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The Immutable Things of God
by George Sidney Hurd
Until recent years Christians have universally believed that God has always had perfect knowledge concerning the future of each and every individual, just as the Psalmist declares: “You saw me before I was born. The days allotted to me had all been recorded in your book before any of them ever began” (Ps 139:16). Many of us have received promises from God and have rested in the full assurance that we have already received that which He promised because of our belief that He who knows our future and possesses all power will fulfill that which He promised.
When the future looks bleak and we can’t see what tomorrow holds we are reassured by the knowledge that God is working all things together for our good according to the counsel of His will which was ordained for us before the ages (Rom 8:28; Eph 1:11; 1Cor 2:7). An old melody that I often find myself singing when I am going through great difficulties and the future looks dim is:
“There are things about tomorrow I don’t seem to understand, but I know who holds the future and I know who holds my hand.”
Most of us have peace of mind, knowing that God, who holds our future, will not let go of our hand. But try to imagine a world in which our Father, the Creator and Sustainer of all things has no real knowledge of our future – a world in which ultimately you are the master of your own fate and God is actually learning along with you as time progresses. Imagine being in relationship with a god who, although he loves you and desires the best for you, can only guess what will take place tomorrow, since he doesn’t know any more about your future than you do.
You have just visualized the cosmovision of a growing number of people who, consciously or unconsciously, have come to believe a new doctrine commonly known as “Open Theism” or “Freewill Theism.”
In a nutshell, Open Theism claims that, either the future cannot be known by God since the future doesn’t exist – not even to Him, or else that God, out of respect for our own libertarian freewill, has somehow limited His “omniscience” so as not to know what our future choices will be. It is a very recent doctrine with no substantial historical precedent in Church history until the 1994 publication of “The Openness of God: A Biblical Challenge to the Traditional Understanding of God,” coauthored by Clark Pinnock, Richard Rice, John Sanders, William Hasker, and David Basinger.
Most of these scholars would be unknown to the average Christian today. However, some of today’s most influential authors and speakers such as Gregory Boyd, Bradley Jersak, Brian Zahnd, Philip Yancey and most notoriously Wm. Paul Young, author of “The Shack,” have embraced Open Theism and are promoting it in their books and lectures.
Often, they will not publicly or directly challenge the historic belief that God in His omniscience possesses exhaustive knowledge of the future. Rather, they subtly imply it in a way designed to cause one to question God’s ability to see from eternity and work all things according to His will as traditionally believed, presenting Him instead as one trying to make the best of unforeseen events which at times get out of hand due to His inability to anticipate or intervene in the freewill acts of man.
Wm. Paul Young’s novel and movie “The Shack” so masterfully intertwined Open Theism into the narrative that few were even conscious of its underlying message. However, in his later book, “Lies We Believe About God,” while not directly expounding upon Open Theism, is more direct in revealing its implications. He says:
“What if there is no ‘plan’ for your life but rather a relationship in which God constantly invites us to co-create, respectfully submitting to the choices we bring to the table?... God submits rather than controls and joins us in the resulting mess of relationship, to participate in co-creating the possibility of life, even in the face of death.” (emphasis mine) [i]
Instead of us seeking wisdom and understanding as to what the will of the Lord is and submitting to God’s plan for our lives, the tables are turned in such a way that it is now God who respectfully submits to us, following our lead as we co-create our own future!
It is not that they do not have proof-texts to support their position. Indeed, some passages taken literally do at first sight seem to present God as not possessing all knowledge of the future and therefore changing His mind. He is even depicted as though He needed someone like Moses or Abraham to persuade Him to show mercy, or as though He were forgetful and needed the rainbow to remind Him not to destroy the earth again by a flood (Gen 9:13-15). However, as I hope to establish, these demonstrably anthropomorphic expressions must be understood in the light of texts which clearly define God’s infinite essential attributes such as His eternality, omnipotence and omniscience, and not the other way around. This has been the understanding of all students of the Bible from the scholar to the simplest devout readers throughout history.
