God’s Omniscience/Knowledge

God’s Omniscience/Knowledge can be defined as follows: God fully knows Himself and all things actual and possible in one simple and eternal act (Grudem,190).

Simple does not mean easy, in that it should be easy for us to understand. Simple means that God’s knowledge is not divided into categories that he needs to shuffle through to find answers. God knows everything all at once, and it is ever before Him. God does not need to pull a book off the shelf to know the number of stars in the universe, or the number of grains of sand on the seashore, or the number of hairs on your head. God knows everything all at once.

God fully knows Himself. This is quite incomprehensible to us because God is infinite in His existence. He has no beginning or end. Paul says, “The Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what Pearson knows a man’s thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10-11). God is morally pure, Holy, and filled with self-knowledge.

God knows everything actual, everything that exists. Because He is the creator and decrier of all things. I know I keep harping on this but, God does not know because He can see into the future, He knows because He decreed in eternity past all things that would be. By decree, he created the heavens and the earth, Genesis chapter 1: 3,6,9,11,14,16,20,24, “And God said.” And by decree He again tells us future history, “I am God, there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done” (Isaiah 46:9-10).   

God also knows what is possible, David inquired of God at Keilah,

“Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? O Lord, the God of Israel, I beseech you, tell your 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” (1 Samuel 23:11-13).

You can see that God knows all the possibilities; if David had stayed, he would have been captured.  Knowing this David left, and the outcome changed. Jesus being God could say, “Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall 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” (Mathew 11:23). There are many more examples of God’s all-knowing or omniscience, but it goes further.

God knows the intent of your heart; He knows your words before they are formed on your tongue.

1 Kings 8:39, “then hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive and act and render to each according to all his ways, whose heart You know, for You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men,”

Psalm 139:2-23, “You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, You know it all.”

Matthew 9:4, “And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, "Why are you thinking evil in your hearts?”

The fact that God even knows the intent of your heart should keep believers on their toes, at least, be on guard about sin in your life. For unbelievers, you should be terrified, in your current condition you are at enmity with God and His wrath burns against you. If the Holy Spirit is causing you to desire Christ, then seek Him with all your heart and don’t quit seeking until you have assurance from Him that you are saved. Assurance from men, or because you said a prayer or confidence based on your own seemingly good intention are all false assurance, your assurance must come from Him and then live your life accordingly in obedience to the word of God.

As always, I pray for those who read this, for your eternal souls, that God would glorify Himself through you. That you would know the peace of God and that His love would be with you. I call myself, through the name of my blog, God’s old man, but honestly, I am just a sinner saved by grace through faith, and none of that was of me but a gift from God. That paraphrased quote from Ephesians 2:8 is how I honestly see what God has done for me through Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit, And I pray this for all of you.