The Whole Hole-y Calvinist Dictionary

"To have previous knowledge of; know beforehand especially by paranormal means or by revelation" (Merriam Webster"). The original greek is προγινώσκω (proginosko) which is a compound word comprised of πρό (pro) – meaning "before" and γινώσκω (ginōskō) – meaning "to know." When the Bible state that God foreknows a person, it means that God actually knows someone in advance — He is aware of them, their existence, their thoughts and their actions before they happen.

Calvinits do not have clear agreement on the meaning of "foreknowledge" other than to be certain it does not mean to have the traditional meaning of prior knowledge or to know beforehand.

Calvinism argues that foreknowledge means to love first or choose first and such attribute of love moved God to choose the elect without regard to their existence, their thoughts and their actions.  Of course this definition simply removes what we normally think of as "knowing" a person and replaces it with "choosing" or "determining." So instead of God actually having knowledge of people before they exist, it is more like He pre-decides their existence and destiny before they exist.
Generally Calvinism shifts the focus of "foreknowledge" from what it does mean to what it does not mean, redefining "knowledge." Calvinism may claim that their defiinition actually means more than to "know." However, what is clear is that Calvinism removes what it means to know and changes the focus from what any non-Calvinist, theologian otherwise, would claim that it means to know someone and, instead, claims that it means to pre-determine what someone will do.

Why Does Calvinism refuse to allow God to have "foreknowledge" of individuals, especially as it is used in 1 Peter 1:2 ("Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father . . .")? This interpretation is necessary to the Calvinist teaching of "Unconditional Election" which concludes that God chose (or elected) who to save without consideration of the future response of individuals to the gospel message. However, if God has all the facts but refuses to use them in election, then He is intentionally not making the best decision, but rather a decision based upon partial knowledge. By ignoring all details about a person (their faith, response, character, etc.), God is electing without knowledge, not with knowledge. And yet, Calvinism still wants to call God's selection "foreknowledge", even though it is the opposite of knowing. If a human judge did this — ignored important facts and made decisions arbitrarily — we would call that injustice. Calvinist Foreknowledge is actually "Not-Knowledge."

      1) It is not knowledge.
      2) It is not awareness.
      3) It is not relational.
      4) It is not personal.
      5) It is a deliberate refusal to consider what God fully knows.

"Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied."

	Literal Understanding	God's election was based upon His foreknowledge of future events. In the context of the passage the basis upon which God chose humans to salvation was based upon His knowledge of their obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
	Calvinist Understanding	God's election was not based upon foreknowledge of human response to the gospel; God chose to elect some portion of humanity to salvation for reasons that we do not know - other than to be sure His decision had nothing to do with God's knowledge of future human response.
		The Calvinist argument is similar to the Calvinist interpretation of 1 John 4:19 - "We love him, because he first loved us." Although the word "because" expresses causation, Calvinism denies that the primary cause of a believer's love of God is the believer's loving response to God's love. Rather, Calvinism argues that the primary cause of a believer's love is God's decree that believer's love Him - in essence, denying the causation expressly stated in 1 John 4:19.

"For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren."

	Literal Understanding	Those whom God foreknew to respond with obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ, He conforms to the image of Jesus, so that many may bear the character of Jesus who is the Heir and Head of the church.
	Calvinist Understanding	Similar to the Calvinist understanding of 1 Peter 1:2, Calvinism argues that God's election was not based upon foreknowledge of human response to the gospel or any other prior knowledge; God chose to elect some portion of humanity to salvation for reasons that we do not know other than to be sure it had nothing to do with God's consideration of human response. As noted above, this interpretation is necessary to the Calvinist teaching of "Unconditional Election" which claims God chose without considering the future response of individuals to the gospel message - though He has complete knowledge of the future, He deliberately refused to consider such knowledge. Rather, He decided each individual's future eternal fate based upon what can only be described as part of what He knows, clearly something less than His complete and perfect knowledge.