God’s attribute: The Omniscience of God Part 1

This is a series on the attributes of God.

 

Selected Scriptures

Purpose: In this session we shall see the Scripture in the Old and New Testament both teaches God’s omniscience.

• The Old Testament teaches God’s Omniscience.
• The New Testament teaches God’s Omniscience.

What is the omniscience of God? Definitions:

• John Frame: God’s “knowledge of everything.”[1]
• Wayne Grudem: “God fully knows himself and all things actual and possible in one simple and eternal act.”[2]
• Another popular view: “Divine omniscience means God knows all true propositions.”[3]
• John Feinberg has several pages in his book on God on the difficulty of defining God’s omniscience and concludes with this definition: “Hence, we can say that divine omniscience means at least knowing everything a being with attributes such as God’s can know.”[4]

The Old Testament teaches God’s Omniscience.

1. God’s knowledge is perfect: “Do you know about the layers of the thick clouds, The wonders of one perfect in knowledge,” (Job 37:16)
   1. This here is Job’s friend Elihu testifying that God’s knowledge is perfect.
   2. Job’s friends might not have applied the truth of their theology correctly in every instances but they do at times utter truth of God’s attributes correctly.
2. God’s knowledge is unlimited
   1. “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.” (Psalm 139:17-18)
      1. The Psalmist acknowledge that the sum of God’s thoughts is a lot when he said:
         1. “How vast is the sum of them!” (Psalm 139:17b)
         2. “If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand” (Psalm 139:18a)
      2. Yet the Psalmist reaction is also to see “How precious also are Your thoughts to me” (Psalm 139:17a)
   2. “He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them. Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite.” (Psalm 147:5)
      1. Notice verse 4 stating that God can count the stars and even names them, something humans with their limitations cannot do thoroughly.
      2. Notice the end of verse 5 that summarizes God’s knowledge as infinite.
   3. “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable.” (Isaiah 40:28)
      1. Note how the last phrase mentions that God’s “understanding is inscrutable.”
      2. This is one of several characteristics of God mentioned in the verse that sets God apart from His creatures.
3. God also knows individuals and details of individuals’ lives
   1. “The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men; 14 From His dwelling place He looks out On all the inhabitants of the earth, 15 He who fashions the hearts of them all, He who understands all their works.” (Psalm 33:13-15)
      1. Notice God “sees all the sons of men” (13)
      2. Again this is reiterated: “sees all the sons of men” (14)
      3. God even “understands all their works” and the basis of that understanding has to do with the fact that God “fashions the hearts of them all” (15)
   2. “O Lord, You have searched me and known me. 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. 3 You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it all.” (Psalm 139:1-4)
      1. This Psalm also shows God knowing people in a detailed intimate manner; note verse 3b: “And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.”
      2. Unlike Psalm 33 here this Psalm uses first person singular pronouns of how God knows him.
      3. The Psalmist mentioned that God even knows the inner life of himself, something other creatures can’t access
         1. “You have searched me and known me” (v.1)
         2. “You understand my thought from afar” (v.2b)
      4. The knowledge of God of the Psalmist is even before things happened: “Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it all.” (4)
4. Here we see God knowing the heart, even judging it:  “If you say, “See, we did not know this,” Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts? And does He not know it who keeps your soul? And will He not render to man according to his work?” (Proverbs 24:12)

 

The New Testament teaches God’s Omniscience.

