Originally posted in Open Theism on July 19th, 2009
There are a lot of passages on the knowledge of God and his absolute knowledge of all things. The question the open theist asks is not what God knows but how He knows it. For the longest time Christians have assumed they know the answer to this question because of the ‘omnis’ that are put forth by classic theology and in this case the definition of omniscience.
The questions that open theists ask are based in a desire to know what exactly God knows and how he knows it. Like many things open theists do they get really specific about omniscience. My definition and the definition many open theists hold is: ‘God’s knows all things knowable in the way they are knowable’. The last part is key.
Let’s look at all things past, present and future and ask ourselves the question — What does God know absolutely?
The Past
God knows every event of the past with complete photographic memory — if you ask God is he remembers ‘X’ event he will say — DUH! Of course I do. God knows the things of the past that we don’t. God knows who killed Jimmy Hoffa ( and in the present where he is buried) as well as every other unsolved crime ever — no one will escape God’s justice — so repent. He knows every thought you had in the past from the time you were born till now. Every event is exhaustive categorized. There is one thing however the that God does not know — every sin that was committed that He has forgiven — He has chosen to forget the sin and when God forgets something it is forgotten. This is one case where we may know something God does not. It also shows God controls what he knows. God still remembers the events (you may still need Divine counsel based on the events of the past) but the sin of them is lost to God’s mind.
The Present
God’s knowledge of the present is absolutely exhaustive, He knows everything that is going on at this very moment. He knows every decision people are wrestling with and what their heart is drawing them toward. Nothing escapes the ‘now’ of God’s knowledge. This gives God a great advantage in knowing what can and cannot happen. Many possibilities are just gone because God sees that based on his present knowledge they cannot happen. He knows where your heart is leaning — but I would point out to people sometimes our hearts struggle and are divided. God knows this too. If God can presently know something, He knows it.
The Future
Now the real question: What does God know for sure about the future?
1. He knows that anything he has promised to do in the future will happen but I point out that the creativity of God is boundless (just look at the world and understand this is only the tip of a very large iceberg of God’s creative imagination) and so God reserves the right to fulfill His word as He sees fit and can find many possibilities in which to do so.
2. God knows what is not possible provided He does not intervene — I am not going to bench press a truck tomorrow no matter how hard try. That being the case, by process of elimination God could eliminate many possibilities from the future.
3. Only the Father knows when His Son will return to earth. That means that Jesus and the Holy Spirit DO NOT KNOW THIS. The only way this is possible is if the day of Jesus’ return is not a set date, but a date God will choose in the future when the situation is right rationally. Sorry, this must be a sovereign decision that has yet to be made or 2 Peter 3 does not make sense at times particularly verses 11 and 12:
Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!
How can we ‘hasten’ something that is a set date? Peter apparently does not think in terms of western time lines.
4. God knows as absolute all the things which posses openly one possibility — if there is only one way things can go, then that is the way they will go.
There are probably many more but the issue where Open Theists separate from Classic thinking is about what God sees only as possibilities. This is the subject of the next post.
Next: What God Knows Only as Possibilities.