‘Behold, the Lamb of God’s
ide o amnos tou
theou
College Study
24th teaching
2.11.2013
The ‘Negative’ Doctrines:
“God’s Omniscience”
Turn to Matthew
6:1-18.
There’s a phrase which appears three times in the passage
we just read. Anyone catch it? It was “Your
Father who sees in secret…”
The title of tonight’s study is God’s Omniscience. Three times the phrase in Matthew 6 appears.
Three times it is describing this doctrine of God’s Omniscience.
Now this is the third part in our three-part series on the
Omni- doctrines, and like the other doctrines we’ve looked at, the teaching of
God’s Omniscience is also one over which people are confused. Therefore, we
want to get a clear idea of what the biblical truth of Omniscience means.
We will do that by hitting the following points:
1.
The Definition of Omniscience
2.
The Extent of Omniscience
3.
The Personal Value of
Omniscience
Only three points, but in the second point we’re
going to examine Scriptures about God’s Omniscience, to give us a better grasp
on this subject.
1.
The Definition of Omniscience
Like Omnipotence and Omnipresence, Omniscience is a word
which comes from Latin. The original Medieval Latin word was omniscientia, which literally meant
all-knowledge.
Classical Christianity is claiming of God that He is not
only all-powerful and all-present, but that He possesses all-knowledge as well.
Everything that there is to know, God knows. Everything that can possibly be
known, God knows.
I can think of two modern day examples of what we mean by
omniscience. The first example comes from literature, and the second example is
a symbol. Hopefully, these can give us a clearer picture of what Omniscience
means, and help to ground this religious sounding word into something we can
relate with.
The first example is known as the omniscient-point-of-view
in literature. We’re not talking about third-person point of view. Third-person
point of view is something like this:
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, `and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice `without pictures or conversation?'
So
she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made
her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain
would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly
a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.
These are the opening lines of Alice in Wonderland. In them, we get to see into Alice’s thoughts
and feelings, and we get to see the setting in which Alice is sitting. But we
do not get to see, for example, her sisters thoughts, what she thought about
Alice sitting there. We also don’t get to see the White Rabbit’s thoughts,
about how he’s late and all. Our knowledge as the reader is limited just to
Alice’s thoughts and perspective.
The type of point-of-view style which gets us into the
hearts and minds of multiple characters all at once is different. This
point-of-view is known as omniscient-point-of-view, since you get to see
everything, even the thoughts of all the characters involved in the story.
An example of omniscient-point-of-view comes from a book I
read recently, called Dune. Dune is a
science fiction novel, but in it, you get to listen in on the thoughts of many
different characters all at once. You get to hear the thoughts of the young
hero, Paul, his mother Jessica, his father Leto, his trainer Gurney and even
the villain, the Baron. It’s confusing sometimes, getting all these different
perspectives on the same scene.
So omniscient-point-of-view gives us an example of what it
is like to be omniscient, what God’s Omniscience is like… knowing everything
that happens.
The second example I had mentioned was a symbol. It is this
symbol. This is known as Reverse of the Great Seal of the United States. It is
featured on the back side of a one-dollar bill. Above the unfinished pyramid
are the words Annuit Caeptis, which
means God “approves of our undertakings”, and also an eye in a triangle, known
as the Eye of Providence or the All-seeing Eye. This is a symbolic
representation, although somewhat controversial among conspiratists, a symbol
of God’s Omniscience watching over and approving of the founding of the United
States of America.
Now of course there are those who say the Eye represents
all kinds of things: a satellite, Big Brother, Free Masonry. But the point is
that it’s a symbol of Omniscience. Maybe not God’s. But it’s a symbol of the
ability to see all and therefore know all.
*So we know what Omniscience means: from a Latin word which
literally means all-knowledge. Two
modern examples are found in literary point-of-view and in the Seal of the US
on the back of the dollar.
2.
The Extent of Omniscience
It’s easy to say that God knows all things, but is this
true? After all, the word Omniscience does not appear in the Bible, so is this
an actual teaching of the Bible? Let’s find out. Let’s look at a few examples
of God’s knowledge in the Bible and consider what these verses tell us.
