Consider the word foreknowledge or foreknow. The meaning is quite simple. God's foreknowledge is His omniscience applied to the future. It really means nothing more than that.
Now I well understand that a Calvinist like John Gill does not necessarily represent all Calvinism or all Calvinists, yet his discussion on the word foreknow in reference to, say Romans 8:29, does illustrate my point. He writes,
Romans 8:29
For whom he did foreknow,.... The foreknowledge of God here, does not intend his prescience of all things future; by which he foreknows and foretells things to come, and which distinguishes him from all other gods; and is so called, not with respect to himself, with whom all things are present, but with respect to us, and which is eternal, universal, certain, and infallible; for in this sense he foreknows all men, and if this was the meaning here, then all men would be predestinated, conformed to the image of Christ, called by grace, justified and glorified; whereas they are a special people, whom God has foreknown: nor is this foreknowledge to be understood of any provision or foresight of the good works, holiness, faith, and perseverance of men therein, upon which God predestinates them to happiness; since this would make something out of God, and not his good pleasure, the cause of predestination; which was done before, and without any consideration of good or evil, and is entirely owing to the free grace of God, and is the ground and foundation of good works, faith, holiness, and perseverance in them: but this regards the everlasting love of God to his own people, his delight in them, and approbation of them; in this sense he knew them, he foreknew them from everlasting, affectionately loved them, and took infinite delight and pleasure in them; and this is the foundation of their predestination and election, of their conformity to Christ, of their calling, justification, and glorification:
If you follow this, the simple meaning of foreknowledge is precisely what Gill says it is not. The entire discussion here on foreknowledge is one long tirade explaining that God's foreknowledge is not something that God foreknows in the simple sense of knowing it beforehand. Rather Gill says that it really is God's feelings for a preselected group that "he loved, took delight and pleasure in" having actually nothing whatsoever to do with them at all and hence having nothing to do with what He foreknew about them.
I could do this with so much of the Calvinist jargon as it relates to soteriology. I won't bother with that here, but it illustrates my point. He has to do it because the simple straightforward meaning is in direct contradiction to his soteriology.