I believe, and hope to demonstrate, that Open Theists are guilty of attempting to conform the infinite God to the image of finite man rather than recognizing that we were made in the image of God and not the other way around. While we have been created in His image and likeness and therefore are capable of knowing Him and experiencing intimacy with Him, we must acknowledge that He infinitely transcends us and therefore, at least in the present, He has chosen to use anthropomorphic terms in order to better relate to us.
An anthropomorphism is when finite human characteristics are attributed to God. An expression in the Bible can be determined to be an anthropomorphism using the following definition: “A biblical ascription to God is anthropomorphic when the Bible elsewhere teaches that God transcends the very finite characteristics being attributed to Him, (examples: ‘the arm of the Lord,’ the eyes of the Lord,’ ‘the Lord repented,’ ‘the Lord remembered,’ ‘the Lord looked and saw,’ etc.).” Likewise, if God inhabits eternity, then all temporal limitations attributed to God are only true as it relates to us as part of His temporal creation since God transcends temporal limitations.
The Eternality of God
In order for Open Theism to be viable it is necessary that they first demonstrate that God is timebound and therefore unable to see the future. They usually argue that God cannot see the future since the future doesn’t exist for anyone, not even for God. However, if God is eternal and transcends time – existing above and apart from time, then all events past, present and future would ever be in His view. It would be impossible that God should not know the future if indeed He is eternal.
Some Open Theists, recognizing this problem, would say that God could see the future, but in order to preserve man’s libertarian freedom He chose to “limit His omniscience” so as to be unable to see our future decisions. However, it is an oxymoron to say that God limits His omniscience. To be omniscient is to know everything. He either knows all things or He doesn’t. Since God’s omniscience is immutable, it is not possible that He should somehow not know what He knows. And if indeed He doesn’t know the future, then He would not be omniscient.
Historically, the Church has generally held that God is atemporal. That is, that God’s existence not only precedes time, but He exists outside of time while at the same time being imminent and involved in our time/space world without being subject to its limitations. While the Hebrew language did not have a word equivalent to “eternal” in our modern Platonic understanding of the word, we nevertheless see God’s eternality expressed by the use of the present tense of the verb “to be” when applied to God. The Psalmist says:
“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting (from olam to olam), You ARE God.” (Ps 90:2)
The phrase “from olam to olam you ARE (present tense) God” says in so many words what we can now express by simply saying “God is eternal” – i.e. God always IS. Also when Moses asked God: "when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me, 'What is His name?' what shall I say to them?" (Ex 3:13), God responded saying that He is the eternal God but in words that seem strange to us since we now have “eternal” in our vocabulary and we don’t need to use so many words to express His eternality: “And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ And He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you” (v. 14). In our vocabulary today we would simply say “I AM the Eternal One – He who always IS.” His name Jehovah means: “He who exists” or “The eternal one.”
In continuation, after saying that God IS (present tense) both in the past and the future in Psalm 90:2, the Psalmist says in Psalm 90:4: “For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night.” Some have here mistaken this as implying that God’s existence is temporal. However, taking into account what he said in verse 2 it is evident that it is merely a poetic way of saying that, although God interacts with us in time, He is not bound by time as we are.
Also, we see that He is eternal since before the mountains were brought forth – before time itself was created with its ages, years, months and days, God IS. Before creation, time did not exist, but God always exists. We also see God’s transcendent relation to time in the response Jesus gave to those who asked Him how He could have seen Abraham. He said: “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58). Only the One who has His existence outside of the bounds of time could have made such a declaration.
In His humanity Jesus was confined to space and time, but as God He is imminent or ever-present in all of time, even as we see His omnipresence revealed in His statement to Nicodemus: “No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man WHO IS IN HEAVEN” (John 3:13). Just after telling Nicodemus that he had to be born again in order to see the kingdom of heaven – something he was struggling to grasp, Jesus made the amazing statement that the very One who was speaking to him was at that same moment in heaven. These are truths that transcend our ability to fully fathom, yet they are nonetheless divine truths which should be embraced and marveled at, rather than attempting to reduce the divine to the level of mere men.
