WEEKLY ARTICLE

Questions and Answers: "How Does God Know Everything?"

Weekly Article by the Rev. Matt Kennedy

The Church of the Good Shepherd

May 5th, 2006

This week's question comes from a number of sources: “How does God Know Everything?”

The bible teaches that God is “omniscient” (read Psalm 139)

That means that he knows all things.

Think about that.

God knows and understands the deepest and most perplexing complexities of the Universe and he knows the inner recesses of your heart. He knows intricacies of microbiology and he knows every hair on your head. He knows the created order as a whole and he knows you intimately.

And, what is more, he knows all of these things perfectly. There is no limitation to his knowledge.

Moreover, his knowledge is not limited to the present. It stretches into the past and reaches into the future as well. He knows and sees the beginning and the end, not just of the earth, not just of this Universe, he knows and sees the beginning and the end of time and space itself. Whatever is, whatever has been, and whatever will be he knows with absolute perfection.

His knowledge is absolute.

That is what the bible teaches.

But the question is, how is such knowledge possible?

Omniscience is impossible for creatures. We are part of the Universe. We occupy an isolated section of time and space. Our knowledge, for that reason, is always limited and contingent upon our expiences in time and space.

But God is distinct from time and space. They are his creations.

He is, therefore not limited by them.

He does not experience time as we do. He stands apart or outside of or above his creation.

Time is not a “passing” thing to God but a "present" thing. He does not experience a "past" or a "future". To God, past and future are "present".

The same is true of space. As part of the space/time continuum we can only be in one place at one time and only experience the present moment as the present moment. Then it passes.

God can exist everywhere at once. God sees all time at once. He lives in and above all space at once.

He lives in what some theologians have called the “Eternal Now.”

One way to think about this is to think of an artist's relationship to his painting.

While the artist indeed pours himself into his painting, he is not, technically speaking, part of it. When the painting is finished, the artist can see the whole work from beginning to end at the same time. The artist knows every brush stroke and every pigment and yet he also understands the way they come together as a whole.

In much the same way God, the Creator, sees and knows the fullness of time and space. He knows each individual within time and space perfectly and yet he sees the whole perfectly.

We, on the other hand, are like individual brush strokes. Our view is limited to what lay directly in front and what lies directly behind us. We can know of the whole but we cannot see it perfectly.

Like all analogies, this one breaks down. Even the artist's knowledge of his painting is limited and contingent by his memory and his own location within time and space. God, on the other hand, knows all things perfectly.

So what does this mean for us?

It gives me great comfort to know that there is nothing about me that God does not see and know. I've always wanted to meet someone who knows me as I am and loves me anyway. In Jesus I finally have.

God did not come into your life unaware. He knew you perfectly from the beginning of time and he loved you and he will always love you. There is nothing you can do to change his mind, because he already sees and knows your every thought, word, and deed and despite them all he loves you and he sent his Son to die on your behalf.

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