God's Knowledge

So what does God really know? I heard a quote from a well-know author, "In an attempt to secure the sovereignty of God, theologians have overstated their case, and left us with a chest-player God playing both sides of the board, making all His moves and all ours too. But clearly (clearly?) this is not so. God is a person (really) who takes immense risks. No doubt the biggest risk of all was when He gave angels and men free will, including the freedom to reject Him..."

Now there are so many things that I would like to say about God based on that quote, but we will have time for that later on in this series. The one thing that I want to focus on today is "God is a person who takes immense risks."

Does God really take risks, because for that to happen He would have to not know the future, He would have to be limited in His ability, and would be lying when the Bible, says, "all things work out for the good of those who love HIm..." How could HE know that, if He is a risk taker He is just as much in the dark as we are.

That line of thinking leaves us with a deist version of God, a clockmaker, who yes made everything, is a supreme, higher being, but who is not involved our moments, who cannot comfort us with real comfort.

So what does the knowledge of God really mean? Grudem states it like this, "God fully knows Himself (1 Cor. 2:10-11) and all things actual (Hebrews 4:13) and possible (1 Sam. 11-13; Matt. 11:21) in one simple and eternal act.

God is always and forever fully aware of anything that has happened, and will happen, He knows the grains of sand on a seashore, the stars in the sky, the hairs on your head, and He know them all at once. His knowledge is eternal it does not change or grow, nor can it. He does not see new inventions and say, "I never thought of that." He is and for always completely and full aware of what is happening and will happen.

Of course it will be hard to reconcile God's knowledge of everything and the degree of freedom we have in our choices, we will discuss this in more detail in a few weeks. But I will leave you with something that Augustine said, God has given us "reasonable self-determination." We need to not focus on what is beyond our control or knowledge and understand that right now we can trust in an all-knowing God, and that we should in each choice we make, think, choose and act.

I hope that helps to a degree define the knowledge of God, for more information and for a deeper study, please refer to J.I. Packer's classic, Knowing God.

LOVE GOD LOVE PEOPLE