Omniscience

Omniscience of God is the intellectual attribute of being all-knowing and is one of God’s personal attributes. The word “omniscience” comes from the Latin words omni (which means “all”) plus scientia (which means “knowledge”). The word “science” is taken from that Latin word, but the word means knowledge, not simply science. Omni-scientia – God has all knowledge. That is what it is to be omniscient.

The attribute of God’s omniscience is one of the most discussed and most fascinating of all of the various attributes of God.

Omniscience is usually defined in terms of truth. That is to say, for any true statement or any true proposition, God believes and knows that proposition, and he does not believe any false propositions. It could be said like this: for any proposition p, God knows that p (can fill in anything for that proposition p – that Trump is the President of the United States, that Bryant Wright preached this morning at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, that a tree has fake green leaves on it, any proposition can be filled in for p), and does not believe not-p. For any true proposition p, God knows that p and does not believe not-p. In other words, omniscience means that God knows only and all truths. He knows all the truths there are, and he does not believe any falsehoods. That is the way omniscience is usually defined.

So God knows all past-, present-, and future-tense truths, even before the foundations of the world. Before he created the world, God foreknew the motion of every subatomic particle that would occur in the history of the universe. He knew a person’s very thoughts before they think them. He knows people’s free choices before they make them. He even knew what they would do under different circumstances than the ones that they will be in. So for any true proposition, God knows that proposition and does not believe the negation of it.

Self-Knowledge
Even omniscience does not exhaust the scope and the excellence of God’s knowledge. Philosophers have noted that there is a different kind of knowledge than just propositional knowledge. In addition to knowledge of true propositions, there is also a kind of knowledge which is non-propositional in nature.

This is a good illustration. Suppose a man is visiting Canada and he was chased up a tree by a ferocious moose. While he is in the tree hanging on for dear life he says to his friend, “Go and tell my wife that I’ve been treed by a moose!” What does his friend do? The friend runs up to the wife and does he say to her, “I’ve been treed by a moose!”? No! He would say “Your husband has been treed by a moose.” The friend would communicate to her the information that the husband wanted the friend to communicate by using different words than the husband used. The husband told him to tell her that “I’ve been treed by a moose.” But the friend goes and say to her, “Your husband has been treed by a moose.” In other words, the proposition that the friend is expressing is the same one that the husband was expressing but they used different words. They used different words to give the same information content. When the husband says “I’ve been treed by a moose” he expresses the same proposition that the friend does when he says “Your husband has been treed by a moose.” They both have the same propositional knowledge in this case; namely, that the husband has been treed by a moose. Yet, their knowledge is not perfectly the same. There is a difference here. Why? Look at the way they react to it. The husband reacts to that knowledge by hanging on for dear life in the tree! But the friend reacts to that knowledge by running to tell the wife about it. The friend does not hold on for dear life because he does not believe that he is the husband; he is somebody else. So they have different responses to what they know. That shows that what they know is not exactly the same in both of these cases. They also have a different self-knowledge in addition to the propositional knowledge that they share. They have the same propositional knowledge but their self-knowledge is different.

This self-knowledge is essential to timely action in the world. For example, it is not enough for President Trump to believe the proposition “Donald Trump is hungry” in order to be motivated to get something to eat. For suppose former president Obama had been in a car accident and he was lying in a hospital bed with temporary amnesia so that he does not know that he is Barrack Obama. If someone were to tell him “Barrack Obama is hungry,” that would not do anything to motivate him to ask for something to eat. What Obama needs to have is the self-knowledge either that he is Barrack Obama or that he is hungry. Then he will ask for something to eat. This self-knowledge, though it is non-propositional, is vital to getting along in the world and being able to act in a timely way. It is absolutely essential.

If someone or even something, say a supercomputer, had all of the propositional knowledge in the world so that it counted as omniscient because it knew only and all of the truths that there are, it still could not decide to take any sort of timely action because it would not have any self-knowledge. So if God is to be a “self” or a “person” he is more than omniscient. In addition to all of the propositional knowledge that he possesses, he also has appropriate self-knowledge. He knows “I am God.” That is a perfection. He does not know “I am Ronald Reagan” or “I am Napoleon.” That would be an imperfection indeed because he is not Ronald Reagan or Napoleon. But it is a perfection for him to have appropriate self-knowledge of who he is – that “I am God.” So God’s cognitive excellence exceeds even omniscience. He is more than omniscient, as incredible as that sounds, because he not only knows all truth but he also has appropriate self-knowledge as well.

