Behold Your God Part 6 The Attributes of

Behold Your God, Part 6: The Attributes of Omniscience and Wisdom

Classifying the Attributes of God GOD Incommunicable Attributes 1. 2. 3. 4. Independence Eternity Omnipresence Immutability Communicable Attributes

Classifying the Attributes of God GOD Incommunicable Attributes Intellectual Communicable Attributes Sovereign Moral Summary

Today’s Topics n n n Omniscience Wisdom Open Theism

The Omniscience of God n n “Omni”—all “Science”—knowledge God is “all knowing” Definition of God’s omniscience: n “That perfection of God whereby He, in an entirely unique manner, knows Himself and all things possible and actual in one eternal and most simple act. ” -Berkhof

The Omniscience of God n n 1 John 3: 20: “God knows all things. ” Job 37: 16 calls God the one “who is perfect in knowledge. ”

The Omniscience of God n God fully knows Himself n 1 Corinthians 2: 10 -11: “For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what person knows a man’s thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ”

The Omniscience of God Molecules, atoms, etc. You and Me Man Earth Universe GOD

The Omniscience of God n God knows all things ACTUAL

The Omniscience of God n n God knows everything about us God knows all our actions and thoughts: n Psalm 139: 1 -2: “O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. ”

The Omniscience of God n God knows our physical being: n n Matthew 10: 30: “Even the hairs of your head are all numbered. ” God knows all of our needs. n Matthew 6: 8: “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. ”

The Omniscience of God n God also knows all of creation and all that happens within creation: n Hebrews 4: 13: “No creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. ”

The Omniscience of God n n God knows the past, present, and future Exhaustive Definite Foreknowledge n n n Foreknowledge: future Exhaustive: everything Definite: absolute, not a guess

The Omniscience of God n God knows the length of our lives n Psalm 139: 16: “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.

The Omniscience of God n God knows our words before we speak them: n n God knows all future historical events n n Psalm 139: 4: “Even before there is word on my tongue, behold O Lord, You know it all. ” Daniel 11 Jesus knows the future n John 13: 19: “From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He. ”

The Omniscience of God n God knows all things POSSIBLE n Matthew 11: 21: “Woe to you, Chorazin, woe to you Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. ”

The Nature of God’s Knowledge n God’s knowledge is: n Simple: It is unified and always exists in perfect harmony; there are no contradictions in God’s knowledge

The Nature of God’s Knowledge n God’s knowledge is: n n Simple: It is unified and always exists in perfect harmony; there are no contradictions in God’s knowledge Intuitive: He doesn’t have to figure things out to know them.

The Nature of God’s Knowledge n God’s knowledge is: n n n Simple: It is unified and always exists in perfect harmony; there are no contradictions in God’s knowledge Intuitive: He doesn’t have to figure things out to know them. Innate or immediate: it does not come from a process

The Nature of God’s Knowledge n God’s knowledge is: n n Simple: It is unified and always exists in perfect harmony; there are no contradictions in God’s knowledge Intuitive: He doesn’t have to figure things out to know them. Innate or immediate: it does not come from a process Simultaneous: He sees things all at once in their totality

The Nature of God’s Knowledge n God’s knowledge is: n Eternal: From eternity past, God has known everything; He never learns something new and God’s knowledge never changes or grows.

The Nature of God’s Knowledge n n n Simple: ___c___ Intuitive: ___e___ Innate or immediate: ___b___ Simultaneous: ___d___ Eternal: ___a___

The Nature of God’s Knowledge “Because God knows all things perfectly, He knows no thing better than any other thing, but all things equally well. He never discovers anything, He is never surprised, never amazed. ” --A. W. Tozer

The Wisdom of God n What is wisdom? n Wisdom is not the same as factual knowledge

The Wisdom of God n What is wisdom? n n Wisdom is not the same as factual knowledge Wisdom is not the same as moral rules

The Wisdom of God n What is wisdom? n n n Wisdom is not the same as factual knowledge Wisdom is not the same as moral rules Wisdom is choosing how to use what you know in the best way possible for the best result possible.

