(the picture in the video is from Tim Challies)
B. Omniscience (mental)
1. Definition
a.
all-knowing
b. God fully knows himself, and all things actual and
possible in one simple, eternal act. (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, pg. 190)
2. Scriptural Data
a. Psalm 139:1-6, 16: O Lord, you have searched me
and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my
thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted
with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know
it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such
knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it…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.
b. God knows everything going on
i. Job 28:24: For he looks to the ends of the earth and
sees everything under the heavens.
ii. Job 31:4: Does not he see my ways and number all
my steps?
iii. Job 34:21-22: “For his eyes are on the ways of a
man, and he sees all his steps. There is no gloom or deep darkness where
evildoers may hide themselves.
iv. Proverbs 15:3: The eyes of the Lord are in every
place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.
v. Matthew 10:29-30: Are not two sparrows sold for a
penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
But even the hairs of your head are all
numbered.
c. God knows
the secret thoughts of every individual
i. 1 Chronicles 28:9: 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.
If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast
you off forever.
ii. Jeremiah 17:9-10: The heart is deceitful above all
things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the
heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to
the fruit of his deeds.”
iii. Ezekiel 11:5: And the Spirit of the Lord fell
upon me, and he said to me, “Say, Thus says the Lord: So you think, O house of
Israel. For I know the things that come into your mind.
iv. Hebrews 4:13: And no creature is hidden from his
sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give
account.
d. God knows
the future
i. Isaiah 41:21-24: 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 less than nothing; an abomination is he who chooses
you.
ii. Isaiah 46:9-10: remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other; 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,’
iii. John 13:38: Jesus answered, “Will you lay down
your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till
you have denied me three times.”
e. God
cannot learn anything
i. Job 21:22: Will any teach God knowledge, seeing
that he judges those who are on high?
ii. Job 37:16: Do you know the balancings of the clouds,
the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge,
iii. Psalm 147:5: Great is our Lord, and abundant in
power; his understanding is beyond measure.
f. God knows
what would happen under different circumstances
i. 1 Samuel 23:1-13:
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 livestock and struck them with a great blow. So David saved the
inhabitants of Keilah. When Abiathar the son of Ahimelech had fled to David to
Keilah, he had come down with an ephod in his hand. Now it was told 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 harm against him. And he said to Abiathar the priest,
“Bring the ephod here.” Then David said,
“O Lord, the God of Israel, your 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 your servant has heard? O Lord, the God of Israel,
please tell your servant.” And the Lord said, “He will come down.” Then David said, “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.
ii. Matthew 11:21, 23: “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to
you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and
Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes…And you,
Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades.
For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have
remained until this day.
3. Consideration and
Reflection
a. For any true statement, God knows that statement
and he doesn’t believe any false statements.
b. God has self-knowledge
i. “I
am God”
ii. this implies that all 3 persons of the Godhead
have self-knowledge
- “I
am the Father”
- “I
am the Son”
- “I
am the Holy Spirit”
iii.
omniscient computer has no self-knowledge
iv.
this is a perfection of the personhood of God
v. this is part of God’s image in man; we have
self-knowledge as well
c. God’s
omniscience is innate
i. as opposed to an omniscient human being who learned
all knowledge
d. Prior to creation God knows all things in a
logical, not chronological order (Floyd H. Barackman, Practical Christian Theology, pg. 53)
i. Necessary Knowledge: Knowledge determined by His
divine nature, causing Him to know all possible things
ii. Decree: His plan, embracing all actual things that
He chose from all possible things
iii. Free Knowledge: His foreknowledge of all actual
things
iv. Reality: The actual things He brings to pass or
allows to come to pass as He has decreed
e. The issue
of foreknowledge, 4 views
i.
Simple foreknowledge: God foreknows in virtue of His foresight
-typically the view of Arminians and other libertarian
freewill theists
-Problem: doesn’t seem to fit with the Biblical data
-Isaiah 46:9-11: remember the former things of old; for
I am God, and there is no other; 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,’ calling a bird
of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken,
and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.
-Ephesians 1:11: In
him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the
purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will
-God predestines things according to His will
ii. Reformed divine omnicausality: God foreknows in
virtue of His providential planning of the world
-typically
the view of Reformed theology adherents
-Problem:
appears to make God the cause of evil and sin
-Reformed theologians make pleas to primary and
secondary causality and agency
-God, as the primary cause, enables man, the secondary
cause, to act in a “reasonably self-determined” way
-Ultimately appeal to mystery for how God causes but
is not responsible for evil and sin that man commits
iii. Molinism’s middle knowledge: God knows what free
creatures would do in every possible set of circumstances
-minority
view; held by analytical philosophers mainly
-Problem: middle knowledge depends on external
abstract objects that, in turn, make them a causal necessity that God depends
on to create the world.
iv. Open theism: God has granted to humanity
free will and that in order for the free will to be truly free, the future free
will choices of individuals cannot be known ahead of time by God
-this is heresy as it denies the
full omniscience of God
-claims that
future free decisions are not real and thus not knowable
-God’s
omniscience becomes His knowledge of everything up to the present moment
-God basically
becomes a good guesser and contingent planner for everything man might possibly
do, but doesn’t actually know fully
-anthropomorphisms/pathisms are literal
-Acts 2:23: this
Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God,
you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
f.
Foreknowledge and human freedom
i.
If God infallibly knows what I will do, how can I be free?
ii. Simple foreknowledge says that God just knows the
future, so our choices are unconstrained by His knowing.
iii. Reformed theologians posit that God causes all
things, with humans as secondary agents to God. This view insists that God
causes all things and humans are free in a compatibilist way that is a mystery.
iv. Molinism says that whatever you do, God knew that
beforehand. God knew the fact that you would be here tonight, but if you didn’t
come, He knew that fact instead.
4. Practical Application
a. Total
trust in God’s guidance in your life
i. Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the Lord with all your
heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge
him, and he will make straight your paths.
b. Comfort
in God’s knowledge of your heart
i. 1 Samuel 16:7: But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not
look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected
him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance,
but the Lord looks on the heart.”
ii. John 21:17: He said to him the third time, “Simon,
son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the
third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything;
you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”
c. Source of
security in God’s love
i. There is no new information that God might acquire
about you that would affect his love for you.
ii. 1 John 3:19-20: By this we shall know that we are
of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns
us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
iii. Psalm 32:3-7: For when I kept silent, my bones
wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was
heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I
acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will
confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may
be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him. You are
a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with
shouts of deliverance.
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