(Not sure if this s/b a new thread) I saw this post elsewhere and welcome your comments. Thx, -Kathy
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Romans 8:29 Begins

• "For whom He did foreknow...
Beginning with the word "for" indicates that Paul is continuing a thought, by way of explanation. Therefore, it is important to back this up a verse.

• And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

• For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

• Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
-Romans 8:30

• We see in verse 28 that Paul is speaking about “them that love God”, and we see that they are called according to His purpose. Moving on to verse 29, Paul says, “For whom He did foreknow…”

Question: Whom did He foreknow?
Answer: “Them that love God.”

Question: What does it mean for Him to “foreknow” them?
Answer: With regard to God “knowing” a person, this cannot be speaking of general knowledge, for as the creator of all, He knows all. However, as pointed out above we do find God saying to some, “I do not know you”.

To know someone is to have an intimate love relationship with them. For God to say to someone, “I never knew you,” He is saying that He never had an intimate relationship with them – He loved them, of course, but they did not love Him. Even among those who profess to love Him, we find some that do not. This is made manifest not by words, but actions. For the Scriptures say, “if you love Me, you will keep my commands.”

Therefore, we can see that “them that love Him” are those that he “foreknew”, or had an intimate relationship with from eternity past.

Question: Did He foreknow them because they had been predestined?
Answer: No, the order is clear that the predestination came because they were foreknown. He predestined those with whom He “knew beforehand” (which is Strong’s primary definition of the Greek term) that He would have an intimate relationship with.

Question: Did He foreknow them because they were the Elect?
Answer: No, the scriptures say that those of the Elect were elected “according to His foreknowledge.”

• Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father… - 1 Peter 1:1-2

Neither should we see this as a strange understanding. We have seen here, Scriptures from St. Peter and St. Paul. One could expect to find their teaching echoed in the words of their disciples; and, in fact, we do. Consider these words from St. Clement – the same Clement that Paul greets in Holy Scripture

• And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellowlabourers, whose names are in the book of life.
- Philippians 4:3

St. Clement was a disciple and co-labourer of both Peter and Paul. At the end of a letter he wrote to the Corinthians, he says a prayer in which he says,

• Thou dost multiply nations upon the Earth, and hast chosen from them all those who love Thee, through Jesus Christ Thy beloved Child…”

I am not an Arminian, but foreknowledge being God's knowledge beforehand (as He is outside of time) cannot be denied anymore than predestination. Even St. Augustine, John Calvin's only patristic source for this issue, says the following,

Quote:
God, then, in His foreknowledge, has not chosen the works of any man which He himself would give, but in His foreknowledge, He has chosen faith as He has chosen him whom He foreknew would believe in Him and to whom He would give the Holy Spirit so that, by performing good works, he would obtain eternal life.”
-St. Augustine, "Explanation of Certain Passages from the Epistle of the Apostle to the Romans", Ch.60