A. Genesis
3:1-13
This is one of many times in the Bible that we see the LORD
asking questions of His creatures. However, if it is true that God has all
knowledge, then surely He doesn’t need to ask questions to gain information in
the same way that you and I do. So then why do it? Why ask Adam where He was if
God already knew?
I can suggest that it’s because God was looking not for information
but for Adam’s response. Each time you see God asking questions in the Bible,
remember that it’s not because of a lack of knowledge, but because God is
prompting someone for a specific response. For Adam, God wanted him to come out
and fess up to his sin.
So God’s knowledge is not limited because God asks
questions. God already knew where Adam was and what Adam had done. God is no
more limited in knowledge than the parent playing peek-a-boo with a baby and
asking that baby “where’s baby?” Obviously, that parent knows exactly where
baby is.
B. Genesis
6:5
Just before God decided to call upon a man named Noah to
build an Ark, we are told that God saw the corruption of the earth. In fact,
we’re told that the LORD saw the great wickedness of man AND that He knew about
the intentions and thoughts of their heart. God both saw the external actions
of man and the internal thoughts within.
So just in our first example, we see that God’s knowledge
is of external and physical things AND of internal and mental things. It says
in Psalm 44:21 that “He knows the secrets of the heart.” Have
you got secrets? Did you ever have a secret crush? Did you ever have a secret
word of gossip? Did you ever know a secret code? Well, God knows all secret
things. Nothing is truly secret from the Lord.
C. Genesis
16:1-13
There are many people who get overlooked in this world, and
the one group of people which gets most often overlooked is the afflicted, the
oppressed, the depressed. It’s easy for us to put out of mind the homeless
surviving in the cold when we have our warm houses, or the starving surviving
without food when we have our warm dinners.
But God’s Omniscience is not limited to the famous or the
important or the wealthy or the healthy. God sees everyone, even as He once saw
a lowly servant, the victim of her master’s wife there in the wilderness.
So in this example, we see that God’s knowledge is not
partial. He doesn’t just know about the who-who’s, the celebrities and the
VIP’s. God knows the details on everyone. He sees the thoughts of both Abraham
the master and Hagar the servant. He sees the thoughts of both Bill Gates and
the child refugee in Africa. God’s knowledge doesn’t play favorites.
D. Psalm
139:1-6, 13-16
We read this psalm last week during our study of Omnipresence,
but the doctrine of Omniscience is also here, clearly.
The knowledge of God stretches not only from the actions (my sitting down and rising up) to the
words (for there is not a word on my
tongue, but behold… You know it altogether), but God also clearly knows the
biological details of the human body (the psalmist uses phrases like in my mother’s womb and when I was made in secret). Even the
future days of a human life are open to the knowledge of God. More on the
future in a minute.
So God’s knowledge is so complete, he even knows all about
the human existence, down to the nitty-gritty of the biological details. This
is just one example of the sciences to which God’s knowledge has access, but we
certainly know, and Scripture indicates, that God’s knowledge isn’t just
limited to biology. He also has perfect knowledge of physics, geology,
astronomy, ecology, sociology, and every single other “–ology” you can think
of.
E. Psalm
147:1-5
Mind-blowing thought here: the concept of infinite
understanding or infinite, unlimited knowledge. We’ve already talked about God
having unlimited power and unlimited presence, but unlimited knowledge?
Follow with me here: knowledge requires an object which can
be known. I can’t know what a Rubik’s cube is unless there is such a thing as a
Rubik’s cube. But eventually, because a Rubik’s cube is a finite object, I can
only have a finite or limited amount of knowledge about it. Eventually, if I’m
smart enough, there’s nothing else to learn about a Rubik’s cube.
Now in this universe, there are a great many more objects
than just Rubik’s cubes. However, there are still only finite objects in this
universe and what’s more, there are only a finite or limited amount of objects
in this universe. If there’s only a certain amount of objects and a certain
amount of knowledge which you can have of each object, then how can anyone have
infinite or unlimited knowledge? You would need an infinite or unlimited Object
about which to have the knowledge.