God Knows All Truth Innately
Even yet with propositional knowledge and self-knowledge, the excellence of God’s knowledge is still not exhausted. What is also important here is the way in which one acquires one’s knowledge. Suppose there were two beings and each one had all propositional knowledge and each one had appropriate self-knowledge for himself. But suppose that the second one acquired his knowledge only because the first being told him everything that he knew and the first being just had this knowledge innately. Clearly the second being would not be as intellectually excellent as the first being because he did not know any of these things innately. He knew them only because the other being told him everything he knew in an innate way. In the same way, as seen from Scripture, God does not learn anything from anybody. Nobody has instructed the Lord or taught him anything. But God simply knows all truth innately and therefore is maximally excellent intellectually.

This is just a stunning conclusion. To think God’s intellectual excellence outstrips even what it is to be an omniscient being. It does so in that he has this self-knowledge and also in the way that he does not acquire this knowledge from others but simply has it himself. It gives an insight into how great God’s intellectual excellence is. It seemed that omniscient was as high as could be gotten. Excellence (his greatness) with respect to his intellectual attributes exceeds even omniscience which ought to issue in praise and adoration and wonder of the person God is.

Scriptural Data
The scriptural data on God’s omniscience is astonishing in the greatness of God’s intellectual powers. God knows all things, everything that happens. God knows the secret thoughts of every individual. God even knows the future. God has immeasurable, perfect knowledge such that he cannot learn anything because he is perfect in knowledge.

Psalm 139:1-6 is a good exposition of the omniscience of God. The psalmist writes:

''O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me! Thou knowest when I sit down and when I rise up; thou discernest my thoughts from afar. Thou searchest out my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou dost beset me behind and before, and layest thy hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it.''

Here the psalmist gives a good description or poetic account of God’s omniscience.

Some of the things that God knows in virtue of being omniscient can be specifically looked at.

God Knows Everything That Happens
God knows everything that is going on. Job 28:24 says, “he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees everything under the heavens.” Here it portrays God as surveying the Earth and he sees everything that is going on. He is aware of everything. Turning over to Job 31:4 the author asks, “Does he not see my ways, and number all my steps?” Of course the answer is yes, God knows every step that he takes and sees all of his ways. God knows everything that is going on. A couple chapters after at Job 34:21-22: “For his eyes are upon the ways of a man, and he sees all his steps. There is no gloom or deep darkness where evildoers may hide themselves.” Here there is nothing that is undisclosed to God. He sees everything that is happening.

This same truth can be found in Proverbs 15:3: “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.” This is an expression as it were of the omnipresence of God as well.

Finally, this same truth is taught in the New Testament in Matthew 10:29-30. Here Jesus is speaking and asks, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father’s will. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.” Jesus is emphasizing here that God knows the tiniest details about a person – even the number of hairs on a person’s head are known to God.

So God knows all things that happen in the world.

God Knows The Secret Thoughts Of Every Individual
He not only sees what is happening everywhere in the world, but he knows the secret thoughts of every person. That is to say, God reads a person’s mind. 1 Chronicles 28:9. This is David’s instruction to Solomon.

And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every plan and thought.

So God searches the hearts and he understands every person’s thoughts.

Similarly, Psalm 44:21 has a phrase there saying that God knows “the secrets of the heart.”

Then in Jeremiah 17:9-10: ''The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it? [Then here comes the answer from God.] “I the Lord search the mind and try the heart, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”''

So God searches and knows people’s hearts.

Again, this same truth is reaffirmed in the New Testament. For example, in Hebrews 4:13 it says, “And before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” So there are no secrets from God. He even reads people’s mind. He knows the depths of their heart and their inner motives. As the author of Hebrews said, it is as though the person is naked and laid bare to the eyes of God even in their innermost thoughts.

God Knows The Future
This is affirmed in Psalm 139, verse 4 in particular: “Even before a word is on my tongue, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.” So even before someone speaks the words that they speak, God already knows them before the person utters them.

Also in Psalm 139:14b-16:

''Thou knowest me right well; my frame was not hidden from thee, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth. Thy eyes beheld my unformed substance; in thy book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.''

Here the psalmist affirms that even as a human was being formed in the womb and had not yet been born, all of the days of the person’s life were already written in God’s book. All of the days that someone live – from the day of birth to the day of death – God knows them. They are in his book so to speak.

