Foreoved? Those whom He foreloved? The word is a verb.
Romans 8:28–29 (ESV) — 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
YES - foreknew means foreloved.
To flesh this out a bit...
Romans 8:29 For whom HE did foreknow, HE also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of HIS Son.
From this verse we can see that the predestination of the elect is based on the foreknowledge of GOD. Now everyone admits that in this verse, the word
“fore” means
before earthly life. Therefore, they think that it also means before creation as if our earthly life was the same as our creation. I wonder if this is a valid and reasonable link to make?
GOD obviously does not before life know everybody since not everyone will become like Jesus, which
Rom 8:29 defines predestination to mean and, as per
Matthew 7:21– 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ which tells us what knowing means, emphasising the idea that loving is knowing and knowing about has no love.
James 2:19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder.
Jesus obviously knew about the demons and knew about the miracle workers but this knowing contained no love as it is plain, He never knew them.
This means that
foreknow must carry the idea of approval. As one commentator stated it,
“Whom HE foreknew” is virtually equivalent to “whom HE foreloved”.
Now this question comes to mind: if it is true that no one had been created at the time of this foreknowledge, on what basis does GOD "before life" love some and not the rest?
This would mean that there is no reason for HIS particular "before life" love. GOD's election / foreknowing is thus based on eenie, meenie, minie, moe, but how can you put your faith in a GOD like that? How much better to admit that we should start looking in some area we have not looked yet, and since we cannot find any of those, why not finally admit that we need a revelation from GOD to give us an infinitely loving answer to this problem?
Now, according to pre-conception existence theology, the "before life" love (foreknowledge) of GOD, that is, HIS pre-life approval of some and rejection of the rest was based on the prior uncoerced choice of the creature (in Sheol, before physical creation) and on HIS infinite love, which means that HE will never stop loving anyone who can possibly ever come to glorify HIM.
The reason why HE loved some "before this life" and why HE did not love the rest is found in their (our) response for or against HIM when He proclaimed to every creature under heaven HIS divinity and HIS gospel of salvation from sin,
Col 1:23.
Some had chosen to eternally defile themselves and some had not. Some had decided to never ever fulfil HIS purpose and some were still able to fulfil HIS purpose, some willingly, (angels) and others only if HE was infallibly gracious ( by election) to them (His fallen church). Yes, and He predestined these sinful people of HIS kingdom by their faith to be conformed to the image of HIS Son, and HE predestined the other sinful people of the evil one for the Day of Judgement,
Jn 3:18, and established them for the correction of the fallen elect.
Matt 13:29 ‘NO!’ he said, [postpone the judgement because...] ‘if you pull the weeds now, you might uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest...that is, until the sinful elect give up their willingness to live with the evil of the reprobate and choose to be holy and in full accord with the judgement.
In short, the Satanic fall happened before the creation of the physical universe and was the reason for their reprobation before the foundation of the world....not whim.
