Several years ago a young man I knew asked me to help him sort through a difficult criticism of the Bible that he had encountered online. I asked him for a copy of exactly what had been said so that I could thoughtfully consider it before giving him my thoughts. Here is the criticism he encountered:
“There's no reason to believe a being can be either omnipotent or omniscient, much less both at once. To be omniscient you'd need to know all your own future thoughts and actions perfectly. To be omnipotent you'd need to be able to change them, but if you do change your future actions your omniscience was wrong.”
After prayerfully considering the accusation being made against God and searching the Scriptures, I composed the following for the young man who had asked for my help. I'm sharing it here in hopes that it might help others too:
The argument you faced said that God cannot be both omniscient and omnipotent: if He already knows everything, including what He is going to do, then He cannot be all-powerful, because He could not choose to do something different from what He already knows. This is an interesting puzzle, not because it casts doubt on the Lord, but rather because it forces us to reevaluate our own understanding of the terms, the nature of God, and what is plainly said in Scripture. If we are going to look at the subjects of omnipotence and omniscience, then the only real authority we have is Scripture. Unfortunately, this may not be “good enough” for the person to whom you spoke. If he is honestly seeking the truth, then he will hear you, but if he is the sort of person described in 2 Peter 3:3, merely posing the sort of questions mentioned in 2 Timothy 2:23-25, then nothing will satisfy him, like the rich man and his brothers in Luke 16. It is important to begin by acknowledging that neither “omnipotent” nor “omniscience” are terms used in the Bible. Rather, they are man-made terms that describe the characteristics of God as He has revealed them in Scripture. All that being said, let’s start with the definition of omnipotent:
OMNIP'OTENT, adjective 1. Almighty; possessing unlimited power; all powerful. The being that can create worlds must be omnipotent 2. Having unlimited power of a particular kind; as omnipotent love.
This term describes the characteristics of God as seen in verses like the following: Jeremiah 32:17 Ah Lord God ! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee: Colossians 1:16-17 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. Revelation 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. Exodus 4:11 And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord? See also Job 38-39 for an overwhelming series of rhetorical questions that would humble anyone who would dare to question God's omnipotence. However, Hebrews 6:18 challenges the conventional understanding of God’s omnipotence: That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: If he is all-powerful and can do anything, then He could lie, but here is says that is impossible. So there is at least one thing that God cannot do. With that in mind, let’s move on to omniscient so that we can reconcile our understanding of both terms together. Here’s the dictionary definition:
OMNIS'CIENT, adjective
Having universal knowledge or knowledge of all things; infinitely knowing; all-seeing; as the omniscient God.
This is the real tension of the question posed to you on the internet. If God really does know everything - if the course is pre-determined - then how could He possibly be free to do as He wishes? How could free will truly exist, even for God Himself? And if He is not free to act, then how can He be omnipotent? Theologically, this could circle us around to the idea of predestination. In the Calvinist sense, I would strongly object based on the Biblical use of the word in Ephesians. But for our purposes here, let’s stay focused on God Himself. Does God really know everything? Scripture indicates that He does not! Jeremiah 31:33-34 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord , I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord : for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord : for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Hebrews 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Hebrews 10:17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Three times we are plainly told that God can choose to forget something! He can choose to not know! For this topic we should also consider verses like Exodus 32:14: And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. Conventionally, we think of repentance as being sorry for sin and therefore ceasing the sinful behavior. But if that was accurate, then the verse above presents us with a much bigger problem than omnipotence and omniscience! Here’s a dictionary definition of the word:
REPENT', verb
1. To feel pain, sorrow or regret for something done or spoken; as, to repent that we have lost much time in idleness or sensual pleasure; to repent that we have injured or wounded the feelings of a friend. A person repents only of what he himself has done or said.
2. To express sorrow for something past.
3. To change the mind in consequence of the inconvenience or injury done by past conduct.
4. Applied to the Supreme Being, to change the course of providential dealings.
5. In theology, to sorrow or be pained for sin, as a violation of God's holy law, a dishonor to his character and government, and the foulest ingratitude to a Being of infinite benevolence.
Notice that the overarching idea is sorrow for an action (not necessarily a sin), but definitions three and (especially) four show us the application to God: He can change His mind. Okay, so now that we’ve got the ground work laid, let’s pull it all together. God is all-powerful, but there are some things that He cannot do. He knows everything, but there are some things that He does not. What’s the common denominator here? God chooses to not do and not know those things. The question posed to you does not actually highlight a flaw with God; the real flaw is that our view of omniscience and omnipotence are too limited. Fore-knowledge is not forced-knowledge, otherwise repentance would be impossible. Just because He knows does not mean that He is bound. Likewise, omnipotence is not unlimited power so much as it is unlimited authority; God answers to no one but Himself, and so He may do (or not do) as He pleases. This would include what God pleases to knows and not know. Where God has not made a promise, He is free to act, or react. Where He has made a promise, He has bound Himself (Psalm 89:34, 2 Corinthians 1:20, Joshua 23:14). The Lord is not inconsistent, illogical, or an impossible fantasy: God can do anything He wants, except run contrary to His nature. Thus He chooses to limit Himself. For example, God is not required to listen to our prayers, much less heed them, and yet that is the way He chooses to operate. In sum, God can know everything while still being omnipotent: the only one limiting God's power is GOD! It is an act of His will, and the very fact that He can choose not to do something, despite the fact that nothing else in creation could prevent Him, is in itself power. He is the highest authority. He answers to no one but Himself, and no one can thwart Him. We skew our understanding of these things because we are trying to relate to them through our own sinful, limited experience. True power is not indulgence, but restraint. True knowledge is not binding, but freeing. In order for something to be a something, it must be defined not only by what it is, but also by what it is not; God is the only One who gets to define Himself, which is what makes Him God.
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