Theological Theses · §1975 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

Impossible that the foreknown fail to happen in the composite sense, not in the divided sense: Judas

The objection runs: what God foreknows from eternity as future cannot fail to happen; God foresees all future things; so everything happens necessarily. The common teaching of the schools replies that it is indeed impossible for what God foreknew as future not to happen, but only in the composite sense, not in the divided sense.

This means that two things cannot hold together: that something is foreseen by God as future, and that it does not happen. Yet, speaking simply and absolutely, the thing foreseen is able not to happen, if it is considered in its own nature and without reference to God's foresight.

Take Judas. God had foreseen that he would betray Christ, yet he could have refrained from betraying him had he wished. God's foreknowledge did not lay on him any necessity of betraying Christ. Nor does it follow that God's foreknowledge could have been mistaken. Had Judas not betrayed Christ, his betrayal would not have been foreseen; God would instead have foreseen that Judas was not going to betray Christ.

Latin

XXIV. Ad id vero quod objicitur, fieri non posse quin eveniant ea quae Deus ab aeterno praescit esse futura, ac proinde omnia necessario evenire, quandoquidem omnia futura Deus praevidet, ex communi Scholarum sententia dicendum est, impossibile quidem esse ut non eveniant ea quae Deus futura praenovit, sed in sensu composito solum, non autem in sensu diviso. Quibus verbis innuitur non posse simul consistere, ut aliquid sit praevisum a Deo tanquam futurum, & tamen non eveniat; Sed nihilominus, simpliciter, & absolute loquendo, rem illam quae praevisa est posse non evenire, si consideretur ex sua natura, & citra respectum ad Dei praevisionem. Exempli gratia Judas quem Deus praeviderat Christum esse proditurum, poterat tamen, siquidem voluisset, Christum non prodere. Nec Dei praescientia necessitatem illi imposuit prodendi Christum. Neq; inde sequitur potuisse falli praescientiam Dei; quia si Judas Christum non prodidisset, proditio ejus praevisa non fuisset; sed praevidisset Deus Christum a Juda non fuisse prodendum.

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