While all finite attempts to illustrate God’s infinite attributes come dreadfully short, God’s perspective of time could be illustrated as that of one who is viewing a parade from a helicopter. From that perspective the entire procession is in view from beginning to end. He could communicate to the spectators of the procession on the ground what they will be seeing in their future before they themselves are able to see it since he can see the whole procession all at once.
Likewise, we understand that God exists above and outside of our time/space confines, since He would not otherwise be able to tell us what will take place in our future – especially in the distant future in a world with so many variables which include man’s volitional decisions. The exhaustive foreknowledge of all future events which is attributed to God in Scripture, would be impossible for a temporal being to possess.
God’s Foreknowledge
Having seen that God’s eternality, combined with His omniscience, requires that He should have an exhaustive knowledge of all things, including all future events, we can now look to the Scriptures to see if such knowledge is attributed to God and demonstrated by fulfilled prophecies.
God demonstrates He is God by declaring things to come
In Isaiah chapters 41 thru 48 God challenges all the false gods to prove themselves by declaring that which will take place in the future. Time and time again He contrasts false gods with Himself, and His exclusive knowledge of the future is presented as one of the proofs that only He is God. Since they also refute the Open Theist’s claim that God doesn’t know the future, I will here cite the main ones, highlighting key phrases:
“Let them (your false gods) bring forth and show us what will happen; let them show the former things, what they were, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare to us things to come. 23 Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods; yes, do good or do evil, that we may be dismayed and see it together. 24 Indeed you are nothing, and your work is nothing; He who chooses you is an abomination.” (Isa 41:22-24)
Here God challenges the false gods Israel was worshipping to prove themselves by revealing what will take place in the future. Then He mockingly says, “at least do something, whether it be good or evil so that your followers can marvel.” At their silence He says, “you are nothing and cannot accomplish anything.”
He then says that all who would choose such a god are an abomination. According to God’s own criteria, a god who doesn’t know the future is a false god of one’s own making and those who worship such a god are an abomination in His sight. This should be enough to make Open Theists who think that God cannot know the future stop in their tracks. He then calls upon Israel to repent and return to Him – the only true God who knows their future and works all things according to the counsel of His will:
“Remember this, and show yourselves men; recall to mind, o you transgressors. 9 Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, 'MY COUNSEL SHALL STAND, AND I WILL DO ALL MY PLEASURE.” (Isa 46:8-10)
In Isaiah 45, the Lord calls king Cyrus by name many years before he had even been born. It was some 150 years after Isaiah’s prophecy that Cyrus took Babylon. Then, in the first year of Cyrus’ reign, after the 70 years of captivity was fulfilled as prophesied in Jeremiah 25:11-12, the Lord stirred the spirit of Cyrus to issue a decree setting the Jews free to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple (2Chron 36:22-23). The Lord said in Isaiah 45:
“Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held… 4 For Jacob My servant's sake, and Israel My elect, I have even called you by your name; I have named you, though you have not known Me… 6 That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other… 13 I have raised him up (Cyrus) in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways; he shall build My city and let My exiles go free, not for price nor reward, says the Lord of hosts.” (Isa 45:1,4,6,13 cf. Isa 48:3-5)
Why did God name Cyrus before he was born? So that His people Israel would know that He is the Lord and there is no other beside Him. None other than the omniscient God who knows the end from the beginning could declare with such precision what would occur generations later. Even if God had a good idea that the Persians would rise to power and conquer the Babylonians after the Jews had fulfilled exactly 70 years of captivity, what is the likelihood that a child would be born, receiving the name of Cyrus and coming to power in the very year God said the captivity would come to an end? Cyrus was the least likely to become king. His grandfather Astyages ordered that he be put to death as an infant, but those he charged with killing him instead hid him where he was raised in obscurity. It was his courage and genius in battle that led to his rise to power in spite of all obstacles. [ii] Cyrus himself recognized what Open Theists fail to acknowledge – that God knows everything about us before we are even born. David the Psalmist also clearly understood that God knew every detail of his life even before he was formed in his mother’s womb. He said:
“Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them… 4 For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.” (Ps 139: 16,4)
Open Theists have yet to explain how it is possible for God to have seen David’s substance and fashioned each of his days before he was even formed in the womb if indeed God didn’t know what would happen in David’s future, not to mention the question of how He could know what we are going to say before we say it.
