The Attributes of God: Foreknowledge Is Not Predestination

It is commonly assumed that if God foreknows something, that thing is thereby locked in - that foreknowledge necessitates predestination. In scriptural terms that is demonstrably untrue, and there is one passage that settles it.
In 1 Samuel 23, David is at Keilah. He asks God two questions. Will Saul come down against me? God answers yes. Will the men of Keilah hand me over to him? God answers yes again.
So David leaves. And neither thing happens. Saul, hearing David has escaped, abandons the expedition. The men of Keilah never hand anyone over, because there is no longer anyone there to hand over.
Sit with what the passage just did. God foreknew two events - and those two events never occurred. So the foreknowledge was real, and the outcomes were not fixed by it. Foreknowledge in and of itself does not necessitate predestination.
This is where the previous poster pays off. God knows all things actual and possible. What he told David was true knowledge of what would have happened. It simply was not a decree that it must.
Scripture links:
- 1 Samuel 23:10-13 - David asks; God answers about Saul and the men of Keilah.
- Acts 2:23 - delivered up by God's definite plan and foreknowledge.
- Isaiah 46:9-10 - declaring the end from the beginning.
Knowing what would happen is not the same as making it happen.