The Capital “G” God (VI) Omniscience When one considers passages like Isaiah 46:9-10, Psalm 147:5, Romans 11:33, and 1 John 3:20, one comes to appreciate the fact that there never was a time when the SELF-EXISTENT, ETERNAL and INFINITE God of all creation knew less or more than He does right now. God, because of who He is, never learns and never forgets.[1] This characteristic is called omniscience. Omniscience is not anything like the knowledge man possesses. Man, by his very nature, cannot know some things. God, on the other hand, knows all things (cf. 1 Jn 3:20), and does so because He is “He who is” (Ex 3:14). Nevertheless, some are willing to argue that there are things that even an all-knowing God cannot know. These argue that the future freewill acts of men and women cannot be known by God because they have not yet happened. God, according to this position, cannot know what cannot be known, and the future, contingent, freewill choices of men and women cannot be known. But can this be true? What is it that the SELF-EXISTENT, ETERNAL, and INFINITE God cannot know? There is, of course, absolutely nothing that such a Being could not, and does not, know, for He transcends the flow of time and sees the past, present and future as only God can see it. Only a being with the INFINITE CHARACTERISTICS AND ATTRIBUTES of God could be ALL-KNOWING. Consequently, it is omniscience that the capital “G” God uses to challenge those who claim to be gods (all the little “g” gods), but who are, in fact, not God (cf. Isa 42:8,9; 43:3-7; 44:7,8; 45:20,21; 48:3-7, for example). Surely, praise, honor and eternal glory belong to the one and only true God who said, in Isaiah 46:9-10, “I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done.” The open theist, who doesn’t believe God can know the future except as He intends to make it happen by His ALMIGHTY POWER, claims the context of this passage favors God making things happen by His OMNIPOTENCE, thus nullifying OMNISCIENCE. But not subscribing to open theism, I see in this passage both OMNISCIENCE and OMNIPOTENCE, the latter of which we’ll take a look at in our next post. (continued) _______ Note [1] God’s promise to “remember no more” the sins of the redeemed (cf. Jer 31:34; Heb 8:12) is a statement about His justification of sinners by grace through faith, not whether He is omniscient or not.
Posted on: Wed, 18 Sep 2013 03:31:08 +0000
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