The fact that God knows what we are going to say before we say it is demonstrated by Jesus when He said to Peter, “this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times” (Matt 26:34). This would require that He foreknew, not only what Peter was going to say that very night, in spite of his insistence that he was willing to die for Him, but also the entire chain of events that would transpire, including the words that would provoke His denials and also that the rooster would crow at the very moment of Peter’s third denial.
The circumstances of Christ’s crucifixion also clearly illustrate God’s exhaustive foreknowledge. Numerous Old Testament prophecies describing His betrayal and crucifixion were fulfilled including a detailed description of His death on a cross long before the Romans came to power and invented that form of torture (Ps 22:14-18). Most Open Theists would deny that God foresaw Christ’s crucifixion, but it was clearly and emphatically said to have been foreknown by Him. Christ was the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8). Not only was it foreknown by God from the very moment of creation, but it was also predetermined to take place exactly the way it did. Peter said:
“For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together (passive voice) 28 to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.” (Acts 4:27-28)
How could God predetermine Christ’s death on our behalf according to His purpose which He established from creation if He cannot know and determine the future? Here we see that not only was Christ’s crucifixion predetermined by God, but also that all the volitional choices of each and every individual involved were foreseen, including Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles and the people of Israel, and they were included in God’s predetermined plan for the ages. If either Herod or Pilate had chosen to act differently, the crucifixion would have never taken place. If the Jews had asked that Jesus be released instead of Barabbas, He would not have been crucified. Each of them did exactly what God had predetermined would take place. The same is true concerning the details of Judas’ betrayal (Matt 26:24;27:9). This is in agreement with Acts 15:18 where it says: “Known to God from eternity are all His works.” [iii]
Example after example could be presented showing that God from eternity is working all things according to the counsel of His will and this of necessity would require that He possess an exhaustive knowledge of all future events, as well as all future volitional choices made by men. However, these few examples should be sufficient to establish that God’s omniscience is infinite and exhaustive, including all future events as well as all the future thoughts and choices of His creatures, and also that He is working all things according to His predetermined plan.
This foundational truth will later help us recognize the various anthropomorphisms for what they are – God limiting His vocabulary to “baby talk” (so to speak), so that the most simple among us can relate to Him rather than Him talking over our heads. While we can relate to God through anthropomorphisms, we must seek to understand His nature and attributes applying the more definitive transcendental truths revealed in Scripture rather than limiting Him by defining Him based upon His anthropomorphisms or “baby talk” as the Open Theists attempt to do.
God’s Predetermined Plan and Man’s Freewill
Open Theists argue that If God had exhaustive knowledge of the future and everything were predetermined according to His eternal decree, then there would be no place for man’s freewill decisions. For example, they say that If God’s decree were fixed, being based upon His exhaustive foreknowledge, and He has decreed that I will finish this blog tomorrow at 4:03 p.m., then I would not be free to do otherwise. However, that is immaterial since I would have indeed finished it freely at that time without any divine coercion. As with most of our volitional actions, it would be more correct to say that if God has decreed that I will finish it by 4:03 p.m., then I will finish it, rather than thinking of it as something I must finish.
The fact that God foreknows our volitional choices and, in His wisdom, weaves them into His eternal plan for the ages, should in no way be seen as a violation of our will. God’s determinative decree according to His exhaustive foreknowledge is not incompatible with my freewill decisions unless my freewill decisions fly in the face of that which He has determined. In such a case God would indeed disallow my freewill, for who has resisted His will (Rom 9:19). Our own self-determination is subject to God’s permissive will. That is why, instead of saying, “Today or tomorrow we will do such and such,” we should say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that” (James 4:13-16).