So God knows the future. The knowledge of the future was thought by Jewish prophets to be one of the distinguishing marks of the true God of Israel from the false gods of Israel’s neighbors. In contrast to the God of Israel, the true God, the pagan gods could not tell the future. They did not know the future. This exposed them as false deities. Isaiah 41:21-24 is the challenge that Yahweh, the Lord God of Israel, issues to these pagan pretenders.

''Set forth your case, says the Lord; bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob. Let them bring them, and tell us what is to happen. Tell us the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, that we may know their outcome; or declare to us the things to come. Tell us what is to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods; do good, or do harm, that we may be dismayed and terrified. Behold, you are nothing, and your work is nought; an abomination is he who chooses you.''

Here God makes his deity to stand or fall on his foreknowledge of the future. The God of Israel knows the future, and therefore is the true God. The gods of Israel’s neighbors cannot foretell the future and therefore are false gods. So God makes his deity stand or fall upon his ability to foretell the future.

At Isaiah 46:9b-10, God says in verse 9: “I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’” The God of Israel, the God of the Old Testament, is a God who completely knows the future, even the very words that someone is going to speak before they speak them. That is why the God of the Bible is a God of prophecy. Over and over again prophecies of highly contingent events that could not have been predicted by the causal factors that were present at the time the predictions were given are found.

This, of course, then carries on into the New Testament where there is Jesus, the Son of God, exercising his role as a prophet in predicting not only his Second Coming and the signs of the end times but also highly contingent events like Peter’s denying him three times before the cock crows twice, or Judas’ betrayal of him. The Bible is clear in affirming God’s foreknowledge of the future.

God Cannot Learn Anything
In Romans 11:33-36, Paul gives a doxology to God in which he refers to the excellence of God’s knowledge. Paul exclaims,

''O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory for ever. Amen.''

Here Paul extols the unsearchable depths of God’s understanding and knowledge.

Similarly, in the Old Testament in the book of Job, God’s understanding is extolled. Job 21:22 asks, “Will any teach God knowledge, seeing that he judges those that are on high?” The obvious implied answer is no. No one can teach God knowledge because God already has knowledge that is perfect. In Job 37:16 it refers to God as the one who is perfect in knowledge and therefore cannot be instructed or learn anything.

Psalm 147:5 says, “Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.” God’s understanding is infinite. It cannot be compassed. It is beyond measure.

God Knows What Would Happen Under Different Circumstances
God not only knows everything that is happening, everything that has happened and will happen, but he also knows even what would happen under different circumstances.

One of the classic passages illustrating this is found in 1 Samuel 23:1-13. This is the story of David at Keilah.

''Now they told David, “Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and are robbing the threshing floors.” Therefore David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I go and attack these Philistines?” And the Lord said to David, “Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah.” But David’s men said to him, “Behold, we are afraid here in Judah; how much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?” Then David inquired of the Lord again. And the Lord answered him, “Arise, go down to Keilah; for I will give the Philistines into your hand.” And David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their cattle, and made a great slaughter among them. So David delivered the inhabitants of Keilah.''

''When Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David to Keilah, he came down with an ephod in his hand. [This is a sort of divining device to inquire of the Lord.] Now it was told to Saul that David had come to Keilah. And Saul said, “God has given him into my hand; for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars.” And Saul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men.''

''David knew that Saul was plotting evil against him; and he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod here.” Then said David, “O Lord, the God of Israel, thy servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah, to destroy the city on my account. Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down, as thy servant has heard? O Lord, the God of Israel, I beseech thee, tell thy servant.” And the Lord said, “He will come down.” Then said David, “Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?” And the Lord said, “They will surrender you.”''

''Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah, and they went wherever they could go. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the expedition.''

So what the ephod said did not, in fact, come to pass. Saul did not come down to Keilah, and so the men of Keilah did not surrender David over to Saul. The ephod was probably a device that yielded either just a “yes” or “no” answer and so answered in such a way that it told David what would happen if David were to remain in the city. If he were to remain there then Saul would come down. And if he were to come down and attack the city the men of Keilah would surrender David over to Saul. This is an example of where God knew not only what will happen (namely, Saul will not come down), but he knew what would happen under different circumstances.

