God is Omniscient
God knows everything. If you are a Bible believing Christian, then you probably already believe this basic truth. The fact that God knows all things is called the doctrine of “omniscience.” That fancy theological term is a compound word made up of two Latin words: omni which means “all” + scientia which means “knowledge.” So, omniscience refers to the One who has “all knowledge,” which is true of God. In fact, he is the only one with all knowledge.
The Bible was not written in Latin, so the word “omniscience” is not in the Bible. But the truth of God’s attribute of omniscience is taught in Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. The term “omniscience” is just convenient shorthand for us to describe that awesome and complex, multi-dimensional biblical doctrine.
Scripture Says So
The apostle John declared that “God…knows all things” (1 John 3:20). This statement of simplicity and profundity is hard to improve upon when describing God’s knowledge. Add to this the Book of Job’s statement that God “is perfect in knowledge” (Job 37:16). Taken together, we have the foundation of the biblical theology of God’s knowledge. To say that God “knows all things” means he knows the past, the present, and the future. And he knows all of it perfectly and completely. Consider more of the Bible’s teaching on the topic.
God knows our thoughts and motives! God declared, “I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to each man according to his ways” (Jer 17:10). The word for “heart” in this verse is lev in Hebrew and refers to the inner person, the deepest recesses of the human soul, including the thoughts of a person. In fact, the word “heart” is synonymous with the word “mind” which is also used in this verse. Similarly, King David declared “the LORD searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts” (1 Chron 28:9; cf. 1 Sam 16:7). This verse highlights that God knows our motives in addition to our thoughts. Often, we are unaware of our own motives. God’s knowledge is truly awesome! Because Jesus is God, he also knows the thoughts and motives of every person. The glorified Christ said to the church at Laodicea, “I know…that you are neither cold nor hot…because you are lukewarm” (Rev 3:15-16). In other words, Jesus knew the true state of every person’s inner religious affections that were in that local church. He knew the exact spiritual condition of their hearts.
God knows everything we do and say. The author of Hebrews tells us, “no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do” (4:13). We cannot hide anything from God. He knows and sees it all. So does Jesus. He declared to every one of the seven churches in Asia Minor, “I know your deeds…” (Rev 2-3). Because God knows everything we do and say, we will have to give an account to him for all of it: every word that comes out of our mouths (Matt 12:36), and every deed we do (1 Cor 3:13-15; 2 Cor 5:10).
God even knows the smallest details in life, the seemingly insignificant minutiae. Jesus told his disciples that God’s knowledge is so comprehensive and exacting that “even the hairs of your head are all numbered” by the Father in heaven (Matt 10:30). God knows when the sparrow in the tree falls to the ground (Matt 10:29). Jesus made these statements in the context of telling his followers that God cares about every believer, including every detail in their lives. As Peter would later write and affirm to the suffering Christians, God “cares for you” (1 Pet 5:6).
God Knows the Future
God knows the future. Fulfilled prophecy proves God knows the future. Every prediction he makes about the future comes to pass exactly as he proposed. God made hundreds upon hundreds of prophecies in the Bible. Jesus said every one of them will be fulfilled (Matt 5:17-18). God’s knowledge of the future is of a micro and macro nature, personal and also cosmic.
On the personal side, God knows how long every person will live, down to the actual day (Job 14:5); and he knows this before we were even born Ps 139:16). When it comes to personal conversation with God, Jesus said the Father knows what we need before we even ask him (Matt 6:8). On the grand macro, cosmic side, God predicted the world-wide Flood of Noah 120 years before it happened (Gen 6:3). In addition, God knows the exact timing of the greatest cosmic event in history that is yet to occur, the Second Coming, which is the day Jesus Christ returns to the earth in glory to rule as King of kings (Matt 24; Rev 19). God knows the very day and hour when this will transpire (Matt 24:36).
God is the only one who knows the future. He knows the future because he planned the future. God declared this fact to Isaiah the prophet:
9 “Remember the former things long past,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,
10 Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things which have not been done,
Saying, ‘My purpose will be established,
And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’” (Isa 46:9-10).