1. God sees all creatures: “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” (Hebrews 4:13)
   1. In the context the previous verse just mentioned that God’s Word is able to judge the heart and intentions of people.
   2. Here we see a denial that anyone can escape God’s sight: “And there is no creature hidden from His sight” (13a)
   3. Follow by a positive statement that all is within God’s sight: “but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” (13b)
      1. Note the use of the phrase “all things,” and not just “all creatures”
      2. All things “are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him”
      3. Using metaphorical language, God is described as having eyes.
      4. His eyes sees all things in such a way that all things are open and laid bare.
   4. God knows the amount of hair on our heads: “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” (Matthew 10:30)
      1. In the context Jesus is telling His disciples not to fear men but to focus upon God.
      2. Notice here in verse 30 the reason for the diciples to trust in God is God’s omniscience: He even knows that “the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”
2. The members of the Trinity have supernatural knowledge which we shouldn’t be surprised given that they are God
   1. Note: The New Testament is different than the Old in that the revelation about the Trinity is clearer in the New than in the Old. Thus we shouldn’t be surprised to see discussion about the members of the Trinity also mention attributes of God found in the persons of the Trinity.  For the purpose of this session we will look at the supernatural knowledge of the Spirit and the Son since we take it for granted that people agree God the Father is omniscient.
   2. The Spirit
      1. “For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:10)
         1. Notice here the Spirit is a person in that He has a will and intellect when He “searches all things”
         2. The Spirit’s search includes “even the depths of God”
         3. To search even the depths of God means that the Spirit must be God Himself and omniscient.
      2. “For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:11)
         1. Again there is the affirmation that God’s thoughts no one knows except God and the Spirit of God.
         2. The analogy is drawn with even man’s knowledge is only known with his spirit himself.
   3. The Son: “Nathanael *said to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” 49 Nathanael answered Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.”” (John 1:48-49)
      1. By way of context this is early in Jesus’ ministry when Philip was trying to invite Nathaniel to see Jesus.
      2. Jesus was able to see Nathaniel supernaturally.
3. God knows possibilities of things that did not happen
   1. Note that up to this point all the verses we have seen involves God knowing what is actually the case of things in reality. We are going to see in the following two verses that God also know what is called “counter-factual truths.”  Counter-factual truths means claims that are true involving possibilities of things that didn’t happen.
   2. ““Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in [b]sackcloth and ashes.” (Matthew 11:21)
      1. Here is Jesus Christ speaking.
      2. Jesus is pronouncing woe upon two cities: “Chorazin” and “Bethsaida.”
      3. His condemnation involves stating something that didn’t happen: “if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago”
      4. Yet Jesus knows this and knows this supernaturally.
   3. “And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day.” (Matthew 11:23)
      1. Here is Jesus Christ speaking.
      2. Jesus is pronouncing woe upon the city of “”
      3. His condemnation involves stating something that didn’t happen: “f the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day.”
      4. Yet Jesus knows this and knows this supernaturally.

Implications

1. Are you grateful for God’s Omniscience?
   1. Imagine if God didn’t know wasn’t all knowing: “In fact, a relatively ignorant God with absolute power to do anything he wanted would be frightening, for his creatures might constantly fear that he would use that power in ignorance of the truth. He might not know who was truly guilty of sin, and hence might punish the righteous and bless the wicked, or without fully understanding the natural order, he might perform miracle which, because of ignorance, produces something monstrous.” [5]
   2. Be thankful to God that He knows all, and praise Him that He is so!
2. If God knows you more than you know yourself, do you trust what God says about you?
3. If God knows everything do you believe whatever His word has to say about His creation?
4. If God knows you accurately and your sins, does that bring about a healthy fear of God that drives you to His grace as given through trusting Jesus Christ and His works to save sinners? How is your reading of the Word? Sometimes we don’t read because we don’t understand.  But do you realized that the Spirit is our teacher and He knows thoroughly about God?  Do you trust and ask Him for help to understand and know God?
5. How is your prayer life? In light of the examples of the Apostles in Acts 1, do we pray to God in making decisions, knowing that He knows more than we do?
6. Are you fearful of man and prone to peer pressure? In light of Luke 16:15, we should care more about what God thinks about us rather than being esteemed by men.
7. We should also learn that just because we are esteemed by others that does not mean we are not harboring secret sins in our hearts in which God knows about.

 

[1] John Frame, The Doctrine of God (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 2002), 414.

[2] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan), 190.

[3] John Feinberg, No One Like Him (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2001), 304.

[4] John Feinberg, No One Like Him (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2001), 304.

[5] John Feinberg, No One Like Him (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2001), 299.