Gordon Clark's "Predestination" - Part 2

Omniscience

As predestination involves intention, and as the success of one’s intention is limited to one’s extent of knowledge, predestination is possible only to the extent that God knows His intentions can be fulfilled and that the particulars relevant to that which He is predestining will not deviate from His plan. The doctrines of creation, omnipresence, and providence establish God’s omniscience (cf. Psalm 139, 147:5; Jeremiah 23:24; Matthew 6:32; John 2:24-25, 21:17; Acts 17:24-28). Furthermore, as God is eternal (cf. Psalm 90:2; Isaiah 57:15; 1 Timothy 1:17) and unchanging (cf. Numbers 23:19; Malachi 3:6; James 1:17), God’s knowledge is eternal (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:11; Acts 15:18); that is, God does not learn (cf. Isaiah 40:13-14). He knows what is impossible (cf. Titus 1:2). He even knows counterfactuals (cf. Matthew 11:21) – knowing counterfactuals as such would be analogous to knowing that changing a variable in a given equation would yield a different answer than the given equation. God is infinitely knowledgeable, as to know even one thing presupposes that the validity of the proposition is not contingent on the truth of [infinitely many] other propositions. That God eternally knows that the purposes of His decrees – predicated on His good pleasure – will be effected (cf. Isaiah 46:10-11) also implies He must know that the means by which His decrees come to fruition will not thwart His decrees (cf. Isaiah 14:24-27; Romans 9:19); if God did not know all things eternally – proximate means as well respective ends – He would have no basis upon which to validly claim that means which He did not know could not possibly thwart His decrees.