God’s Infinite Knowledge

Isaiah 46:9-10 “For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, (10) Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, 'My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure.” 

In order for us to understand how God’s will interacts with the free will of man we need to have a clearer understanding of how God governs His creation, for if we do not rightly divide the word of truth in this area it can seem as if God does create robots that have no free will at all. And so the first aspect we will discuss is the infinite wisdom and knowledge of God. It amazes me to hear some supposedly mature believers say that God does not know everything. I can understand unbelievers making such foolish statements because they are walking in darkness and ignorance. Those who are born-again should know better however, nevertheless because some believers are still carnal in their thinking they therefore make the same foolish statements that the world makes. Nevertheless because God is who He is, He knows all things, including all of the future. In the above quoted passage of scripture God teaches us that He declares the end from the beginning, and that He declares things that are not yet done. When God makes this statement He is referring to everything i.e. everything that occurs in the entire universe including everything that occurs in each individual life. In other words before God creates us He knows how we will turn out and thus He can declare our end from our beginning. God can do this precisely because He knows all things, including all the future. In this same passage of scripture God gives us a glimpse into the fact that as God, His will prevails in His creation, for He says that His counsel stands and that He does all that He pleases.

Psalms 139:16-18 “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book, they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.  (17)  How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!  (18) If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You.” 

 In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit reveals to us that God knows what we look like even before we are formed in the womb. The reason God knows that is because He sees all the future. That same portion of scripture teaches us that God writes our entire life in His book, day by day, before we ever come into the earth. The reason God can do that is because He is God and because He knows all things. The Holy Spirit also teaches us in this passage that the sum of God’s thoughts toward each one of His creations, are more than all the sand on the earth. Truly God is all knowing, and so in our extremely limited understanding in this life it is impossible for us to even begin to conceive who He really is.

Psalms 147:4-5 “He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name.  (5) Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite.”

 Again, in the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit gives us some insight into God’s infinite knowledge of everything. For He tells us that not only does God count the number of the stars, but He also names each one and calls each one by name. In other words not only does God name each star He creates, but for all eternity He also never forgets each one’s name. To put that into some sort of perspective for us, it is estimated that in the observable universe there are approximately one hundred billion galaxies, and each galaxy contains approximately one hundred billion stars. And the observable universe is only a small portion of the entire universe. Such depth of knowledge is beyond mankind’s ability to even begin to comprehend. And so when the scripture tells us that God’s understanding is infinite, that’s exactly what it means.

Matthew 10:29-30 “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will.  (30) But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” 

 When our Lord Jesus was on the earth He also gave us some insight into God’s infinite knowledge of everything. In the above quoted passage of scripture our Lord tried to help us understand just how intimate God’s knowledge is of each one of His creations. For He tells us that God knows every hair on our heads, and that God has given to each hair its own unique number. Again to put that into some sort of perspective for us to understand, each person has on average six hundred thousand hairs on their heads and it is estimated that since Adam there have been approximately one hundred billion people that have come and gone from the earth. What that tells us is that the number of hairs on the heads of every man that has ever lived is unfathomable for mankind to comprehend, but not for God. Our Lord went on to tell us that God knows about every sparrow that dies. But not only that, for Jesus also told us that it is God who decides just when every sparrow will die. In other words God decides when each one of His creations will come into the earth and also when each one will die. And so in this passage of scripture our Lord not only gives us insight into God’s infinite knowledge of all things, but He also gives us a glimpse of the fact that God’s will is done in all of His creation.

2 Timothy 2:19 “Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: "The Lord knows those who are His," and, "Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” 

 We have seen in a previous section that God’s perfect will is that all men should be saved. We have also seen that most men choose not to walk in God’s perfect will for their lives by rejecting salvation through Jesus Christ, and thus they walk in God’s permissible will. In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit reveals to us the fact that God knows beforehand which of His creations will accept the gift of salvation and which will reject it. For when the scripture states that the Lord knows those who are His, in context it is referring to those who will accept God’s perfect will for their lives and will thus be born-again. And so the reason that God knows who will and who will not be saved, is simply because God knows everything.

Matthew 7:23 “And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”

Just as our Lord knows those who are His, so He also knows which are not His. In the passage of scripture quoted above our Lord Jesus tells us that on the day of judgement, that He will tell those who have rejected God’s perfect will for their lives that He never knew them. Never means never. Clearly our Lord knows beforehand which belong to Him and which do not. When the Lord Jesus says in this passage that He never knew those who practice lawlessness, He is not saying that He had no knowledge of their existence but rather that He did not acknowledge them as those who belonged to Him.

Revelation 17:8 “The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.”

In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit tells us that all unbelievers do not have their names recorded in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world. In other words their names have never been recorded in God’s Book of Life. By revealing this truth to us the Holy Spirit therefore implies that believers do have their names written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world. And so we see that before the foundation of the world God recorded in the Book of Life the names of those who would be saved. And in the same manner, before the foundation of the world God knew who would not be saved and therefore their names were never recorded in the Book of Life.

Revelation 3:5 “He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.”

The truth revealed in the previous quoted passage of scripture agrees with the statement made by our Lord Jesus in the above quoted passage of scripture. For our Lord Jesus tells us in this passage that those who overcome will not have their names blotted out of the Book of Life. Jesus could say that because all who belong to Him already have their names written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, and therefore their names can only be blotted out. On the other hand, those who do not belong to the Lord have never had their names written in the Book of Life. Clearly God knows the future of all His creation. And so we can see from the scriptures quoted in this section that God knows everything. In other words there is nothing that God does not know. When we grasp this one simple concept then it helps us to understand more clearly how God governs His creation.

Michael E.B. Maher

The Will of Man

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