The Wisdom of God n Definition of God’s Wisdom n n “God’s wisdom means that God always chooses the best goals and the best means to those goals. ” --Wayne Grudem Called the “Omnisapience of God”

The Wisdom of God n n n Romans 16: 27: calls God the “only wise God. ” Job 9: 24: says God is “wise in heart. ” The best goal of God’s wisdom is: God’s own glory n Romans 11: 36: For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

The Wisdom of God n Creation displays the wisdom of God. n n Psalm 104: 24: O Lord, how many are Your works! �In wisdom You have made them all” Best of all possible worlds

The Wisdom of God The cross displays the wisdom of God n n n 1 Corinthians 1: 21: “For since in the wisdom of God �the world through its wisdom did come not to know God, God was well-pleased through the �foolishness of the �message preached to �s those who believe. ” 1 Corinthians 1: 25, Paul says, “Because the �foolishness of God is wiser than men. ”

The Wisdom of God n The church displays the wisdom of God. n Ephesians 3: 10: “so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in �the heavenly places. ”

The Background of Open Theism n n Major figures: Clark Pinnock, Greg Boyd Rooted in the Socinian Heresy of the 17 th century

The Background of Open Theism n Resources on Open Theism: n n John Owen: The Mystery of the Gospel Vindicated and Socinianism Examined John Frame: No Other God John Piper, Justin Taylor, Paul Helseth: Beyond the Bounds Bruce Ware: God’s Lesser Glory

The Essence of Open Theism n Open theism teaches that God does not know the future because n n n It is impossible for God to know the future Or God purposefully limits Himself from knowing the future A denial of exhaustive definite foreknowledge

The Essence of Open Theism n Greg Boyd: “In the Christian view God knows all of reality —everything there is to know. But to assume He knows ahead of time how every person is going to freely act assumes that each person’s free activity is already there to know—even before he freely does it! But it’s not. If we have been given freedom, we create the reality of our decisions by making them, And until we make them, they don’t exist. Thus, in my view at least, there simply isn’t anything to know until we make it there to know. So God can’t foreknow the good or bad decisions of the people He creates until He creates these people, and they, in turn, create their decisions. ”

The Essence of Open Theism n Pinnock: “God rules in such a way as to uphold the created structures and because he gives liberty to his creatures, he is happy to accept the future as open, not closed, and a relationship to the world that is dynamic, not static. . . we see the universe as a context in which there are real choices, alternatives and surprises. ”

The Motivation for Open Theism n Free Will Theism: “because he gives liberty to his creatures…we see the universe as a context in which there are real choices, alternatives and surprises. ” n If God knows the future, you cannot be truly free. Traditional Arminian Open Theism Man has Complete Free Will Yes God has Definite Foreknowledge Yes No

The Argument for Open Theism n n Divine “Learning” Texts Genesis 22: 9 -12: Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Abraham stretched out his hand took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am. ” 12 He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me. ”

Problems with Open Theism n A Scriptural Problem: Did God not know Abraham feared Him? n The Testimony of Scripture about exhaustive definite Foreknowledge

Problems with Open Theism n The Testimony of Hebrews 11: 17 -18: “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; 18 it was he to whom it was said, “In Isaac your descendants shall be called. ” 19 He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type. ”

Problems with Open Theism n The Testimony of Genesis 22: 5 before Abraham and Isaac went up the mountain: n “Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you. ”

Problems with Open Theism n “Now I know that you fear God” means: God has exhaustive definite foreknowledge that Abraham will obey Him AND n God has experiential knowledge in the moment that Abraham obeys Him n

Problems with Open Theism n A Theological Problem: Denies God His deity n n Isaiah 41: 23, God challenges the idols, “Declare things that are going to come afterward, that we may know that you are gods. ” The test of true deity is predicting the future

Problems with Open Theism n Isaiah 42: 8 -9: “I am the Lord, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images. Behold, the former things have come to pass, now I declare new things; Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you. ”

Problems with Open Theism n A Pastoral Problem n Greg Boyd’s Story of Suzanne

Problems with Open Theism n A Pastoral Problem n n Greg Boyd’s Story of Suzanne Boyd: “Suzanne, take comfort. God didn’t know this was going to happen. This caught him just as off guard as it caught you. ”

God’s Omniscience and Wisdom n Romans 8: 28: “We know that God works all things together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. ”