What does it mean when people say God is omniscient?
God has three general characteristics that people associate with Him. And just as all people are different, so is the understanding of just what those characteristics mean with respect to God. I'll give you my take on each of the three omni terms defined in their generally accepted way below:
- Omniscience: all knowing
- Omnipresence: being everywhere at once
- Omnipotent: all powerful
Omniscience
Is God omniscient? Does He know everything that is going on everywhere in the universe all the time? This is something that has been debated in the church for a long time.
I want to say that in terms of general knowledge about the universe and how things work, I believe that God knows more than the sum of human knowledge to this point in time and in all time to come. Since He created everything, it stands to reason that He would know everything about it. He has the Theory of Relativity and all of its ramifications down cold. He knew just how far off base medical knowledge was when it was starting to be a thing we thought we understood. He understands quantum physics and any of the various current theories of space and matter that are actually correct better than we ever will. He knows which of scientists theories are nuts. He knows things.
But at the same time, I don't believe that God keeps track Himself of all that goes on in all of His creation. He has angels for that. Look at the first chapters of Job when the angels come to heaven (both his own and fallen angels since Lucifer was there) and Lucifer and God converse about the righteousness of Job and why Job is so [Job 1-2:6].
Consider also the wording of God's examination of Sodom and Gomorrah [Genesis 18:20-33]. From the wording, it would seem that the sin of the cities was reported to God and rather than just tell the angel to go deal with it according to established principles, He chose to go down and see for Himself, probably because Lot was living in the city.
I also want to make clear, that I believe that God can find out anything He needs to find out, just as He did with Sodom. But the wording of the chapter seems to imply that there is much that is handled by God's network of angels that He doesn't get personally involved in unless there is a need to do so.
Many question about the passages of predestination. Does God know how we will end up and if so why doesn't He change things so we all go to heaven. My personal belief is that God can operate outside of the limits of linear time. In the question of predestination, or prophecy for that matter, I believe that it is possible for God to move through time. He can pick a particular individual, if He so chooses, and move to that person's death, and know whether or not that person will go to heaven or sheol. The person will still move through their own lives and make all their own free will choices as do all of the people who God tries to send their way to save them. But by going to the end of their life, God sees the end result of all of those free will choices.
Can He work to try to move humanity in a certain direction. Of course. I believe that He could, if He so chose, move to any point in time and push those who follow Him in particular ways to gently nudge humanity to a point where the earth can reach a particular place at a particular time. I think that this is rare, but if you look at the rise of various empires recorded in the Bible who ended up punishing Israel or Judah for their sin, and in particular the Roman empire, it's pretty clear that for the prophecies about Jesus to have come true, God must have either nudged the world in particular ways or moved ahead to see what would be at the time of His choosing to send the Savior in order to record the prophecies He did in the Old Testament.
Even without the ability to move through time, realize that God has been following mankind through millennia. If He has taken notice of a particular person's life at all, and knowing humanity like He does, I'd bet that He could guess what free will choice a particular human would make in a particular situation correctly well beyond the famous six nines accuracy that some data centers like to claim uptime for. Familiarity can look a lot like omniscience to an outside observer. When your kids were growing up, how many times was there a conversation like "How did you know I was going to do that? I know you." God is no different.
I do believe that the Holy Spirit works in people throughout the world as noted below under omnipresence. So anywhere that the Holy Spirit is, God also is in the sense that the three are one. But I also believe that many people are severed from the Holy Spirit, not just today, but have been through history, because they have ceased listening to the Holy Spirit. In those cases, unless God takes a particular interest in a person or event, or something is reported to Him by the prayers of righteous mankind or by the normal work of angels, the angels may simply go about recording the evil that goes on as is at least a portion of their duties (along with recording the good that goes on).
I think that there are multiple reasons why God told His church to seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but one of the main reasons was to strengthen the ties between God and man and provide more conduits of what is going on in the world back to God. Of course another reason is to try to keep us from getting into a situation where we need His help - see omnipotence below. Finally, the baptism in the Holy Spirit was given to His church to provide conduits for His power to move back to man, and then for the name of Jesus to be lifted up and God to be praised.
Does God hear the prayers of a righteous man? Of course He does. But even though He sends help quickly, sometimes that help is hindered. Look at the prayers of Daniel and the angel who was dispatched but hindered for a time dealing with other matters for an example. Also, the Bible doesn't comment on how many angels there are. Have the means of hindrance increased as the population of the world has increased? Are they well beyond what we would consider working overtime with perhaps over a billion Christians? How long does it take for God to reason out all the possible outcomes for any act that He might intervene in human events with to determine if He should act or if His act would cause problems several hundred years in the future that would impact His plans? That is the other side of omniscience. The ability to know much also implies a duty to not make things worse for humanity by answering the needs of one.