God is our Father, and we are His creation – not a programmer’s computer simulation. We were created as emotional rational and volitional beings, capable of enjoying communion with Him. God does not want automatons programmed to do His every bidding, nor does He want self-willed libertarians who independently live as little gods unto themselves. As our Father, God allows His children to make free decisions within controlled parameters for their own development. However, God works in us both to will and to do His good pleasure and when we obstinately defy Him or go against His determined will, He as our Father, often intervenes in a way contrary to our will for our correction (Php 2:12; 1Cor 11:31-32).
I might add that man’s insistence upon unrestricted libertarian freedom is a result of the fall and falls far short of God’s perfect will for our lives. While God does not dictate our every decision, we are called to the higher life in which we surrender our independence and bring our will into subjection to the Father of spirits (Heb 12:9). We are called to a life of surrender, not a life of libertarian freedom in which God submits to us as we co-create our own future, as Wm. Paul Young and other Open Theists would have us believe.
While God foreknows every human decision, even including decisions we would have made given different circumstances (Ezek 3:5-6; Matt 11:21-23; Luke 10:13), He does not dictate our every decision but rather governs as Sovereign, working all things together for good according to the counsel of His will (Rom 8:28; Eph 1:11). The end result will be that every knee will bow and every tongue confess Jesus Christ as Lord, at which time the Son also will subject Himself to the Father, culminating in the restoration of all when God shall be all in all (Php 2:10-11; Acts 3:21; 1Cor 15:28).
The Immutability of God
Another characteristic of God’s essential nature and attributes which needs consideration for the subject at hand is His immutability. In other words, God, being eternal, never changes as to who and what He is – He remains the same as to His being and qualities:
“For I am the Lord, I do not change; therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.” (Mal 3:6)
In contrast to the capricious implacable pagan gods whom the Israelites were following after at the time, God said that it was because of His unchangeableness that they were not consumed in spite of their abominations.
Contrary to traditional thought, God as to His essential nature is love (1Jn 4:8). Some would object, saying that it also says that God is holy (Lev 11:45; 1Peter 1:16). However, “love” agápe is a noun (substantive), defining God’s substantial essence, whereas “holy” hágios is an adjective, describing a characteristic of God’s essential nature which is defined by the noun “love.” Holy means “set apart.” God is holy or set apart from all so-called gods. And what is it that sets Him apart from all others? His love. God is set apart from all others because He is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and possesses all wisdom, but what sets Him apart from others more than His attributes is His essential nature which is love. He declares Himself to be separate from all others precisely because of His lovingkindness:
“I will not execute the fierceness of My anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim. For I am God, and not man, the Holy One in your midst; and I will not come with terror.” (Hos 11:9)
Here we see that His holiness or set-apartness is evidenced by the fact that in love He shows mercy rather than executing the fierceness of His wrath. So, His holiness – rather than restricting His love, characterizes His love as being set-apart in that, even in His wrath, He remembers mercy (Hab 3:2). God’s nature is indivisible – His wrath is in reality Love acting against evil. His holiness is likewise inseparable from His love – not in tension with it. Justice and mercy are not in conflict – righteousness and peace kissed each other at the cross (Ps 85:10). From God’s perspective His holiness and love have never been in conflict with one another since He inhabits eternity and therefore the propitiatory work of Christ on the cross is ever before Him.
True holiness is love and true love is holiness. Love is the fulfilling of all righteousness (Matt 22:37-40; Rom 13:9-10; 1Tim 1:5). Just as love without holiness is not true love, holiness without love is not true holiness. Love separate from holiness is Libertinism while holiness separate from love is Phariseeism (Pharisee is from the Hebrew word parush “separatist or holy one”). The Pharisees mistakenly thought that holiness was separable from love and they ended up crucifying the Lord of glory in the name of holiness.
