The Attributes of God: Omniscience

Omniscience means being all-knowing. But the definition has two halves, and the second one is the one people miss.
First, God knows all things - both actual and possible. Not only what is and what will be, but what could be. Second, God knows those things equally well. He does not know one thing more clearly than another, or hold the future more dimly than the past. There are no degrees in his knowing.
Scripture makes the point by crediting God with knowledge that no created being could ever possess. God asks Job where he was when the foundations of the earth were laid, who determined its measurements, who stretched the line across it. The questions are unanswerable by design. Elsewhere Job says God is perfect in knowledge, and John simply says God knows everything.
That second half - knowing the possible as well as the actual - is not a technicality. It is what the next poster in this series turns on.
Scripture links:
- Job 37:16 - God is "perfect in knowledge".
- Job 38:4-6 - where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
- 1 John 3:20 - God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
He knows what is. He also knows what would have been.