Expanded Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Four Dimensional Creation

God Creating Outside of Time

God’s Relationship to Time

Creation of Man with Free Will

God’s Active Preservation of the World

An Old Testament Example: The Deluge

A New Testament Example: The Foretelling of Peter’s Denial

Before the Foundation of the World

While We Were Still Sinners

Putting It All Together

Chapter 2: C. S. Lewis’s Time Models Adapted

Time and Beyond Time

On “Special Providences”

Chapter 3: Other Views Examined

Absolute Immutability

Scriptural considerations

Historical considerations

Types of immutability

Deism and Calvinism

Counterfactuals of Creaturely Freedom

The Middle-Knowledge View (Molinism)

Chapter 4: Jesus

Conclusion

Further Reading

Appendix A: The Large Catechism, The Apostles’ Creed, Article I

Appendix B: Answering the Three Questions

Bibliography

Before the foundations of the world were laid, did God already know that Adam would sin? How can an unchanging God create and sustain a world in which human beings genuinely possess free will and could have chosen otherwise?

In this thought-provoking work, Jeffrey D. Garfield explores the relationship between God’s changelessness, omniscience, divine providence, time, and human freedom. Rather than viewing God’s changelessness as a purely absolute attribute, Garfield proposes an active understanding of divine immutability—one that preserves both God’s unchanging nature and the reality of meaningful human choice.

Building on classic illustrations of time introduced by C. S. Lewis, Garfield presents a compelling model in which God perfectly knows the future, yet remains actively involved in history. Every divine intervention shapes creation in real time. When God said, “Let there be light,” He created light on the first day and for all days thereafter. When God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass,” He created vegetation on the third day and for all days thereafter, thus changing the future to one in which both light and grass exist.

Garfield offers fresh insights into how God’s eternal perspective and humanity’s lived experience of time work together. With clear reasoning and engaging explanations, this book invites readers to reconsider their assumptions about God’s relationship to time, foreknowledge, and free will. The results align surprisingly well with the everyday Christian experience.