Chapter 134 — That God alone knows singular future contingents

Now it is clear that to know future contingents in this way, as actually existing (which is to have certitude about them), is restricted to God alone, to whom alone belongs eternity in the true and proper sense. For this reason, certain prediction of future events is accounted a proof of divinity. This accords with Isaiah 41:23: Tell us what is to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods. Of course, others can know future events in their causes, but such knowledge is not certain, but is rather conjectural, except as regards effects that necessarily flow from their causes. In this way a physician foretells future illnesses, and a sailor predicts storms.