Here God says he “declares the end from the beginning,” which means before things happen, God determined what will happen. What he decreed in advance is guaranteed to happen because God is sovereign, almighty, transcendent, and infinite–what he planned ahead of time will be “established.” And because he planned the future ahead of time, he already knows about it. Paul affirms this same mind-boggling truth when he said that God “works all things according to the council of his will” (Eph 1:11). This just means God is in charge of the future: he predicted it and assures it comes to fruition. Since he determined the future, he knows the future. So when John the apostle said “God knows all things” he was including future things that have not yet transpired.
Watch Out for Deceivers
Even though the doctrine of God’s omniscience is clearly and exhaustively taught in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, there are still detractors who call themselves “Christians.” Some who reject the truth that God knows everything, including the future, have a few basic criticisms they routinely posit. One common criticism is when the critics opine, “If God knows everything already, then why does he ask us to pray to him?” The critic here assumes prayer is about informing God of things he doesn’t know about. But that is not the purpose of prayer. Prayer is about giving God adoration and praise as the Creator and Savior. Prayer is also simply talking to God in conversation because we have a personal relationship with him through Christ. Talking to God in prayer is spiritual communion.
Another common criticism is when skeptics of God’s omniscience wield a few well-known Bible passages that on the surface, when read in English, seem to imply God does not know everything. The classic example is in Exodus 32 when Yahweh threatened to destroy Israel because they built and worshipped the golden calf. God promised Moses that in his anger, he would “destroy” the whole nation and start a new nation from Moses (32:10). Moses pleaded with God and interceded on behalf of the nation, begging for mercy. God heard Moses’ prayer and answered in the affirmative and chose not to wipe out Israel as he said he would. The earlier editions of the NASB summarize God’s change in attitude as follows: “So the LORD changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people” (32:14). The critics argue, “See, God would not have changed his mind if he knew everything, especially the future! God learns new things and feels new things in the context of relationship as a personal being. He’s not a robot. He’s still perfect, but he doesn’t know everything.” The problem with that argument is that the NASB English translation is a bad translation.
The Hebrew word, nacham, says nothing about God’s mind. The verb simply means God “relented,” and he relented due to the faith of Moses. God responds to the faithful prayers of his people. All recent Bible English translations get the translation right in Exodus 32:14, for they all translate nacham not as “changed his mind” but simply as “relented” (see CSB, ESV, NKJV, NIV, NET, LSB, and even the 2020 NASB made the correction). Part of the problem in passages like Exodus 32:14 is related to our limitations as finite, fallen humans who interact with an invisible, infinite, transcendent God. Sometimes the biblical writers resort to metaphors, similes, anthropomorphisms and other literary devices to describe God’s interactions with finite humans. God is greater than the confines of human language, and at times, those symbolic literary features bridge the gap to facilitate our understanding.
Another faulty common assertion people make that undermines God’s omniscience is when such critics say that God is limited by time. Most Christians would agree that God exists outside of time, but when he enters into time, meaning finite human history, the doubters say he “limits himself” to accommodate finite humans. God then lives in the finite human world of experience, and as such, God is thus limited in knowledge. They say he is especially limited in his knowledge with respect to the future. These Christians will generally admit that God knows all past events and facts, and he even knows all present reality, but there are some future things God does not know until they transpire. These Christians don’t even have a problem saying, “God knows everything.” They say God knows everything, but they don’t believe God knows everything. This makes them particularly misleading.
The world-renowned Christian philosopher, William Lane Craig, holds to such an erroneous view. While being touted as one of the most brilliant, most highly respected Christian scholars and apologists today, Craig rejects the traditional, orthodox view of God’s omniscience. But he is fuzzy and schizophrenic in his explanation of God’s knowledge. For example, on the one hand he states, “God is-all knowing…his knowledge is infinite” (Systematic Philosophical Theology, Vol. IIa185). He even mentions Isaiah 40:28 and other verses that teach God’s comprehensive knowledge. But in the same discussion he says, “God’s knowledge of logical truths is outside of his control” (256). So, Craig alleges God is not sovereign over logic. He further says that some of God’s knowledge is “conditional” (260), meaning God won’t know certain truths until time passes on, and as time passes on God learns some new truths! Craig says this because he believes that God actually does not know everything, and for Craig that means there are future realities that God does not know. Elsewhere Craig gets more overt, explicit, and heretical. Consider this recent statement he spewed:
One might think that if God is omniscient, then he can’t learn anything new, because to be omniscient is to know all truth, it’s to know all the facts there are. But in fact, an omniscient being can learn things that are new if he is in time.
