Pondering God’s Perfect Omniscience with Pink
A.W. Pink’s book The Attributes of God is a classic work on the being and essence of God. Each month we’ll explore one chapter, summarize the main ideas, and discuss our favorite passages. Today we examine chapter three: The Knowledge of God.
Summary
This chapter explores God’s sovereign knowledge. God is omniscient, knowing everything past, present, and future. This knowledge is perfect and unchanging, encompassing all events and creatures. While the wicked fear God’s omniscience, believers find comfort in it, knowing He understands their struggles and hears their prayers.
God’s omniscience encompasses perfect knowledge of the past, present, and future, including all possible and actual events. His knowledge is not causative but stems from His sovereign will, which decrees all things. This truth should inspire awe, worship, and trust in believers, as it assures them of God’s control and His unwavering love despite their imperfections.
Discussion
Pink tells us who we ought to respond to God’s omniscience and questions why we don’t:
The apprehension of His omniscience ought to bow us in adoration before Him. Yet how little do we meditate upon this divine perfection! Is it because the very thought of it fills us with uneasiness?
He speaks of God’s perfect knowledge, even of our thoughts:
How solemn is this fact: nothing can be concealed from God! “For I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them” (Eze 11:5). Though He be invisible to us, we are not so to Him.
God’s knowledge of the future is the foundation of the future. God doesn’t look forward int time to see what will happen. God inhabits the future, just as He does the present, and things will happen exactly as God knows them. Pink writes that:
God’s knowledge of the future is as complete as is His knowledge of the past and the present, and that, because the future depends entirely upon Himself. Were it in anywise possible for something to occur apart from either the direct agency or permission of God, then that something would be independent of Him, and He would at once cease to be Supreme.
Yet, it isn’t the knowledge of God, but the will of God that causes all things to happen. God knows the future, because He has willed and decreed the future. Pink writes:
Nothing has ever come to pass, or ever will, merely because God knew it. The cause of all things is the will of God… God’s knowledge does not arise from things because they are or will be, but because He has ordained them to be.
We discuss the following points in reflecting on this chapter:
- The Comfort and Conviction of God’s Omniscience
- How is God’s perfect knowledge of our thoughts, actions, and hearts a comfort believers in times of uncertainty?
- How is God’s omniscience convicting?
- God’s Foreknowledge and His Sovereign Will
- What is the distinction between God’s knowledge of the future and His sovereign will that ordains all that comes to pass.?
- How does this truth provides assurance and rest for believers, knowing that nothing is outside of His eternal decre?
- Personal Response to God’s Infinite Knowledge
- How does meditating on God’s omniscience provoke worship, humility, and trust?
- How may Christians apply this truth in prayer, confession, and daily obedience?
Defining Theology
When discussing theology, defining your terms is important. Brance and Lauren take a look at the theological term Protestant, discussing the history, and the modern day application of this term to various groups.
Resources Mentioned:
- The Attributes of God by A.W. Pink
- Chappel Library
- 2LCF (2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith)
- Still Protesting: Why the Reformation Still Matters
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links to Amazon or other providers. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.