God May Have Looked Down the Corridor of Time, but He Chose You Anyway.
The ever-present corridor of time argument.
An Arminian pastor used an argument in a Bible study that brought me to a complete halt.
To get around the doctrine of election, the pastor said, “To God, a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day. God’s view of all of history is a flat line. God looks out over history, sees who believes in Christ on their own, and in that same instant writes their name in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”
It sounded feasible, even biblical.
Of course, I knew that “a day is as a thousand years” was in the Bible, but I was troubled by the premise because it still put man in control of salvation.
And, that took away from God’s glory.
Yet, the corridor of time view is the main Arminian argument for refuting the doctrine of sovereign election.
Certainly God, in His omniscience, can look through all of history. If He can see who believes in Christ on their own, and in that instant chooses them for salvation, then election would be nothing more than God’s reaction to our personal choice.
The appeal of this argument is obvious.
It leaves man with his free will - in direct contrast to several Bible verses that say otherwise: John 1:13 and Romans 9:16.
It also boosts God’s reputation of fairness - as if He needed our help, and
we get to feel good about having contributed something to our salvation.
Win, win, win!
But, it also makes God a slave to our will. He surveys the field of human decisions, identifies the believing ones, and obligingly ratifies their choices.
The sovereignty is not His.
The initiative is not His.
The distinguishing factor between the elect and the non-elect is…you.
Doesn’t that also violate the whole “not as a results of works” concept in Ephesians 2:8-9? I mean, we’re good enough to accept Christ, and He in turn accepts us?
That’s not election. That’s ratification. That’s acquiescence.
We are called “the elect,” “appointed,” “the chosen.”
If we’re the ones making the determinations, shouldn’t we be called “the volunteers,” “responsive ones,” or “the decisive ones?”
Does not ratification do something the corridor view never admits: it makes salvation the sole province of the saved and robs God of His glory.
The debate lives or dies on one text: Romans 8:29.
Foreknowledge Is Not a Telescope
“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” (Romans 8:29, ESV)
The corridor view understands “foreknew” as omniscient advance-knowledge:
God observed your future faith and acted on it. That reading of “foreknew” imposes a modern Western definition of knowing on a biblical concept that never bore it.
Biblical knowing is never mere cognitive awareness. It’s relational. Covenantal. Even intimate.
This is impossible to miss in Genesis 4:1 when it says, “Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived.” Nobody over the age of 14 interprets those words intellectually. This does not mean that Adam knew who Eve was. Adam was in the most intimate relationship that human beings can have with each other.
The Greek for “foreknew,” γινώσκω (ginōskō), simply takes this directly from the Hebrew יָדַע (yada). Paul creates the word προγινώσκω (proginōskō) out of the same root. He simply adds the prefix “προ”, which means before. Before time. Before creation. Before you existed. Before you could even do good or choose for yourself.
Foreknew is not the same as God looked ahead and saw your faith. It is the same as God set His covenantal love upon you before the foundation of the world.
Fore-love, not fore-sight.
The concept of foreknowledge being the same as omniscience is so theological-sounding. But, in reality, it takes away the sovereignty of God. It is no longer an act of covenantal love.
The Flat Continuum Argument Fails Twice
2 Peter 3:8 is about God’s patience with our concept of time. Peter is simply explaining to the early Church why the Lord has not yet returned. He is giving a reason, but that reason is not related to salvation.
But here’s the rub. Revelation 13:8 tells us names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life "before the foundation of the world."
Not at the moment you believe. Before the foundation of the world. Before any faith existed to foresee.
Even on a flat continuum, causality still runs in one direction. If your faith caused the writing, the writing cannot come before your faith. Yet Scripture says it does.
The Chain Has No Human Link
Let’s consider the verbs in Romans 8:29-30: “Those whom He foreknew he also predestined... those whom he predestined He also called, and those whom He called he also justified, and those whom He justified he also glorified.”
All of these verbs have only one subject: God.
God is acting.
God is not reacting to something that man is doing.
God Uses Volitional Language, Not Observational Language
This is why the Corridor View cannot survive.
Acts 13:48 is our final word: “as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.” Not “as many as believed were appointed.” Luke’s sequence is deliberate.
The Greek word “tetagmenoi” is a perfect passive participle. It means “already appointed,” appointment complete, before any believing took place. Faith follows appointment. Appointment does not follow faith.
God doesn’t look down the corridor and ratify. He appoints, and the appointed believe.
What This Does to Worship
The whole of Ephesians 1 is building up to one refrain, repeated three times: “to the praise of his glorious grace.” Not to the praise of your wise choosing. Not to the praise of your spiritual discernment. To the praise of His grace alone.
The corridor model cannot arrive at this conclusion. If the election is ultimately up to your decision, then the glory of your salvation is ultimately up to something in you. You made the right decision. Someone else didn’t. What sets you apart is you.
The whole system of salvation was designed to keep this from happening, according to 1 Corinthians 1:29: “so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” But the corridor model slips this in anyway.
Worship the Author, Not the Responder
Romans 8:29 does not say that God saw your faith and then responded. It says God fore-loved you and then determined your destiny before you existed.
Revelation 13:8 does not say that God saw your choice and then recorded it. It says your name was recorded before the foundation of the world.
Acts 13:48 does not say that the believers were then appointed. It says that the appointed then believed.
The Author of your salvation is not a careful observer of your spiritual performance.
The Author of your salvation is the sovereign God of the Bible, who set His covenantal love upon you before time began. Not because He saw something in you that He wanted to choose. But because He chose to of His own desire.
The corridor view does not have the option of saying that. It can only say that God saw something. God responded. God recorded it.
God is either the Author of your salvation or merely a witness to it.
The corridor view makes Him the latter.
To His Glory,
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