If God is in time, then at any particular moment of time, he knows all the truths that there are at that moment. But if truth changes over time, then God’s knowledge will change over time as well” (www.disntr.com; July 24, 2025).
There are many reasons this statement is in error, but we’ll just expose the obvious ones. First, Craig says, “an omniscient being can learn things.” False! Omniscient beings can’t learn things. And there is only one omniscient being, and that is God. Because God is omniscient, meaning he knows all things, he therefore cannot learn anything. He already knows everything.
Second, Craig says, “truth changes over time.” False! Truth does not change. Truth is eternal and is fixed (Ps 119:89). Craig, the professional theologian, does not understand the meaning and implications of “progressive revelation.” Third, Craig says, “If God is in time” and then assumes time limits God’s knowledge. False! God manages time. God works within time. And God transcends time. God is sovereign over and greater than time. God created time. Scripture declares, “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:3). God is preeminent over time; he is not its servant. Paul says Christ “is before all things” (Col 1:17). Paul says adamantly that God is sovereign over the present, the future and all created things (Rom 8:38-39). Time is a created thing. Time in no way limits God.
Craig is just the latest high-profile professing Christian evangelical in a long line of professors to undermine God’s omniscience by rejecting special revelation from the Bible and instead leaning on unaided human wisdom. Christian Open Theists argued the same thing about God in the 1990s. They said God knows all things except many things about the future. The future is still “open” to God, or the future is undetermined until it happens, they opined. They said God learns things and is always growing in his knowledge….even though he is perfect and holy and sovereign. God is improving and getting more perfect day by day, moment by moment with all the new things he’s learning. One of their most influential spokespersons, Clark Pinnock, even said that “the Mormons had it right.” He said that because Mormonism teaches the doctrine of “eternal progression,” which asserts God is always progressing, getting better, and improving, including his accumulation of knowledge. God keeps learning.
Modern-Day Paganism in the Church
This idea that God is improving and growing in his knowledge is not due to Arminian theology, as some allege. The idea actually comes from paganism. Jacob Arminius was no pagan. The notion that God is growing in knowledge is from the ancient Greek pagans, including Plato and Socrates. They posited that the divine was always Becoming, just as humans were always becoming, or always growing and developing. This is philosophical evolution. And it morphed into theological evolution applied to God when Thomas Aquinas imbibed it from Aristotle as he mixed biblical truths with pagan ideas. The Catholic Church adopted the idea from Aquinas. Pinnock and Craig got it from the Catholics. So, to say that God is growing in knowledge, always learning and improving (i.e. Becoming), is sheer, categorical paganism and must be rejected outright.
The Bible is clear: God knows everything, including the future and all its innumerable contingencies. God is truly awesome. And the New Testament reveals that Christ, as the eternal Logos and glorified God-Man knows all things just as the Father and the Spirit do. What a comfort to know that when the believer goes to God in prayer, he or she can lean on the all-knowing Father, who cares for every need, worry, and trial that we have, he knows what to do it about better than we do, and he acts accordingly. God is faithful.
Faith Wins Out
I am encouraged anew every time I get the chance to teach elementary Sunday school or Children’s church, as I did recently, as we were going over the attributes of God. And with a sweet, simple faith, the nine-year-olds enthusiastically believed that God knows everything, including the future, because the Bible says so. This is a good reminder that God puts a premium on faith (Heb 11) and not on the continual amassing of intellectual data based on sheer human ratiocination. The Bible warns us, “Knowledge puffs up” (1 Cor 8:1). There are those who pass themselves off as Christian scholars who are nothing more than counterfeit teachers, “always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim 3:7). So be encouraged Christian. Keep reading your Bible with simple faith. Faith is trusting God at his Word. Take Scripture at face value. Embrace its miracles and divine mysteries. And may that be our catalyst to go to God in awe, worship, thanksgiving and praise, for only he is worthy.