But there is such an Object. God is that Object, or rather
than Subject. God knows Himself perfectly and yet God is infinite, God has no
limits, therefore it is possible for God to possess, as the psalmist says, “infinite understanding” since He Himself
is an Infinite Subject about which He can have infinite knowledge. Dude, when I
was thinking about this, it blew my mind!
So Omniscience means a whole lot more than just having
all-knowledge. God doesn’t just have all-knowledge, as in He knows everything
about stars and molecules, as in He’s read every book and studied everything
there is to study. No, God’s knowledge is not only all-knowledge, but it is
also unlimited knowledge since He knows Himself and He Himself is unlimited.
This is infinity applied not to space or to power, but to God’s mind.
F. Matthew
6
We already read this passage, but in it we’re told that God
our Father even knows our needs before we ask of him. We may not even be aware
that we have a specific need yet, but God certainly knows. He knows of
something so immaterial as needs we’re unaware we need!
We just talked about Adam. Adam maybe didn’t even know that
he was in need of a helper before God brought him Eve, and yet God looked and
saw that it was not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18).
So God’s knowledge is so complete, he even knows things
that we are still unaware of.
G. Mark
13:32
Uh-oh, here’s a problem. If Jesus is God and God is
all-knowing, then how could Jesus the Son of God not know the day and hour of
His return? How could He say that only the Father knows?
The humanity of Jesus seems to present a problem with
omniscience. Elsewhere, in Luke 2:52
we’re told that as a maturing child, Jesus “grew
in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” How could Jesus grow
in wisdom if He knew everything already? Or even worse…
In Hebrews 5:8
we read that Jesus Christ learned obedience by the things which He suffered.
How can the Bible say that Jesus is God and at the same time say that He
learned wisdom and obedience? If Jesus was already perfect morally and perfect
in knowledge, then how did He learn?
Clearly this is a contradiction. Even A.W. Tozer writes “To
say that God is omniscient is to say that He possesses perfect knowledge and
therefore has no need to learn. But it is more: it is to say that God has never
learned and cannot learn.”
So what’s the solution? You must remember that Jesus took
on humanity, in addition to His divinity. He took on Himself a second nature.
In His humanity, He felt hunger, He felt thirst, He felt pain, He knew sorrow
and He had limited knowledge, presence and power. But in His divinity, as God,
He could feel no pain, He never knew hunger and His knowledge, presence and
power were all-encompassing and perfect.
And Christ learned obedience through suffering, in that He
experienced first-hand and practically what it meant to humble Himself and to
suffer and to be obedient in suffering in such a way which He would never
experience as the Lord of lords in heaven. Omniscience doesn’t mean God has
experienced all things. God has never experienced lying. And before He became a
man, God never experienced obedience in suffering. In this sense, He learned
it, practically, though He already knew everything about it.
H. Hebrews
4:13
This is kind of a blanket-statement. If we haven’t yet seen
that God knows everything, we can see that here: God plainly knows everything
in creation. He knows secrets, He knows thoughts, He knows needs, He knows
intentions, He knows everything
He knows the past, the present… and even the future?
Concerning the future, the Bible uses a specific word to
describe God’s knowledge of future events: the word foreknowledge.
When it comes to the future, God’s knowledge is absolutely
perfect. This is why biblical prophecy must be perfect, without error,
infallible and inerrant.
If God is without error, then the Bible, and by extension
it’s prophecies, must be without error. But if God does not have perfect
knowledge of the future, then the Bible cannot make perfect predictions about
the future. Conversely, if it can be proven that the Bible makes false claims
about the future, then it can be proven that the Author of the Bible, God,
makes false claims about the future.
It’s all or nothing. Oddly enough, there are believers
today who have begun to claim that God’s knowledge of the future is limited,
because God cannot the future free decisions of man. But at the same time, they
claim that the Bible’s prophecies are still true. You can’t have it both ways.
Either God doesn’t know the future and the biblical prophecies are false, or…
God knows the future perfectly and therefore the biblical prophecies are
accurate.
In summary, God’s omniscience guarantees the accuracy of
biblical prophecies. God has the power to bring prophecies to pass and the
knowledge that they will come to pass.
