Webster: Having infinite awareness, understanding and insight and possessing universal and complete knowledge.
If there is an area that I have changed the most in my understanding of God it is God's Omniscience. The question that dogged me the most was always one involving the problem of evil. If God knew absolutely that evil would result from his creating the world and that because of it people would absolutely go to hell for their sin, why did he create the world in the first place? Because of this absolute knowledge God becomes absolutely responsible for evil existing.
One thing that started to change in me, as I read through scripture to escape my agnostic pit, was my understanding of HOW God knows things. It is not just about WHAT God knows, but HOW he knows it because of the way he created the world.
As you look through the backlog of my posts you will find many labeled 'Open Theism' and I now make it no secret that I am an open theist. I see no other way to avoid the charge that God caused evil unless He only knew evil as a possibility and not a certainty.
There is a lot of things I could say here, and to get a full understanding of where I am coming from, reading every article I have written on open theism starting with The ABC's of Open Theism and then all the rest in any order will give you a good start. There are a few specifics to mention here:
1. God knows the past and present absolutely.
2. God knows the future both absolutely and propositionaly (both what will be for certain and what is possible)
3. There are some things that God does not know: any sin He has forgiven.
For me the definition has changed: God knows everything that is knowable and He knows it in the way it is knowable.
Next: God's Omnipresence
I recently preached a message on what I consider to be God's most important "Omni" of all. I had to make up a new word for this "Omni" because, to the best of my knowledge, there isn't one in the well known list of "Omni's", that identifies this superior "Omni"... the one to which ALL other "Omni's" become subordinate.
ReplyDeleteIt is: Omnioptio. It means he has unlimited choice... optio is the latin for choice / options. It allows him to choose to make choices that would seem illogical and contradictory, if it suits him to do so. He can even choose to save a guy like me... even though it makes no sense whatsoever.
I too have concluded that God is neither omnipotent or omniscient except to the extent that these characteristics are subordinate to his "Omnioptio".
I have enjoyed your posts on these matters, and look forward to your post on omnipresence.
I would have to agree that the most important thing to remember about God is that he has the freedom to be himself. No one really defines God other than Himself.
ReplyDeleteWhat we ultiamtely do is try to discover who he is and then come to terms with those revelations.
Omnioptio -- good word.