The Bible really isn't very explicit about how heaven operates, and I'll freely admit that some of the above is my conjecture based on the examples I find in the Bible. I do think that we assume that God must just know everything that we or those we care bout are going through because He created the universe. I'm just not sure that the Bible backs up the omniscience that we hope for when things are bad.
Omnipresence
Is God omnipresent? This is also something that has been debated in the church for a long time. I'm of the opinion that the Holy Spirit is, in a sense, omnipresent. Part of the Holy Spirit's duties is to convict men of sin and bring comfort to the righteous. So, by definition of that part of His job function, He must be present in many places at once. There are many who are sinning at the same time. There are many who need comfort at the same time. I believe that the conscience that is spoken of is the Holy Spirit at work in each heart to try to convince mankind not to commit sin.
But even the Holy Spirit has limits. It is possible to sever your connection with the Holy Spirit by your continued actions and refusal to listen to His direction [Matthew 12:31-32]. This bond can be restored, but since it is the Holy Spirit that draws you to Christ and God for salvation, you have to be led there by someone else once you have reached that point. Witnessing is important.
For God the Father, it seems clear from scripture that He does have residence in heaven. He has a magnificent throne room and throne [Revelation 4]. But the Old Testament also records instances when He comes down to interact with particular individuals. I'm of the opinion that the Father is in only one place at a time. When He was walking in the Garden with Adam and Eve [Genesis 3:8], He wasn't also walking on several other planets. When He came down to speak with Abraham as above, He wasn't also dealing with issues on His throne.
Maybe I'd just like to think that God could get away and get a break when He wanted to. It isn't like He doesn't have angels to handle the details of running the universe. And no, that doesn't mean I think He gets exhausted. But I do think the Holy Spirit has a place, both on earth and in heaven, and everywhere else God's sentient creation may be present.
I wouldn't be opposed to someone claiming that God could project an image of Himself that we could understand multiple places at once from His throne in heaven. It is one of those things we'll have to wait and see. But as I read the Bible, it seems that the Father, and the Son are in each in their own bodies that are probably more powerful than we can imagine, but still in a single place at a single time.
Omnipotent
Is God omnipotent? Well, He created the universe that we understand [Genesis 1:1], so I'd say that if that isn't all powerful, then it's right up there. It's certainly more powerful that anything man will ever come up with. Of that I'm certain.
But, at the same time, God has put limitations on how He can use that power. He is holy. He can't commit sin. So due to that very reality of His nature, there are a host of things that although He is certainly powerful enough to do, He will not do.
He keeps His word. What He has promised, He will do for those who meet the conditions of the promise. He will save you if you ask Him to do so. After that, as long as you aren't praying for things that are outside of His will (see James 4), He will follow through according to your faith.
You also need to keep in mind that many times we put ourselves in difficulty because we have a tendency to not listen to the Holy Spirit when He is trying to guide us to do something or not do something. We do things that the Bible clearly says we should not do. We go against the teaching of church leaders and teachers to say nothing of our parents. If we don't follow that leading which might have kept us or others safe, we aren't really in His will. Christ never failed in what miracles or healings He set out to do because He did what He saw the Father already doing. He walked completely in the will of God [John 14:8-13].
He might meet our petition if we pray, and probably has the ability to do so, but is He duty bound to save us when we have gone outside of His will? Lots of times we just are left to suffer through the consequences. That doesn't mean He doesn't love us and care for us like an earthly father. But even earthly fathers sometimes must say, I warned you over and over and you went down the path of your own choosing. It is up to you to face the consequences. Tough love.
There are other esoteric things that He may be powerful enough to do, but seem out of His nature. Even though He was willing to freeze time to give His people a victory [Joshua 10:12-13], He doesn't seem inclined to roll back time and give us a do over, as convenient as that might seem. Wouldn't it be nice to roll back time to before the big world wars and all those that followed and try to just get along for a change? Wouldn't it be even better to give Adam and Eve a do-over? Even if He had that ability, people have died and gone to heaven or sheol and rolling everything back would be problematical. It probably wouldn't do any good anyway, knowing humanity.
He could clearly bind up Satan any time He wants. He will do so at the proper time [Revelation 20:1-3]. But He doesn't force history to follow the particular designed course we want. Until the time is right, Satan can still attack us. There are many things like that which would be nice have happen now, but that we must wait until God's time is right. The above mentioned world peace, for example, will be enforced at the millennium. He has the power, but His timing is not yet complete.
So yes, God is all powerful, within the limits in which He has chosen to operate.