GODKNOWS

The
Omniscience
of God

Wednesday 9 February 2011

"God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter
and all matters, all mind and every mind, all spirit
and all spirits, all being and every being, all
creaturehood and all creatures, every plurality
and all pluralities, all law and every law, all
relations, all causes, all thoughts, all mysteries, all
enigmas, all feeling, all desires, every unuttered
secret, all thrones and dominions, all
personalities, all things visible and invisible in
heaven and in earth, motion, space, time, life,
death, good, evil, heaven and hell."
A.W. Tozer

Omniscience refers to
God’s all knowingness
Evans deﬁnes it: “God’s
omniscience refers to his
perfect knowledge of all
things both actual and
potential”
So this means there is
nothing at all that
God doesn’t know - he
depends on no one
outside himself for
knowledge.

We rely on other peoples
knowledge all the time - at a
chemist, on a plane, in a
school class, at the doctors,
and even when cheating in
exams


God’s omniscience
is intuitive

intuitive |inˈt(y)oōitiv|

•using or based on what one
feels to be true even without
conscious reasoning
•instinctive


Isaiah tells us something about God’s
perfect knowledge - 40:13-14
Who can fathom the Spirit of the
LORD, or instruct the LORD as his
counselor?
Whom did the LORD consult to
enlighten him,and who taught him the
right way?
Who was it that taught him
knowledge, or showed him the path of
understanding?


Evans says this is like asking, “Where did
God go to school?” - God does not
need to learn, study, read etc.
For us learning shows us how much
more we need to learn - how much
more there is to know
Matt 10:30 - even the very hairs of your
head are all numbered.
God does not need to count them - it
is intuitive to him
After Hannah has her baby she prays, 1
Sam 2:3 - for the LORD is a God who
knows

God knows immediately and
simultaneously - he doesn’t look back
to the past to remember or forward
to the future to see what will happen,
“All that is known, will be known, could be
known, or has been forgotten, God knows
intuitively and eternally” Evans
Therefore there is nothing God does
not know about you - EVERY
THING!
And, all the information in the world -
ever - he knows all ready - Ps 147:5
Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
his understanding has no limit.

The United States Library of Congress in Washington
D.C. ranks as the largest library in the world. It holds
over 118 million items which require more than 500
miles of shelving.


2. God’s omniscience
is comprehensive
Hebrews 4:13
Nothing in all
creation is hidden
from God’s sight.
Everything is
uncovered and laid
bare before the eyes
of him to whom we
must give account.

2. A.no detail overlooked
God knows every thought and
feeling you have, he knows fully
your personality - he knows
everything about you.
In fact he knows everything -
and knows it fully
(comprehensively)
Proverbs 15:3 -The eyes of the
LORD are everywhere, keeping watch
on the wicked and the good.
Psalm 50:11 - I know every bird in
the mountains, and the insects in the
ﬁelds are mine.

2. A.no detail overlooked
God knows every thought and
feelingsmallest he knows fully
The you have, animal in the
your personality - he knows
world, which is also the
everything about you.
smallest insect in the world
In fact he knows everything -
(so far) is the Megaphragma
and knows it fully
caribea otherwise known as
(comprehensively)
a fairyﬂy. It is a parasitic the
Proverbs 15:3 -The eyes of
wasp that lives on the
LORD are everywhere, keeping watch
island of Guadalope and
on the wicked and the good.
Psalm off the- eggs of other in
feeds 50:11 I know every bird
insects
the mountains, and the insects in the
ﬁelds are mine.

Psalm 147:4 - He determines the
number of the stars and calls them
each by name.
Psalm 90:8 - You have set our
iniquities before you, our secret sins in
the light of your presence.
Even if we try to pretend God
doesn’t see - Psalm 70:11 They
say, “How would God know? Does the
Most High know anything?”
He does, about everyone of
us!
E.g. Jer 1:5, Gal 1:15-16

2. B.what could have been

God knows what could have happened - look at Matt
11:21-24
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the
miracles that were performed in you had been performed in
Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in
sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for
Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And you,
Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go
down to Hades. For if the miracles that were performed in you
had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this
day. But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on
the day of judgment than for you.”