In a case like this the conditions or the circumstances did not eventuate so that the subjunctive conditional that is involved here – If David were to remain at Keilah, Saul would come down – has a false antecedent. David did not remain at Keilah. These types of subjunctive conditionals are often called counterfactuals. A counterfactual is a subjunctive conditional statement with a false antecedent like “If I were you, I would apply to study at Kennesaw State” or something like that. I am not you! But if I were you, that is what I would do. That is a counterfactual statement.

Unfortunately, native English speakers do not have a very good handle on the subjunctive mood. They often misstate it or speak ungrammatically. Very often people will use the simple singular past-tense: “If I was you then I would do this.” That is completely incorrect. “If I was you” meant that if at some time in the past I was you then this is what I would do. Or if I said, “If I was rich, I would buy a Mercedes.” That means if at some time in the past I was once rich then I would buy a Mercedes. That is not what is meant. Rather, the correct use of the subjunctive mood involves the use of the word “were.” “If I were rich, I would buy a Mercedes.” “If I were you, I would study at Kennesaw State.”

So the easiest way to remember how to use these subjunctive conditionals would be in the if-clause, say “If it were the case that. . . then it would be the case that something else.” That is the easiest way to express these. “If it were the case that (something) then it would be the case that (something else).” So if it were the case that I were him then it would be the case that I would study at KSU, or something of that sort.

However, not all of these subjunctive conditionals have false antecedents. Sometimes the antecedent might turn out to be true. An example of this can be found in the New Testament, in John 21:6. This is the story of the miraculous catch of fish where the disciples had fished all night and had caught nothing. Then Jesus comes to them and in John 21:6, “He said to them, 'Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.' So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, for the quantity of fish.” What did Jesus know here? He knew that if they were to cast the net on the right side of the boat then they would have a great catch. So he tells them, do it – cast it on the right side and you will get a great catch. Because he knew if they were to do that then they would catch these fish. In this case, they obeyed his command, so it is not a counterfactual. It turns out that the antecedent of this is true. If you were to cast the net on the right side of the boat then you would catch the fish. They do cast it on the right side of the boat, and they do catch the fish.

Here is a subjunctive conditional that is not a counterfactual strictly speaking because it has a true antecedent. Sometimes these are called deliberative conditionals, not counterfactual conditions, because people often use these in decision making. For example, “If I were to pull out into traffic now, I would make it.” Or, “If I were to ask the boss for a raise, he would tear my head off.” People use these kinds of subjunctive conditionals in deliberation about what to do. Sometimes they may then have true antecedents if people think that the consequence would be good. If he were to quit smoking, his breath would smell better, and so he decides to quit smoking. The antecedent then is true.

The point is that there are these true subjunctive conditionals. Scripture gives examples of where God evidently knows the truth of these. He knew what would happen under these different circumstances. That needs to be included in the scriptural data concerning God’s being all-knowing, however people in the end understand it.

Problems
Two problems seem to arise as a result of God’s omniscience. The first is the relationship between divine foreknowledge and human freedom – how can people be genuinely free to do other than as God infallibly foreknows people will do? Then secondly if people are genuinely free, how can God foreknow that? How can he foreknow what people will do if at the time when it comes people are completely free to do or to not do that action?

Practical Application
Three practical applications can be drawn from the attribute of divine omniscience.

Serves as a Basis For Total Trust in God’s Guidance in People’s Lives
Because God is omniscient, he never makes a mistake. He never changes his mind due to a lack of foresight. He never overlooks anything; nothing ever catches him by surprise. Therefore people can confidently trust him as he guides them through life. This is especially true if the doctrine of middle knowledge is affirmed because then it means that everything that happens in life happens either by God’s direct will or at least his permission with respect to greater goods that might be achieved. No matter what someone goes through, no matter how difficult the suffering or the trial, no matter how far away God may seem and people feel abandoned by God, nevertheless, on the basis of God’s omniscience, it can be known that God is guiding them and leading them as they trust in him.

Proverbs 3:5-6 give this advice: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” That is such good advice in view of God’s omniscience and middle knowledge. The complexity of the planning of a world of free creatures is such that people could never trust their own insight to discern the right way, but they can trust in the Lord who is omniscient as he guides them through life.

That means that God’s will for someone’s life, whatever it might be, is perfect. It is exactly what God wants for them. In Romans 12:1-2, Paul makes the following appeal:

''I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, [why?] that you may prove what is the will of God, [and what characterizes the will of God?] what is good and acceptable and perfect.''

