Chapter 6 is called: “Foreknowledge and Predestination.” I suppose the stand out passage in this chapter is the following:
“I have great appreciation for the foreknowledge view of predestination. I once held to it before I surrendered to the Reformed view. But I abandoned this view for several reasons. Not least is that I have become convinced that the foreknowledge view is not so much an explanation of the biblical doctrine of predestination as it is a denial of the biblical doctrine. It fails to include the whole counsel of God on the matter” (p. 130).
Perhaps one reason why Sproul has “great appreciation” for this God-denying view of predestination is because it differs little from the Reformed view of how God is said to “passively decree” sinful actions. The Reformed position on the (alleged) “decree” of sinful actions is merely an expression of Divine prescience which is substantially no different than the non-Reformed view. This is not to say there haven’t been many concerted and vain attempts to evade this charge with various ridiculous, elaborate, and convoluted theories (e.g., efficacious permission, divine concursus, etc.).
Thus, the Reformed and non-Reformed alike DENY the very Godhood of God by their assertion that God does not actively decree sinful actions. Both positions necessarily imply that God has been “sovereignly letting go of His sovereignty” throughout most of human history since most of human history has been filled with sinful events, actions, and thinking.
Another reason for Sproul’s “great appreciation” could be due to the similarity expressed in both the Reformed and non-Reformed denials of salvation conditioned exclusively on the work of Jesus Christ. The non-Reformed denies salvation by the work of Jesus Christ alone by teaching that God saves sinners who fulfill certain conditions that He foresees them perform with “prevenient grace.” The Reformed denies salvation by the work of Jesus Christ alone by teaching that God saves sinners who fulfill certain conditions that He effectually enables and foreordains them to perform. Next Page (7)
Agrammatos 