#792 Eternally Decided?
July 17, 2022Hi Dr Craig
In Defenders Podcast: Series 3 > Doctrine of God: Trinity (Part 10): The Relationship Between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Doctrine of God: Trinity (Part 10): The Relationship Between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
September 21, 2016
You stated
'Marcellus’ view was that this was a temporal decision taken at some point in the finite past, like the moment of creation. I’m not comfortable with that view. It seems to me that in virtue of divine foreknowledge of the future that the three persons would know from eternity which roles that they would play, and that therefore there is no reason to say the economic Trinity was decided upon at some time a finite number of years ago. This is an eternal sort of decision on the part of God, but it is a free decision. It is not one that he had to make.'
Can you please elaborate a bit more on this please?
1) If the decision is eternal, does that mean it is a decision that is outside of time and is a decision that has always existed? If so, how can it be said that it is a free decision? If God has always had this decision, then it seems like he didn't make a choice but it was always just there in the mind of God?
2) Also, if the decision in question on the economic Trinity is eternal, how does this differ from God's decision to create? Was God's decision to create also eternal? If the decision to create was eternal then why isn't creation also eternal? Or was the decision to create not eternal, but rather, was taken at the moment of creation?
Hope you can help.
God bless
Anonymous
United States
Dr. craig’s response
A
I trust you’ll agree that an omniscient God cannot make decisions in the sense of making up His mind after a period of indecision. Since, as I say, God foreknows the future, He knows from eternity what He will do. He can therefore never be in a condition of not knowing what he is going to do. God decides from eternity what He shall do.
That doesn’t imply that God’s decisions are necessary. We mustn’t equate something’s being eternal or omnitemporal with its being in any sense necessary. Aristotle made that equation, but today it is recognized that something can be eternal but contingent. Even if something has always been that way, it doesn’t have to be that way. It could have been different. It is up to God to freely decide what sort of world to create and what He shall do in it. He could just as easily have chosen from eternity to create a different world or no world at all.
With respect to your questions,
1. Whether God’s eternal decision is timeless or omnitemporal depends upon your view of God’s relationship to time. Christian theologians and philosophers differ on this question. Some think God exists timelessly, while others think that God exists infinitely throughout time. So the answer to your question will depend upon which view of divine eternity you adopt. In either case God’s decision is free because there are no constraints upon God; it is up to God to decide as He chooses. God does not make a choice in the sense of making up his mind after a period of indecision. But He does choose what to do in the sense that His will is directed freely toward this or that end.
2. It seems to me that God’s decision to create the world and His decision how to execute the plan of salvation are on a par in terms of their eternity. Surely, you don’t think that God was sitting around from eternity past trying to make up His mind whether or not to create the world! That would be incompatible with his omniscience. “If the decision to create was eternal then why isn't creation also eternal?” Good question! It is not enough for the will to incline towards some end; in order for an effect to be produced there must be an exercise of causal power. So I would say that God’s exercise of causal power was made at the moment of creation, but not His decision to create the world, which is from eternity, just as His will that Christ should become incarnate was from eternity, but undertaken at a point in time about 2,000 years ago.
- William Lane Craig