www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5IpgwSTU0U
Early Christianity on: The
Omniscience of God the Father
Post-Apostolic Church
INTRO
This is the ninth video in a series on what
the Pre-Nicene Christians believed about the Divinity. And this is the sixth
video about God the Father.
To be omniscient means to be all-knowing. A common belief in Christianity is that God
is omniscient. What have we heard people
say about it? Some might
say, “God knows a lot, but there are a few things He does not know.” Others might say, “God knows all
present things, but He does not foreknow future things.” Others might say, “God knows all
things and foreknows all things.” Others might say, “God may know a lot of things, but He doesn’t know me.”
PRE-NICENE CHRISTIANS: GOD
KNOWS AND FOREKNOWS EVERYTHING—EVEN HEART AND SOUL
The early Christians believed that God the Father
knows all things and He also foreknows all future things. There is nothing that God does not know. In a sermon from the second century, now
called Second Clement, the preacher wrote,
He knows all things beforehand,
and is acquainted with what is in our hearts.
(Second Clement.
Second Century. ANF, vol 7, page
519.)
Melito wrote,
There are persons who say: It is for the honor of God that we make the
image: that is, in order that we may worship the God who is concealed from our
view. But they are unaware that God is
in every country, and in every place, and is never absent, and that there is
not anything done and He does not know it. (Melito.
AD 170. ANF, vol 8, page 755.)
(http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf08.x.v.ii.html,
“There are, however, persons…”)
Clement of Alexandria wrote,
For God knows all things—not
those only which exist, but those also which shall be—and how each thing shall
be. And foreseeing the particular
movements, “He surveys all things, and hears all things,” seeing the soul naked
within, possessing from eternity the idea of each thing individually. And what applies to theaters, and to the parts
of each object, in looking at, looking round, and taking in the whole in one
view, applies also to God. For in one
glance He views all things together, and each thing by itself; but not all things,
by way of primary intent. (Clement of Alexandria. AD 195.
ANF, vol 2, page 517.)
(http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.iv.vi.xvii.html,
“Those, then, who assert…”)
Lactantius wrote,
[God is the] guardian of the
world and ruler of the universe, who knows all things, from whose divine eyes
nothing is concealed.
(Lactantius. AD 310. ANF, vol 7, page 65.)
(http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf07.iii.ii.ii.xvii.html,
“For God, as I have shown…”)
From these
quotes, we see that not only does God know all things in the present but also
all things in the future. And on top of
that, God knows all things that are hidden—even the things within each person’s
heart and soul.
SCRIPTURES: GOD SEES,
KNOWS, AND FOREKNOWS EVERYTHING—EVEN HEART AND SOUL
What do the Scriptures say about God’s omniscience? In an earlier video on God the Father, it
talked about God’s timelessness. Now, if
God is both timeless and all-knowing, then He would have all foreknowledge as
well. About Christ’s crucifixion, Peter
preached,
Men of Israel, listen to these
words: This Jesus the Nazarene was a man pointed out to you by God with
miracles, wonders, and signs that God did among you through Him, just as you
yourselves know. Though He was delivered
up according to God’s determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless
people to nail Him to a cross and kill Him. God raised Him up, ending the pains of death,
because it was not possible for Him to be held by it. (Acts 2:22-24)
Peter said
that all of the things that happened to Jesus—His miracles, His death, and His
resurrection were all foreknown and planned by God. And if Jesus’ death was part of God’s
foreknowledge and plan, then the church, purchased by Jesus’ blood, was also
part of God’s foreknowledge and plan. Peter later wrote,
To the temporary residents…,
chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and set apart by the
Spirit for obedience and for sprinkling with the blood of Jesus Christ. (1Pet 1:1-2)
It seems
that the belief that God both knows all things and foreknows all things is one
of the more basic beliefs of Christianity.
And about God knowing even the things in our hearts and
souls, the writer of Hebrews wrote,
No creature is hidden from Him,
but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an
account. (Heb 4:13)
God knows
everything about us—all the things in our hearts and souls. This includes the evil things,
as the sons of Korah wrote,
If we had forgotten the name of
our God and spread out our hands to a foreign god, wouldn’t God have found this
out, since He knows the secrets of the heart?
(Ps 44:20-21)
But this also includes the good things, as John
wrote,
Little children, we must not
love with word or speech, but with truth and action. This is how we will know we belong to the
truth and will convince our conscience in His presence, even if our conscience
condemns us, that God is greater than our conscience, and He knows all things. (1John 3:18-20)
CONCLUSION
And so, God is completely omniscient in every
way. Whether in relation to time or in
relation to the hidden things in our hearts and souls, God knows it all. There is nothing that He does not know!
But this belief might make people feel a little
uncomfortable. Does the idea of God
knowing everything about what is in your heart and soul worry you? If you have given your heart and soul over to
God, it shouldn’t. There is
more to that quote from Second Clement which is worth considering.
He knows all things beforehand,
and is acquainted with what is in our hearts. Let us therefore give Him praise,
not with the mouth only, but also with the heart, that He may accept us as
sons. For the Lord has said, “Those are My brethren who do the will of My Father.*
” (Second
Clement. Second Century. ANF, vol 7, page 519.)
* Matt 12:50.
Blessings
and so forth.
