God the Father
PERCEIVING GOD
God the Father
PERCEIVING GOD
One of the dominant features of most industrialized world cultures near the dawn of the third millennium A.D. is a stress on education. There is a growing realization that one must acquire information in order to cope with the complexities that face modern civilization. This accounts for the excitement over the development of the information superhighway. The expanding of continuing education programs testifies to people’s desire for intellectual growth far into their advanced years.
Human nature seems to be characterized by a desire to know. The activities of a two-year-old child are a convincing demonstration of curiosity in action. The unrelenting questions of five- year-olds have baffled and frustrated many parents. It is common to find professionals who have subjected themselves to the learning process for twenty or thirty years in order to learn more and function effectively. This emphasis on learning grows out of a need to know. It is greatly motivated by our realization that we do not know yet what we need and want to know. The effort continues because we believe that we can learn. All of this is quite familiar to us. In fact, the desires to explore, discover, and achieve seem innate in human nature. This is normal for humans.
However, we humans can become too enamored with our accumulation of knowledge. The age of technology, with the highly specialized use of knowledge, has brought many benefits. We salute the ingenuity of informed accomplishments. Is there a “down side” to this blitz of human progress? Yes! A very contagious disease called “pseudo-intellectualism” is spreading. Symptoms include insufferable arrogance, vicious self-assertion, and unrealistic confidence, along with an unmitigated conviction that “man is the measure of all things.” This stance of what can be called a sort of “anthropocentric divinity” conceals a potentially fatal flaw in the human psyche. Even with all our insights, most of us have not yet learned enough to acknowledge a God who looms so far above us that our intellectualism is infantile before Him (1 Corinthians 1:18- 25).
A close corollary to God’s omnipresence is His omniscience; God has infinite, universal, complete knowledge. This is emphasized in the Scriptures. When speaking to his “friends” about God, Job said, “He looks to the ends of the earth, and sees everything under the heavens” (Job 28:24). The Wise Man of Proverbs said, “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3). The ramifications of God’s omniscience are many. Numerous questions may be raised. Let us consider a few by way of illustration.
God’s omniscience raises many questions. One question often raised is: “How does God know?” We have said that omniscience and omnipresence are close corollaries. Have you ever heard someone ask of a storyteller, “How do you know?” Often the resounding answer is, “I was there!” So it is with God, to the infinite degree. He knows because He is everywhere. However, one must not conclude that God knows because He, like a reporter, gathers the facts. Remember, we are studying the nature of God, not humanity. It is God’s nature to know just as His nature is to be. God does not become; He already is. God does not learn; He already knows. God’s omnipresence logically helps us to see how God knows.
Another question sometimes asked is: “Does God actually know everything, without exception?” The immediate impulse is to say, “I hope so, because if He does not know everything, the one thing He does not know may be fatal to Himself, thus removing Him from being God.” Of course, the question requires a more circumspect answer than that. This includes a consideration of how the term “know” is used.
God knows Himself internally – He is fully aware of Himself (1 John 1:5). He also knows everything external to Himself – that is, His creation, including humans (Job 34:21). This omniscience penetrates to our very inward beings. The psalmist cried out that God knows our very thoughts (Psalms 139:2). Yes, God does know everything, without exception.
The questions so far have focused on how God knows and to what extent He knows. Another type of question often arises: “Does God know what would have happened if?” The key to answering this question is to remember that it usually concerns the future. It addresses a contingency, something that could alter the course of events, something that has not happened yet.
This is a question asked by humans, those who think that events happen unexpectedly, that surprises occur. However, God is never surprised. He knows the outcome of contingencies, whether past, present, or future. In other words, He knows “what would have happened if” as well as “what will happen if.” He even knows how it would be if the theoretical became actual (Matthew 11:21, 22). All of this is the inevitable consequence of His omniscience.
God’s omnipresence is His simultaneous presence everywhere throughout eternity; His omniscience is His simultaneous knowledge of everything throughout eternity. From the viewpoint of humans, we say that God knew everything, He knows everything, and He will know everything. This is also biblical language, addressed to us. God’s point of view is timeless and universal. For Him, the past and the future are simply now. His existence, His presence, His knowledge are simultaneous in our time and in eternity. All of this means that the “if” questions are based on false premises. They grow out of our lack of understanding.
God’s omniscience also posses struggles. Our struggle with the all-knowing facet of God’s nature is difficult for several reasons:
God and we are in different intellectual dimensions (Isaiah 55:8, 9).