While God is immutable in His essential nature which is love, His love manifests in manifold ways in relation to His fallen creatures in the realm of time. While Traditionalists are guilty of presenting God’s nature and attributes as though His holiness and His love were in conflict with each other, many Open Theists are guilty of reducing God’s love to a passive cruciform love. While God’s essential nature is not divided, it is manifold in its manifestations and not always “cruciform.”
God’s paternal love is not cruciform. Whom He loves He disciplines and scourges. Also, His love manifests in the form of anger and wrath in the face of evil and injustice. His love often manifests in the form of judgment against those who oppress the innocent. His love will even abandon for a time in order that the children of men might seek Him (Hosea 5:15-6:2; Lam 3:31-33). However, it is His love that which is immutable – not its temporal manifestations in response to evil. While God is angered by sin, His anger and wrath only endure for a time (Ps 103:8-9; 30:5; Jer 3:12-13; Mic 7:18). And while He may cast off the obstinately wicked in judgment, He will not cast them off forever, because it is His love that is immutable and endures forever, not its temporal manifestations in the face of sin and injustice (1Cor 13:8; Lam 3:31-33). Even under the Old Covenant the phrase “His lovingkindness (chesed) endures forever” is repeated over 40 times. But not even once in all of Scripture is God’s wrath said to endure forever since all evil will one day cease to exist and God will then be all in all in eternity (Rev 21:4-5; 1Cor 15:28).
God is also immutable as to His omniscience. This means that God has never learned anything because there is nothing that He hasn’t always known, and His perfect knowledge cannot be diminished or added to. As it says, “Known to God from eternity are all His works” (Acts 15:18). He works all things according to the counsel of His will, predetermined from the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4,11). Because His omniscient all-comprehensive plan for the ages is immutable, the Psalmist can say, “The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations” (Ps 33:11).
Contrary to Open Theist’s claim that God submits to us as we co-create the future, Jeremiah humbly says: “I know, O Lord, that a man's way is not in himself, nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps” (Jer 10:23). Without violating man’s choices and still holding each one responsible for their deeds, the Lord nevertheless knows the end from the beginning, and in His infinite wisdom He works all things together for good according to the predetermined counsel of His will:
“Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will do ALL My pleasure.’” (Isa 46:10)
According to these clear foundational statements of Scripture, God is not growing in knowledge or improvising, as Open Theists affirm. As it is said of our Lord, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb 13:8).
That is not to say that God’s eternal plan does not include changes such as dispensations, covenants or even what to us may seem to be unexpected turns of events. Indeed, from our perspective there are many changes which God has made throughout the ages with many more changes predicted in the ages to come. However, they are only changes from our perspective and in relation to us and not changes for God since all is going according to His eternal plan.
God does not change, nor do His plans change. He has no such thing as a plan B. What He has is one immutable and eternally decreed plan for the ages which is progressively unfolding. Instead of the fall resulting in plan B, we see that the Lamb of God had already been slain from the very foundation of the world before the fall of man (Rev 13:8). Instead of plan A changing to plan B, what we see is Plan A going to A1, A2, A3, successively, with each stage working together according to the counsel of His will and culminating in God being all in all. All that which had its beginning in Him is ultimately drawn back into Him, having been brought to perfection in Him:
“For of (ek “out of as to source) Him and through Him and to (eis “into”) Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.” (Rom 11:36)
So, we can see that God is immutable as to His essential nature and attributes and therefore with Him there is no variation nor shadow of turning (James 1:17). This is a foundational truth. All anthropomorphisms or other statements which may at first appear to be saying otherwise must be interpreted in the light of Gods eternality, His exhaustive foreknowledge and the immutability of His nature and attributes.
Having laid a solid foundation of eternal immovable truths concerning God’s nature and His fixed eternal plan for the ages, we can now examine the texts of Scripture which the Open Theists present as evidence that God does not know what course we will take in the future and that He is writing the script as we ourselves create it.
[i] Young, Wm. Paul. Lies We Believe About God. Kindle Edition. Location 333,361
[ii] McClintock and Strong Encyclopedia: Cyrus
[iii] The NKJV wording of Acts 15:18 is based upon the Majority Text of the Greek New Testament.
