I have heard Abraham 2:8 often used as a description of the timelessness of God. When friends reference this verse, they have a look that says, ’need I say more about the timelessness of God’ when they say the phrase, ‘God knows the end from the beginning.’ However, that phrase does not need to imply anything about timelessness. I will use Deiter F. Uchtdorf’s See the End from the Beginning April 2006 conference talk and Russell M. Nelson’s Begin with the End in Mind to provide two beautiful examples of how we can understand the use of of this phrase for God and us.

Uchtdorf

Early in his talk, Deiter F. Uchtdorf quotes Abraham 2:8 and then explains that we will be able to ‘see the end from the beginning.’

The Lord said to Abraham, “My name is Jehovah, and I know the end from the beginning; therefore my hand shall be over thee” (Abr. 2:8). My young friends, today I say to you that if you trust the Lord and obey Him, His hand shall be over you, He will help you achieve the great potential He sees in you, and He will help you to see the end from the beginning.

He has a few other clarifying lines as he explains examples from his life where decisions at the beginning of his life helped him at the end of his life.

He, the father of all lies, will try to prevent us from seeing the end from the beginning.

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Their prophetic view helps you to see the end from the beginning.

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My dear fellow servants of the priesthood, I promise you today that when you follow this pattern, the Lord will help you to make more out of your life than you ever can by yourself. He will help you always to see the end from the beginning!

Nelson

Russell M Nelson shared another contextual way to understand this phrase without any implication of timelessness.

I have entitled my remarks “Begin with the End in Mind.” I suppose some of this comes from my surgical background. An elective incision is never made without planning to close it. The same principle is generally applicable in all fields, however. Track stars don’t begin a race without knowing the location of the finish line.

So, in your important race, I would plead for you to begin with the end in mind. To assist you in defining that end, I would ask you this simple question: What would you like said about you at your funeral? Or, if you were to write your own eulogy and you could have only three sentences (no big flowery speeches, please), what would you want to say?

Conclusion

I think that the phrase ‘see the end from the beginning’ can imply the omniscience of essential moves. In other words, other players (the human family) can make free choices and that He can handle those choices and use His agency to to bring his word (end game) to fruition. Maybe the phrase ‘seeing the end from the beginning’ could mean that he plays the game with precision. His plays are not arbitrary or random like so many of us in life. Each of His moves work towards the final play of redemption. He knows the differences and importance of each step towards his “key” or last moves.¹ In making the moves with free agents, it doesn’t have to mean that he foreknows each step but that he foreknows all possible moves and precisely the next move.

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