Calvinists assume Wesley denied predestination, but what he said was, "God foreknew those in every nation who would believe, from the beginning of the world to the consummation of all things. . . . All time, or rather all eternity . . . being present to Him at once, he does not know one thing before another, or one thing after another, but sees all things in one point of view, from everlasting to everlasting. . . . But observe: we must not think they ARE because he KNOWS them. NO; he knows them because they are. . . . What he knows, whether faith or unbelief, is in no wise caused by his knowledge. . . As all that are called were predestinated, so all whom God has predestinated he foreknew. He knew, he saw them as believers, and as such predestinated them to salvation, according to his eternal decree."
Both Calvin and Wesley believed God gave man the ability to come to Him, Calvin believed man could not resist the call of God, Wesley believed he could. But even in that belief Wesley acknowledged it was not something inherently good in man that allowed him to choose, but an ability given by God.
When we refer to the "foundations of the world" I think we get tripped up because we put the things of God into a time perspective that man can understand. In other words when we say from before the beginning of time, we put God in one time frame. But the reality is that God existed at the end of the time frame and all along the line.
Wesley put it this way, "Speaking after the manner of men. Strictly speaking, there is no foreknowledge, no more than afterknowledge, with God: but all things are known to him as present from eternity to eternity."
God has always known who would come to Him, but He gave them the choice, the free-will to do so. Our finite understanding of an infinite God doesn't comprehend how He could have always known we would come to Him and still allow us to choose Him.
But those are man's limitations, not God's.
Interesting quote Ward..My church has no doctrine on foreknowledge. Most of the Pastors and teachers believe that God does NOT foreknow future events. They believe and teach that God chooses not to know .
The reason for this is well stated by my Pastor..absolute foreknowledge is predestination..
If God foreknew who would come and based election of the foreknowledge , His failure to provide the extra grace or circumstances that "all" could come in fact predestined them to hell.
Ward, I would phrase that a bit differently, but not much.
I would say, "God has always known who would come to Him, but he knew them in the context of His having given them the power to choose Him." In other words, God's foreknowing is not thoughtLESS, but is thoughtFUL.
God's thoughFUL foreknowledge ALREADY KNEW that God would NEVER create a choiceless humanity. God's thoughtFUL foreknowledge was embued with God's attributes of LOVE and RIGHTEOUSNESS. God foreknew a humanity to whom he had granted the ability to make real, individual free choices.
That means that humans today are capable of making real, true, individual free choices. "Whosoever WILL may come."