No length of time can make the Lord forget His mercies, which impenitent sinners have abused. Even when they are in Hell He will remember them, and make them to remember them, for the increase of their unspeakable torment and vexation, Luke 16:25, for here the Spirit of the Lord, speaking by this Apostle, declares to the world that He is mindful of the despising of His patience and pains, manifested many thousand years ago, toward them that are now in Hell:
-Alexander Nisbet, 1&2 Peter Commentary, page 147
Category Archives: God's Knowledge
Being Known
We do not make friends with God; God makes friends with us, bringing us to know Him by making His love known to us. Paul expresses this thought of the priority of grace in our knowledge of God when he writes to the Galatians, “Now that you know God-or rather are known by God” (Gal4:9). What comes to the surface in this qualifying clause is the apostle’s sense that grace came first, and remains fundamental, in his readers’ salvation. Their knowing God was the consequence of God’s taking knowledge of them. They know Him by faith because He first singled them out by grace.
……All my knowledge of Him depends on His sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him because He first knew me, and continues to know me.-J.I. Packer, Knowing God, page 41
Like this:
More on God’s Knowledge
I came across this quote in Herman Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics and quite frankly, I think (?) he missed the mark here. To be honest, I do like everything that I have read in Bavinck up until now. But this one just rubbed me the wrong way. Commenting on God’s communicable attributes in volume 2 of RD, page 192:
In addition God is conscious of and knows all that exists outside His being. Scripture nowhere even hints that anything could be unknown to Him. True, the manner in which He obtains knowledge is sometimes stated in striking anthropomorphic language (…) but He nevertheless knows everything.
Two questions in response to the bold parts of the quote:
1. Can anything exist outside God’s being?
2. If God obtains knowledge, then what greater source of knowledge does God turn to in order to gain a bit of knowledge that He did not already have? Does He know everything or does He not?
If something is obtained, what is implied is that you do not already possess what is to be obtained.
How Much Does God Know? Part 3
Now to conclude with the final part of Aquinas’s argument. Aquinas here replies to the objections that he laid down at the first. I particularly like the third reply at the very end.
So, how much does God know? He knows what is, what was, what will be and whatever is possible. God knows whatever is possible because things are only possible because of God.
How Much Does God Know? Part 2
Alright, the last time we looked at the set up. Aquinas laid out the argument that it doesn’t seem that God could know things that ‘are not.’ We may well ask the question, “Does God have any knowledge of things that do not exist?” Which would lead us to the next question, “What is the prerequisite or the nature of existence, or rather, what is required to exist?” Can something be in existence if it is only in thought? Must it have some measurable form to exist? What is possible is not necessarily what is. Or, just because something is not now, does not mean that it was not. But, even a thought has some existence even if what is thought about never comes to pass. Does God waste His time with maybes or what ifs or could have beens?
But again the question Aquinas raises pertains to things that ‘are not.‘ It will help us to take note of the terms used here. He does not ask, “Does God have knowledge of things that will never be?” (Which question I believe would lead into a study on God’s imagination, or rather, His creativity). At some point in eternity, before God had created the universe and the Earth, these were in a state of ‘are not…yet.’ Things can only be if God wills them to be. We can only do what we do if God so wills. With this, I believe I have dug myself in deep enough, and besides, my head hurts!
So, I will hand it over to Thomas now as he takes to lay some groundwork for his reply (coming in the next post) to the objections we looked at in the previous post. By the way, these excerpts that I am posting are from Aquinas’ Summa Theologica: Treatise on God ……..
Any thoughts, insight, other quotes, comments, would be great. Until next time……..
How Much Does God Know? Part 1
Thomas Aquinas, laying out the argument, setting it up. Does God know the things that are not, but things that could be? Here is just enough to get us into trouble. And I think we are going to be in much more trouble before it’s all over!
Stay tuned……
