We often describe God with some "omni's." You know ... omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient ... that sort of thing. All-powerful, present everywhere and always, knows all things. Now, hang on a minute. Do we really believe that God knows all things? Open theists will tell you that, no, He doesn't. He can't, for instance, know the choices you haven't made yet. He only makes very good guesses. Some people point to Scripture that says, "I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins" (Isa 43:25). So clearly God doesn't know your forgiven sins. Then He's not omniscient ... right?
What made us think He was omniscient in the first place? Well, quite clearly, John wrote, "God is greater than our heart and knows all things" (1 John 3:20). David wrote, "Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, You know it all" (Psa 139:4). He went on to say, "Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them" (Psa 139:16). Jesus said your very hairs were numbered (Matt 10:30). The author of Hebrews said, "There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do" (Heb 4:13). In Isaiah 46 God claims to declare the end from the beginning (Isa 46:9-10). I don't know ... it looks a lot like God actually knows everything. John said just that. Scripture says He sees everything (Prov 15:3), knows every word we will speak before we speak it, knows every day of our lives before they exist, and knows the end before it happens. It seems as if Scripture does declare Him omniscient.
So what about the open theists? They draw their view primarily from a prior conviction that God knowing everything means that humans can have no free will, so it isn't Scripture at the root, but philosophy. As for the statement that God won't remember our sins, we should interpret that in light of the rest of Scripture. Surely it cannot be that we know things God doesn't? Do we remember sins that He has forgotten? In fact, there is no reason to assume that the Isaiah 43 text says God forgets our sin. It says He doesn't remember them. To forget means to lose the memory of something, but to remember means to call something up from memory. "Remember" means "to be mindful of again" (from "re", meaning "again" and "memory"). What God says is that He won't be calling up your forgiven sins again. He won't be putting them in front of you or using them in His considerations of you. You know how we throw past transgressions in others' faces? He won't do that. Because God is omniscient -- He doesn't forget the sins that you still remember -- but He is also gracious and forgiving. It might be a little frightening to know we have a God who knows everything, but in the end it really turns out to be a good thing.
9 comments:
“Big chunks of the 100-foot-high rock, some of them as large as a small residence, fell into the 800-room pueblo, demolishing much of the stabilization work that a Navajo Indian CCC Unit had recently completed on the 1,000-year-old structure.“
Should we view this as God deliberately withholding His foreknowledge of a boulder breaking off of a cliff in order for Him to make some point to those who labored at refurbishing the ancient cliff dwellings?
Excellent point. YHWH choosing to not remember our sins, doesn't mean that He doesn't or didn't know about them. It's more that He's put them out of His mind to focus on other things.
What's your alternative, Anonymous? Either God is not good enough, or God is not capable, or God just didn't know, or God just didn't care. That leaves you with no God at all. If you have one, He's not good at all. Oh, and He's not the God of the Bible. That God is good, capable, omniscient, and love itself. So, I suppose you'll judge God by your standards, and I'll take Him at His word.
What would you have preferred Anon? That He showed up and told those crews to not bother, or to step in and stop the boulder? Do you for sure know there isn't some greater purpose for that boulder falling when it did? Perhaps that boulder actually prevented a large loss of life if that building was improperly repaired and collapsed with people living in it? Perhaps someone not living in that building now will need to live somewhere else where God intends for them to meet someone that will introduce them to Christ? Or do you believe all natural disasters are just random chance with no possible positive outcomes?
If I understand Anonymous’s comment correctly, I think that the question he or she posed falls within what is usually termed “the problem of evil.” It is a thorny issue as it relates to the sovereignty, omniscience, and omnipotence of God; the consequences of sin and a cursed creation; and Bible verses that assure us that God works all things together for His glory and our good. A relevant phrase that I heard applied long ago, and which I regularly state to myself and others, is that “God saw fit.” In my finite mind, I do not know or understand how all things fit into God’s master plan, but if God allowed it, or even ordained it, then He saw fit in His sovereignty, and I must trust that for now. That’s easier said than done, but in the end and all along the way, it’s still true that “God is good.”
~Lorna~
And regarding Anonymous’s comment as it relates to this post, we can absolutely know that God knew about chunks of rock that were going to break off a cliff at a certain point in time and damage a building below it. Rather than interfere in this case, He allowed nature to take its course, and the broken rock section obeyed the law of gravity. This type of thing, all of it known to God, happens in our world constantly as life plays out in a normal fashion. Some of it we even cause or contribute to ourselves, while much of it is seemingly random or fluky. (We can rejoice that the rock did not, say, wipe out thousands of people in this case.) I fail to see why God should overrule the laws of the universe He created just to keep us happy, and the fact that He did not certainly does not cast doubt on His sovereignty, omniscience, omnipotence, or goodness.
~Lorna~
Can Lorna be sure that Satan played no part in breaking the boulder loose from the cliff? Does the Lord's omnipotence preclude Satan from ever winning even the tiniest battle? If so, in what sense is Satan's existence even “needed“?
I'm not sure why you want Lorna's opinion. Is Scripture clear? Absolutely. No, Satan doesn't win. No, God doesn't fail to know. God works all things after the counsel of His will (Eph 1:11). Your version where God wins some and loses some is a puny God not found in Scripture, but is quite popular in the Marvel comics, I would guess. Lorna's opinion doesn't matter. Scripture is clear. (And what could possibly be meant by "is Satan's existence even needed"?) See, for instance, Genesis 50:20, where free will played out for evil that God intended as good.
Anonymous, if Satan was involved in this incident, it makes no difference. God knew about the situation and saw fit to allow it. My point still stands. As we learn from the Book of Job especially and elsewhere, God is in control of all of His creation, including Satan. As I read scripture, there is no real “battle,” and Satan never “wins.” God uses all things for His glory and our good (even if we can’t see it right now).
~Lorna~
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