Capernaum is
mentioned 16 times
in the New
Testament. It served
as Jesus’
"headquarters"
during his public
ministry. Several
disciples were from
Capernaum and
many miracles were
performed here. It
was a ﬁshing village
with a tollbooth and
a synagogue.

The amazing thing is that this did
not happen - but because God’s
omniscience is so great that he
knows what would have
happened.
He knows the potential outcomes
of history as well as the actual
ones!
This should be of great
encouragement to all of us - God
could have changed situations and
circumstances about our lives yet
he wanted us here, now, doing
what we are doing - even if it is
painful at times

IF you can keep your head when all about
you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men
doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting
too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too
wise:

2. C.Comprehensive
Knowledge and Worship

As people worship God he knows
every word they will use, each
syllable, each note which will be
sung - and he loves to hear our
praise and prayers - he inhabits the
praises of his people
Psalm 22:3 (ESV)
Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises
of Israel.


3. God’s omniscience is
personal

Psalm 139:1,2
You have searched me, LORD,
and you know me. You know
when I sit and when I rise; you
perceive my thoughts from
afar.


3.a. God knows us
So God is aware of the smallest
actions of our lives - sitting down
on something uncomfortable,
aching joints as we get up etc.
God is also aware of the
thoughts we have Ezek 11:5
Then the Spirit of the LORD came on
me, and he told me to say: “This is
what the LORD says: That is what you
are saying, you leaders in Israel, but I
know what is going through your
mind.

Ps 139:3-5 - You discern my going
out and my lying down; you are
familiar with all my ways. Before a
word is on my tongue you, LORD,
know it completely.You hem me in
behind and before, and you lay your
hand upon me.
He knows where we are and
where we are going, he knows
what we will say - there is
nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.


3.b. God understands us
Jesus said of Nathaniel - John
1:47 -“Here truly is an Israelite in
whom there is no deceit.”
God never misunderstands your
motives - he never gets you wrong.
This is a comfort when people
around you think wrongly of you.
Job 23:10 - But he knows the way
that I take; when he has tested me, I
will come forth as gold.


Psalm 56:8 - You have
kept count of my tossings;
put my tears in your
bottle. Are they not in your
book?
People might not
understand but God does,
he sees every heartbreak
and stores up your tears!


3.c. God sees through us
Are you a hypocrite - do you say one
thing and do another?
Jesus saw this with the Pharisees and
Sadducees, Matt 23:27 - “Woe to
you, teachers of the law and Pharisees,
you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed
tombs, which look beautiful on the outside
but on the inside are full of the bones of
the dead and everything unclean.
The law said not to touch tombs - so
they made them obvious and easy to
avoid

You might look ok on the
outside - God is looking
inside you - he desires purity
to ﬂow from your heart,
mouth and life
God will never be fooled or
deceived by your lies


4. God’s Omniscience is Purposeful
God’s omniscience serves his eternal purposes -
there is nothing hit and miss about it.


4.a. In Relation to Salvation
Eph 1:4-6
For he chose us in him before the
creation of the world to be holy
and blameless in his sight. In love
he predestined us for adoption to
sonship through Jesus Christ, in
accordance with his pleasure and
will— to the praise of his glorious
grace, which he has freely given
us in the One he loves.


Acts 2:23 - of Jesus - This
man was handed over to you by
God’s deliberate plan and
foreknowledge; and you, with the
help of wicked men, put him to
death by nailing him to the cross.
This all is in the wisdom of
God, which Evans deﬁnes as:
The interworking of
God’s attributes to
accomplish his will and
achieve his purposes


So what does this mean in
relation to election,
predestination and
foreknowledge, particularly as
they relate to our salvation?
Hyper Calvinistic view says,
“God has already determined
all that will happen and
therefore we have no choice
in it...in effect we are robots”


The Arminian view has,
according to Evans, God
sitting in heaven biting his
ﬁngernails, he has a plan
but is never quite sure
what we will do. In this way
God’s omniscience is
watered down
He is still sovereign and
omnipotent, but
omniscience takes a hit
here.


