai; a law of righteousness had been violated, and things that were accursed had been introduced into the camp of God’s people this transgression stopped the current of Divine help, and until the people had sanctified themselves, the power was not renewed unto them. Christ was influenced, and to some extent controlled in His miracles among men by the faith or lack of faith of the people. The common benediction, “Thy faith hath made thee whole,” with which He announced the healing interposition, is evidence of the fact. Then we learn that in His own country He could do no mighty work, being restrained by the unbelief of the people.’ ↩︎

  2. See my post on Lecture Fourth of the Lectures on Faith. ↩︎

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