FUTURE—FUTURIBLE. — Future is that which is contained virtually in its own cause and implies order and tendency to be realized by II. Future is: a) necessary if it depends on a cause determined according to a fixed natural law, e.g., an eclipse; b) contingent if it depends on a cause not necessarily determined, such as free future, proper to the human will; c) absolute or conditional according as it is independent or dependent on a condition. If the condition is such that it will never be realized, even though it could be, the future is called hypothetical or futurible, e.g., if Christ were to return to preach before the judgment, there would be more conversions.
That God knows the future, of whatever kind, is a matter of faith (Vatican Council; Denz-U, 1784). God, who is the author of all things, knows and wills them before producing them. How God knows the future, and especially free future, is a mystery to us, because the elements involved (human freedom and divine foreknowledge) seem at first sight irreconcilable and because the concepts and terms at our disposal are inadequate to express the act of divine knowledge. It is certain 1) that God, by reason of His eternity, knows future things as if they were present; and 2) that He knows future things, even free ones, by knowing His own essence. It is, however, a debated question among theologians, partly alive since the 16th century in the Molinist and Thomist schools, in what manner free futures are conceived in the divine essence, and consequently how God knows them in the intuitive knowledge He has of Himself. For this particular question V. DIVINE SCIENCE.