Theological Term of the Week

omniscience
God’s perfection “whereby He….knows himself and all things possible and actual in one eternal and most simple act.”1

• From scripture:
  

  Do you know the balancings of the clouds,
  the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge…. (Job 37:46 ESV)

  O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
  2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
  you discern my thoughts from afar.
  3 You search out my path and my lying down
  and are acquainted with all my ways.
  4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
  behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
  5 You hem me in, behind and before,
  and lay your hand upon me.
  6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
  it is high; I cannot attain it. (Psalm 139:1-6 ESV)
  

• From The London Baptist Confession, 1689, Chapter 2:

  …in his sight all things are open and manifest, his knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent upon the creature, so as nothing is to him contingent or uncertain….

• From The Divine Omniscience by A. W. Tozer:

  In the divine omniscience we see set forth against each other the terror and fascination of the Godhead. That God knows each person through and through can be a cause of shaking fear to the man that has something to hide - some unforsaken sin, some secret crime committed against man or God. The unblessed soul may well tremble that God knows the flimsiness of every pretext and never accepts the poor excuses given for sinful conduct, since He knows perfectly the real reason for it. ”Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.” How frightful a thing to see the sons of Adam seeking to hide among the trees of another garden. But where shall they hide? ”Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?… If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day.”
  
  And to us who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us in the gospel, how unutterably sweet is the knowledge that our Heavenly Father knows us completely. No talebearer can inform on us, no enemy can make an accusation stick; no forgotten skeleton can come tumbling out of some hidden closet to abash us and expose our past; no unsuspected weakness in our characters can come to light to turn God away from us, since He knew us utterly before we knew Him and called us to Himself in the full knowledge of everything that was against us.

Learn more: 

1. Blue Letter Bible, Don Stewart: Does God Know Everything?
2. Sam Storms: The Omniscience of God
3. A. W. Pink: The Knowledge of God.
4. S. Lewis Johnson: The Knowledge and Wisdom of God, Part 1 (mp3 with transcript)
5. From my attributes of God posts: God’s Omniscience

1Systematic Theology, Louis Berkhof

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Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms organized in alphabetical order or by topic.

God's Omniscience

This is not a repost of an old post. For some reason, when I did the original series of attributes of God posts, I skipped this one. I’m fixing that now.

When we say that God is omniscient, we mean that he knows everything. There is no limit to what God knows; his knowledge is complete. What are some of the things that are included in God’s all-comprehensive knowledge?

Let’s start with the most remarkable thing that God knows: God knows himself.

For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. … [N]o one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. (1 Corinthians 2:10-11 ESV)

God is infinite, yet he knows “even the depths” of himself. His understanding is “beyond measure” (Psalm 147:5), but he knows every one of his thoughts. We think that God’s knowledge of everything about everyone who has ever lived and will ever live is amazing—and it is—but it’s small potatoes in comparison to the whole of his knowledge of his infinite self.

God also knows everything that exists. Scripture tells us that “[God] looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens (Job 28:24 ESV).” And again: “[N]o creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account (Hebrews 4:13 ESV).” He calls every star by name and knows when every sparrow dies, so there is nothing in the whole universe, including the tiniest details about the most insignificant things, that is unknown to God.

And it is God who declares “the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done (Isaiah 46:10 ESV).” This means that in addition to knowing everything about everything that exists, he knows everything about everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen. Nothing surprises him; nothing catches him off-guard; nothing is forgotten by him.

God’s knowledge of things existing and happening includes knowledge of every aspect of every single person’s life. He knows, for instance, the number of hairs on each head. He knows everything we do, think, and say; and he knows it all before we do it. Yes, before each one of us is born, God knows what will happen on each day we will live.

O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them. (Psalm 139:1-4, 15-16 ESV)

This comprehensive intimate knowledge, says the psalmist, is “too wonderful” for us. How can I not be in awe when I consider God’s knowledge of me?

But God’s knowledge is not limited to things that actually do or will exist, or things that have happened or will happen. Do you remember that Jesus said that Tyre and Sidon would have repented if Jesus had done his miracles there? God knows everything that is possible—everything that could or would occur were circumstances different. He knows what he is able to do, so he knows what could have occured if he had chosen to cause it to occur.

God’s knowledge is an aspect of his nature, so he doesn’t reason his way to it or receive it from anything or anyone outside of himself.

Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD,
Or as His counselor has informed Him?
With whom did He consult and who gave Him understanding? (Isaiah 40:13-14)

The source of all of God’s knowledge is God himself, and he’s the only existing being who knows what he knows entirely independently. God doesn’t know what will happen because he sees and foresees, for that would be receiving knowledge from things outside of himself. Rather, God knows because he plans, creates and sustains. God declares the end from the beginning because his “counsel shall stand, and [he] will accomplish all [his] purpose (Isaiah 46: 10).”

What’s more, as a perfection of the eternal and unchanging God, God’s knowledge is eternal and unchanging. It can’t increase or decrease; God doesn’t learn or forget. He is always fully conscious of every detail of his infinite, complete knowledge of everything.

I started this post by saying that when we say that God is omniscient, we mean that he knows everything. That’s not wrong, but it’s not a very precise, is it? Louis Berkhof’s definition of God’s omniscience is this:

that perfection of God whereby He….knows himself and all things possible and actual in one eternal and most simple act.

And that’s the outline, more or less, for what I’ve written here. God knows himself, all things actual (what exists and what happens), and all things possible, in one eternal (unchanging) and most simple (complete or whole) act.

How can knowing that God knows everything we think, do and say not change the way we live? We may be able to fool those around us, but God knows everything about us. He knows what we are really thinking and what we do when no one else sees. We can’t hide our shortcomings from him, so pretense is useless. It’s foolish not to bring all our faults before him, asking for forgiveness and deliverance from them.

God’s omniscience can also be a comfort. Because God knows everything about us, he can lead us and protect us and sanctify us. He knows what we need before we do, so he can answer our prayer before we ask it. He knows when we are in trouble and he has the power to deliver us. He knows where we are growing in santification and where we need more of his sanctifying work. For those of us who trust him, our God’s complete and infinite knowledge is a glorious thing!

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you. (Psalm 139:17-18 ESV)

Wherein do the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper differ?

The sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s supper differ, in that baptism is to be administered but once, with water, to be a sign and seal of our regeneration and ingrafting into Christ,[1] and that even to infants;[2] whereas the Lord’s supper is to be administered often, in the elements of bread and wine, to represent and exhibit Christ as spiritual nourishment to the soul,[3] and to confirm our continuance and growth in him,[4] and that only to such as are of years and ability to examine themselves.[5] 

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