Omniscience. Does God actually know everything?

 

An Awesome God Who Is Worthy of Worship

There is a theological concept which suggests that since God is omniscient (knows everything) He, therefore, knows every possible alternative that would have happened if different decisions were made or if different events occurred.  In other words “God possesses hypothetical knowledge of conditional future contingents.” (William Lane Craig)

Did you catch that?  It’s pretty fancy:  “Hypothetical knowledge of conditional future contingents.”

Theologian/philosopher William Lane Craig points out, “Such hypothetical knowledge is knowledge of what philosophers call ‘counterfactual conditionals’…”

So, when we entertain ourselves with questions like, “I wonder what would have happened if I would have gone into the military instead of going to college after high school?” we are, of course, pondering a matter that we could never possibly know with any certainty.  Think of the countless ramifications on our own lives and the lives of multitudes of other people that such a change would cause.  It’s a staggering idea.

However, God’s knowledge of counterfactual conditionals means that He actually knows in every detail exactly how that change would affect every aspect of the future.  It is knowledge of what did not actually happen but what would have happened IF…

I’m not bringing this up to bore everyone.  (Even though I find it interesting.)  I’m bringing it up because it helps me think about God’s incredible omniscience in a way that makes me stand, once again, in awe of Him.  This kind of knowledge of all things and all possible things is hard to wrap our heads around. 

To say that it is astonishing is a vast understatement.

To say that this God deserves our worship is true.

Seek God's Wisdom

The Bible says, “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God.” 1Cor.3:19.  God’s brilliance and knowledge and wisdom is so far beyond our finite human intellect that the combination of all the wisdom in this world looks silly in comparison to the omniscience of the Almighty Lord.  (This is why it’s a really good idea to earnestly SEEK His wisdom.)