Paul here calls for a total surrender to God of body and of soul, confident in the fact that people will be able to prove or discern what God’s will is for them. God’s will for someone’s life, Paul says, is good and acceptable (not only to God but if people could understand it it would be acceptable to them) and it is perfect, which means there is nothing that someone could do to improve upon it. It is a call, a reason, to trust in God as he leads people even through the dark valleys and the difficult seasons of life. People can trust him for a marriage partner in life. They can trust him for their career path. They can trust him during times of illness and disappointment and suffering, even as they go into death they can trust in him because of his omniscience and guidance.

Source of Comfort in God’s Knowledge of People’s Hearts
In many circumstances, people may misunderstand other people and their motivations. They may malign them and impute to them false motivations that are not at all what they intended. In these kinds of situations it is comforting to know that God knows their hearts. He knows where a person’s heart really lies and what a person’s motivations really are. 1 Samuel 16:7 says, “For the LORD does not look on things as a man looks on them; man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

God knows people’s hearts; he discerns their true motivations. He understands them even when they fail and do not live up to the standard that they should. Psalms 103:13-14 says, “As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” Here God is described as a compassionate God who understands people and their frailty and fallibility and has compassion on them as a father has compassion on his children.

Even at times when people’s devotions seem low and they are not in fellowship with the Lord as they ought to be, God knows the truth. He knows the truth about someone’s heart and that that person does love him and that that person wants to follow him. In John 21:17, John describes the scene where Jesus meets with Peter during the miraculous catch of fish on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus asks Peter three times, “Peter, do you love me?” John records that Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him for the third time, “Do you love me,” (doubtless this reflects Peter’s denying Christ three times and Jesus brings this painful memory back to Peter by asking him three times, “Do you love me?”) and Peter said, “Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you.” Peter finds comfort in Jesus knowing his heart and knowing all things. He knows that he loves him even though he has failed him in the past. So there is a comfort in the awareness that God has a knowledge of people’s hearts and understands and has compassion on them.

Source of Security in God’s Love
There is no new information that God might acquire about someone that would affect his love for that person. There are no skeletons in someone’s closet that he is not already aware of. There is no future fall that he is not aware of that could affect his love for people. He knows humans entirely and thoroughly – through and through. And yet, in spite of all that, he loves them unfailingly.

1 John 3:19-20 says, “By this we shall know that we are of the truth, and reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.” Even when humans are fallen and they sin and disappoint themselves and God and let God down, God knows their hearts. He still loves people and they can reassure their hearts before him, as John says, by having the knowledge of this unfailing love.

So there is not any need to hide from God. There is no need to try to conceal from him people’s sins, their struggles, their doubts, their failures. They can be honest with God and bring these before him because he knows them thoroughly. In fact, although they very often as Christians talk about the importance of their knowing God, in one sense what is really important is that God knows them, that he is related to them regardless of the awareness they might have of that relationship. That relationship is one of God’s knowing people, not just their knowing God.

In 1 Corinthians 13:12, in the second half of that verse, Paul says, “Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.” Paul says, ''Right now my knowledge is incomplete, it is partial, but someday I will fully understand. But I am already fully understood by God.'' Human knowledge is partial, but God has complete and full understanding and knowledge of them. So in Galatians 4:9 Paul says, “You have come to know God, or rather, to be known by God.” There is that reverse. It is not just that people have come to know God, rather (Paul says) they have come to be known by him. Similarly, in 1 Corinthians 8:3, Paul says, “If one loves God, then one is known by him.”

So this relationship to God is not simply one of people knowing him, but even more fundamentally it is his knowing them – something that people sometimes overlook and fail to appreciate. As Christians, people are now known by God and loved by him. So they can be totally honest and open before him.

In Psalms 32:3-7, the psalmist says,

''When I declared not my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to thee, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”; then thou didst forgive the guilt of my sin. Therefore let every one who is godly offer prayer to thee; at a time of distress, in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him. Thou art a hiding place for me, thou preservest me from trouble; thou dost encompass me with deliverance.''

Here the psalmist contrasts what it was like hiding his sin from God, trying to cover it up, and the misery that he experienced. But then the freedom that comes with acknowledging and confessing his sin and then experiencing God’s forgiveness.

So God’s omniscience is a source of encouragement for people to be honest and open with God and to keep short accounts with God and to confess as soon as people are aware of a sin in their life and to keep those channels open to God because they know that they are secure in his love and do not need to hide anything from him.