So how do we handle the fact
that God knows everything
and yet we are still free to
make moral choices?


make moral choices?
God knows if you decide to
do something - and then
change your mind and do it
later, or not at all.


make moral choices?
Consider it this way;


make moral choices?
Consider it this way;
1. God desires all men to be
saved - 1 Tim 2:4, 2 Pet 3:9


2. God provided for his
desire through Jesus - Heb
2:9, Jn 3:16


2. God provided for his
desire through Jesus - Heb
2:9, Jn 3:16
3. God elected some to
be saved - Eph 1:4 -
meaning some are passed
by (Calvin says some are
actively decreed lost to
condemnation)


4. So how does God desire
all to be saved whilst actively
electing only some? How
can the lost be responsible if
they were not elected in the
ﬁrst place? How is it fair to
judge people who are not
elected in the ﬁrst place?


4. So how does God desire
all to be saved whilst actively
electing only some? How
can the lost be responsible if
they were not elected in the
first place? How is it fair to
judge people who are not
elected in the first place?
No one has any definitive
answer for this!


What we do know is that
God’s knowledge and
purposes intersect with
human choice resulting in us
having choices to make, yet
these choices still fulﬁll God’s
plan and purposes, his goal.


What we do know is that
God’s knowledge and
purposes intersect with
human choice resulting in us
having choices to make, yet
these choices still fulﬁll God’s
plan and purposes, his goal.
We also know that the bible is
clear that people who die
away from Jesus go to eternal
destruction, and that those
who know Jesus only do so
through the grace of God.

Evans sums the whole thing up
like this:


Evans sums the whole thing up
like this:
“So God has made provision for
all but He’s elected some, leaving
us with a choice but
guaranteeing his plan. If the
wisdom of the omnipotent God
leaves you shaking your head in
wonder and amazement, that’s all
right. If you or I ever ﬁgure out
God, we’re in trouble!”


4.b. In Relation to Daily Living
In Luke 22 we see Jesus speaking to
Simon,
“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all
of you as wheat. But I have prayed for
you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.
And when you have turned back,
strengthen your brothers.”
But he replied, “Lord, I am ready to go
with you to prison and to death.”
Jesus answered, “I tell you, Peter, before
the rooster crows today, you will deny
three times that you know me.”

God knew all about the situations
- and defeats - that would face
Simon, and that face us each day.
But here’s the good news:
Hebrews 7:25 - Therefore he is
able to save completely those who
come to God through him, because
he always lives to intercede for
them.
Simon was restored - John21 -
yet we should not underestimate
the power of the prayer of jesus
(then and now) in saving him (and
us)

God knew all about the situations
- and defeats - that would face
Simon, and that 5:8us each day.
Romans face
But here’s the good news:
But God
Hebrews 7:25 - Therefore he is
demonstrates his own
able to save completely those who
come to God through him, because
love for us in this:
he always lives to intercede for
While we were still
them.
Simon was restored - John21 -
sinners, Christ died
yet we should not underestimate
for us.
the power of the prayer of jesus
(then and now) in saving him (and
us)

Running to God
God loves us even if, when, we fail:
Jer 31:34
No longer will they teach their
neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know
the LORD,’ because they will all know
me, from the least of them to the
greatest,” declares the LORD.
“For I will forgive their wickedness and
will remember their sins no more.”
We have to choose - do we run
from or to God’s omniscience.

Ps 139:16
Such knowledge is too
wonderful for me, too lofty
for me to attain.
God’s knowledge might
seem a little intimidating,
but you know from the
other attributes that he
always uses it in love to
work out all things for
good.


Responding to God’s Omniscience
1. If you have active sin in your life run to God,
confess and repent - he knows about it already.
2. Thank God for his complete knowledge and
understanding of you - more then you will ever
know or understand yourself
3. Allow God to deal with difﬁcult situations
from the past, or present. Release things into his
knowledge, rest in him and forgive people.


Read Psalm
139:1-18
Look in the mirror
- God chose to
create you, nothing
about you is an
accident or
afterthought.


GODKNOWS

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