*People get in a huge fit all over the subjects of
predestination and foreknowledge, between Calvinism and Armenianism. How can
God predestine someone and that someone still have their free choice? How can
God foreknow a free act if the person committing the act has not yet made the
decision?
Quite plainly, it’s because God knows all things. He will
know all things regardless of whether you know something or not, or whether you
have committed an act or not.
Saint Anselm was a Benedictine monk and philosopher of the
medieval church. He said that God “foreknows every future event. But what God
foreknows will necessarily occur in the same manner as He foreknows it to
occur… God, who foresees what you are willingly going to do, foreknows that you
will is not compelled or prevented by anything else; hence this activity of the
will is free… To foreknow something implies that thing is going to happen… And
so, if God foreknows something, then it is necessary that the thing occur.”
In other words, because God foresees, God foreknows.
There is no contradiction between God’s sovereign
predestination and foreknowledge and a human being’s free ability to choose
good or evil. The Bible teaches both ways: that God chooses and that man
chooses. God simply foreknows all things that are free acts, even the future
choices of human beings.
*So in summary, what is the extent of God’s omniscient
powers? God’s Omniscience is perfect, unlimited, total knowledge of everything
in Creation and science, including immaterial things like thoughts and
intentions and secrets. There is nothing which God can truly learn that He does
not already know.
3. The Personal
Value of Omniscience
Carl Sagan was a famous American author and astronomer who
died in 1996. He once said: “If
God is omnipotent and omniscient, why didn't he start the universe out in the
first place so it would come out the way he wants? Why's he constantly
repairing and complaining? No, there's one thing the Bible makes clear: The
biblical God is a sloppy manufacturer. He's not good at design, he's not good
at execution. He'd be out of business, if there was any competition.”
I was talking with a co-worker about the Problem of Evil
and he summed it up simply by saying “it’s us”. The problem of evil lies in you
and I, because of our free ability to choose to do evil. You can’t blame the
problem on the omniscient God.
In fact, turns out of lot of our problems, not just the
problem of evil, are because of us. Human life is rife with disappointments,
downs and pains. Depression is at an all-time high. Hey, it’s almost
Valentine’s Day, of course depression is at an all-time high.
But here’s the great comfort of this doctrine, God sees.
God does not watch coldly by. God does not simply observe experimentally. God
sees and has compassion, just as He saw the servant Hagar abandoned in the
wilderness.
The song goes “He knows my name, He knows my every thought,
He sees each tear that falls and He hears me when I call”.
God not only has the power to help you and the presence to
be with you through all the difficult times of life, but He has the knowledge
to understand what you’re going through at any time.
Christianity would be a heck of a lot different if God
never became a man, if He never knew what it was like to be shunned or rejected
or disappointed, if He never knew sorrow or weakness or trials or temptations.
But His experiential knowledge is complete, even as His divine knowledge is
complete. There is nothing you can ever experience which is outside of the
realm of God’s knowing.
Christ did become
a man and grew to know what our weakness is like, what our being tempted is
like, what our being disappointed is like. Omniscience makes God greater than
any other god of any religion, in that He has infinite knowledge, but also in
that He has relevant knowledge.
Right now I’m reading A
Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. It’s a drama set against the
historical background of the French Revolution. In it, Dickens includes the
historical execution by the people of a man named Joseph-Francois Foulon.
Foulon was a counselor to King Louis XVI of France and he is infamous for
saying that the people should eat grass if they were hungry. When the people
rioted, they executed Foulon and stuffed his mouth full of grass. Now that’s a
gruesome image but it shows how someone may have knowledge but not care. Foulon
knew the people of France were poor and starving, but he did not care. In fact,
he manipulated food distribution to his advantage.
Aren’t you glad that our God is not some calloused
politician or bureaucrat, who would look at our hunger and say “go eat grass”?
Nor is God a cold distant force, an aloof deity like Allah or some uncaring,
demanding tyrant.
No, God’s omniscience is bound up with His compassion. God
knows all things about you, but not as mere details. He knows everything about
you and still looks at you and I with divine affection.
Hebrews 4:14-16
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