Omniscience

As usual, Tozer gives us a classic orthodox statement about God: “To say that God is omniscient is to say that He possesses perfect knowledge and therefore has no need to learn. But it is more: it is to say that God has never learned and cannot learn.” And, as is often true with orthodox statements, it says too much.

The original definition of omniscience is that God knows all things. It is easy to go from there to the statement Tozer made. But I think it is helpful for us to look at the Scripture and see what it says about God’s knowledge. Paul says: “Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord… with whom has He taken counsel, who instructed him and taught him in the path of judgment and taught him knowledge…?” These rhetorical questions from Romans 11, certainly speaks to the wisdom of God. But they do not speak of God’s personal knowledge, but to a comparative knowledge. God, in these statements, is wiser than anyone. And He knows more than anyone. But we cannot, from these statements, say that God never learns anything.

Jesus knew what was in men’s hearts. God could see what Moses could not in the world. Nothing, it says in the Psalms, is hidden from God. So all knowledge, all understanding is open to God, even things that are hidden to all other beings. But does God not learn? Genesis 18:21 speaks to God’s judgment of Sodom and whether they had done evil. But it does not say the judgment was made, but rather a testing of Sodom and “If they have done this, I will know.” If there is an outcry against Sodom, and there is nothing for God to learn, then would He not already know? Why test? Why state that knowledge is in the future instead of the present? Also, in the garden, God called out to Adam: “Where are you?” If God already knew, was he deceiving Adam, to make him think He did not know? Was he seeing if Adam would remain hidden, thus testing him, and if so, was he using the statement to trick him?

There are many answers to these questions and the classic statement of omniscience could be defended here. But I would think, not solidly. Again, the knowledge of God is too deep for us to grasp, which Paul states clearly. This means that our definitions of God’s knowledge are meaningless. The most that we can say about God’s knowledge is: Nothing is hidden from God. God knows more than any other being. And God can know whatever He wants.