The Knowledge of the Holy - Divine Omniscience

What would it be like for you and I to know everything? Scary? A huge advantage? We all are living in the so-called "information age" today, where everything that mankind knows is slowly becoming available to us at any given moment in time. We call the invention that allows this the internet. That thought of information being readily available at any time to anyone is quite empowering. And our information base is continually growing by the second with new research, new discoveries, new developments, new trends, new thoughts, new... I think you get the point. We, humans are constantly growing and adjusting our knowledge base. But God knows everything, and He has no need to learn anything. We refer to this attribute as, omniscience.

Here are A.W. Tozer's thoughts on God's omniscience.

"To say that God is omniscient is to say that He possess perfect knowledge and therefore has no need to learn. But it is more: it is to say that God has never learned and cannot learn" (Isa. 40:13-14; Rom. 11:34)...Could God at any time or in any manner receive into His mind knowledge that He did not possess and had not possessed from eternity, He would be imperfect and less than Himself. To think of a God who must sit at the feet of a teacher...is to think of someone other than the Most High God, maker of heaven and earth" (p. 55).

God's Omniscience is Taught Through Everything

"That God is omniscient is not only taught in the Scriptures, it must be inferred also from all else that is taught concerning Him. God perfectly knows Himself and, being the source and author of all things, it follows that He knows all that can be known. And this He knows instantly and with a fullness of perfection that includes every possible item of knowledge concerning everything that exists or could have existed anywhere in the universe at any time in the past or that may exist in the centuries or ages yet unborn."

"God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters, all mind and every mind, all spirit and all spirits, all being and every being, all creature hood and all creatures, every plurality and all plurality, all law and every law, all relations, all causes, all thoughts, all mysteries, all enigmas, all feeling, all desires, every unuttered secret, all thrones and dominions, all personalities, all things visible and invisible in heaven and in earth, motion, space, time, life, death, good, evil, heaven and hell. Because God knows 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. He never wonders about anything nor does He seek information or ask questions" (p. 56).

The Terror and Fascination of Divine Omniscience

"In the divine omniscience we see set forth against each other the terror and fascination of the Godhead. That God knows each person through and through can be a cause of shaking fear to the man that has something to hide - some unforsaken sin, some secret crime committed against man or God...But where shall they hide? 'Where shall I go from Your Spirit'? (Psa. 139:7)...to us who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us in the gospel, how unutterably sweet is the knowledge that our Heavenly Father knows us completely. No talebearer can tell on us, no enemy can make an accusation stick; no forgotten skeleton can come tumbling out of some hidden closet to abash us and expose our past; no unsuspected weakness in our characters can come to light to turn God away from us, since He knew us utterly before we knew Him and called us to Himself in the full knowledge of everything that was against us."

God Knowing All Is Good For All

"Our Father in heaven knows our frame and remembers that we are dust...His knowledge of our afflictions and adversities is more that theoretic; it is personal, warm and compassionate. Whatever may befall us, God knows and cares as no one else can" (p. 57).