Freedom of the will - Edwards - IV - Part II concluded

Required reading
Freedom of the Will by Jonathan Edwards (available from Amazon or free here) - Conclude Part II by reading Sections XI to XIII.

My summary
Today in Section XI Edwards begins his argument that if God has foreknowledge this disproves the existence of Free Will.  This section primarily demonstrates that God does indeed have foreknowledge of future events.  This is shown by numerous Biblical prophecies.

Now that we accept that God has foreknowledge, in Section XII Edwards shows that foreknowledge requires the necessity of future events occurring.  Therefore if foreknowledge exists, everything must be determined: 'So that it is perfectly demonstrable, that if there be any infallible knowledge of future volitions, the event is necessary; or, in other words, that it is impossible but the event should come to pass. '

Then the short Section XIII Edwards basically sums up that the Arminian notion of Liberty is contradictory.

What grabbed me
Edwards dealt very nicely with the subject of foreknowledge and its relation to God's sovereignty.  Foreknowledge doesn't cause events, but its existence proves that something has predetermined all the events before they occur: 'Infallible Foreknowledge may prove the Necessity of the event foreknown, and yet not be the thing which causes the Necessity. If the foreknowledge be absolute, this proves the event known to be necessary, or proves that it is impossible but that the event should be, by some means or other, either by a decree, or some other way, if there be any other way: because, as was said before, it is absurd to say, that a proposition is known to be certainly and infallibly true, which yet may possibly prove not true.'

Instead of saying to Arminians, 'You can't have your cake and eat it', Edwards is basically saying 'You can't have your foreknowledge and eat it'.

Next week's reading
Commence Part III by reading Sections I to III.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.