God is unknown until He reveals Himself, and His revelation is selective and limited (Deuteronomy 29:29).
Even the revelation God has given, though sufficient (2 Peter 1:3), is often hard to understand (2 Peter 3:15, 16).
We are time-bound here on earth and, therefore, tend to see the immediate as the ultimate (James 4:13-16).
Most significantly, we are not merely limited in our understanding; we also have the defect of sin in our lives (Romans 3:23).
These hurdles may lead us to despair. We may feel overwhelmed and dismayed. The first hurdle looming before us may seem too high to overcome: “If God is ‘Wholly Other,’ how can I even begin to communicate with him?” The second hurdle raises the question: “If I choose to seek God, where shall I turn if His revelation of Himself is indeed selective and limited?” The third hurdle involves another agony: “How shall I be certain I have found Him in His revelation, if the understanding of revelation itself proves difficult?” The fourth hurdle raises the practical question: “If the immediate – the now – is not the ultimate, how can I know how to evaluate and direct my life from day to day?” The last hurdle presents a serious problem: “Since I am sinful, upon what grounds may I develop any hope? Is it possible to survive here, to say nothing of hereafter, before God, who is always present and always knows me inside and out?” These are serious questions. Like most significant questions, they cannot be answered in a staccato fashion. They can be answered, however. We strive to find solutions to questions of life that really matter, such as those mentioned previously.
One challenge that is before us as we study God’s omniscience is to remember that His omniscience is not equivalent to His will. This distinction eases the tension caused by some of the questions just raised. The fact that God knows all does not mean that He wills all that happens. Human comparisons with the divine are limited, but we resort to this practice to help us understand.
God, on an infinite and universal basis, knows that people are disabled in a far more devastating way than any physical sickness can make them (Isaiah 64:6); but “it is not his will for any to be lost, but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9; New English Bible). Therefore, He educates (John 6:45), He warns (Luke 12:4-5), and offers all the assistance required to rescue the perishing (John 3:16).
God’s omniscience offers an explanation. Let us now turn to the consideration of prophecy in the Scriptures. First, prophecy is so pervasive that the Bible would literally be decimated if it were removed. The Bible would no longer be rational, coherent, or even readable for the most part. Imagine a Bible without the major and minor books of prophecy, the extensive prophecies scattered through the historical books, the vast number of prophetic teachings and utterances of Jesus, and the Book of Revelation. Without these portions of Scripture intact, the Bible would not be the Bible. What can we infer from this? The Bible, in its wide prophetic dimensions, is a mirror of God’s omniscience. This is true even though prophecy is not confined to foretelling. It would not be true if every prophecy had to be held in abeyance until its fulfillment. After all, we are informed that the fulfillment of prophecy is what established the credibility of a prophet (Deuteronomy 18:22). Of course, many biblical prophecies have not been fulfilled. Some are yet to be fulfilled in history; many point to the end time. How, then, does biblical prophecy illustrate the omniscience of God? Many prophecies uttered in biblical times were fulfilled almost immediately; others came to pass in a relatively short time and still others were fulfilled after centuries of waiting.
Fulfilled Biblical prophecy is an excellent example of what historically-confined humans call the foreknowledge of God. Foreknowledge means “knowing ahead of, or before; to have previous knowledge of.” This foreknowledge actually reverses the “normal” order of events. Our knowledge of an event comes after the event has come to pass. We may think we know beforehand. We may be very certain that some event will occur. Isn’t it embarrassing to be wrong? Sometimes we are, you know!
God is not wrong. He knows in eternity what has happened, is happening, and will happen in history (time). What we and the biblical writers call God’s foreknowledge is a description of His infinite mind in a finite way (Acts 2:23; Romans 11:2). It could not be otherwise. If God had wanted us to “see” Him in His fullness and from His perspective, He certainly could have provided the view; but sinful as we are, we would not be the humans we are now.
Perhaps the idea or the phrase “sea of eternity” may help us to see God’s omniscience. The sea of eternity implies that eternity is unlimited. In the sea of eternity is a large submarine that represents everything temporal, that is, time-bound. Everything in the submarine will end, except God’s presence. He simultaneously exists in time and eternity. When time is over, the saved and God will exist eternally in eternity. God, in His omnipresence and omniscience, “sees” it all. But the grand prospect makes us appreciate the following exclamation of Paul: “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and Knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His Judgments and unfathomable His ways! . . . For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:33-36)
