Is there anything God doesn't know?

OMNISCIENCE -

God knows all things, whether they be possible, past, present, or future; whether they be things that he can do, but will never do, or whether they be things that he hath done, but are not now; things that are now in being, or things that are not now existing, that lie in the womb of their proper and immediate causes. If his understanding be infinite, he then knows all things whatsoever that can be known, else his understanding would have bounds, and what hath limits is not infinite, but finite. If he be ignorant of any one thing that is knowable, that is a bound to him, it comes with an exception, a but, God knows all things but this; a bar is then set to his knowledge. If there were anything, any particular circumstance in the whole creation or non-creation, and possible to be known by him, and yet were unknown to him, he could not be said to be omniscient; as he would not be Almighty if any one thing, that implied not a repugnancy to his nature, did transcend his power. - Stephen Charnock

Is there anything God doesn't know?

God doesn't know a person he doesn't love. :-)

"God doesn't know a person he doesn't love"

...except for Esau
:-(

God knows all there is to know.

The word "is” is a rather vital word in that sentence.

Can you name something that God doesn't know?
(If so, will you tell God or keep it from Him?)

I would say, in general terms, that God does not know how to perform logical impossibilities.

Todd,

You said, "God knows all there is to know.The word "is” is a rather vital word in that sentence."

What exactly are you saying?

I don't want to put words in your mouth, so I'll just ask you if you'd plainly answer the following question.

Does God know all that is to come, i.e the future? Or, might there be something there may be in the future that He does not know will occur or not occur?

Thanks in advance. Although I don't know what your answer will be, or even if you will answer at all, God knows. B-)

Assuming we agree that God knows everything (past, present and future), does that mean He orchestrates, or dare I say, predestines everything? Is knowing everything different from causing everything?
For example does God cause the weather to behave as it does in each and every place on this planet every day minute by minute?
Is it God's will that we had wind and rain all week-end? May seem a trite question, but it has a serious point.

//Does God know all that is to come, i.e the future? Or, might there be something there may be in the future that He does not know will occur or not occur?//

I suppose that depends on whether a person believes the future exists "now.”

In keeping with Dave’s line of questioning, if the future exists "now” and God knows it, there is no free will, regardless how a person tries to explain it away.

The future may exist now, and if so God knows it, but in that case we are simply chess pieces being moved in a game- the outcome of which God knew eons and eons ago- and not only did he know the outcome but also the minutiae of every move.

That may be true, but if so God must be pretty bored. When I was a kid I used to love to play with my electric football game. That’s a game from the 70s where you arrange little plastic players on a metal field, and when you turned it on the field vibrated and the players moved across the field. But even that got boring after a while, even though there was some degree of randomness to the players movements.

//"In keeping with Dave’s line of questioning, if the future exists "now” and God knows it, there is no free will, regardless how a person tries to explain it away.//

Todd, I don't agree with that conclusion. When we try and explain the eternity of God and say things like ' does the future exists now' we are straying into the 'secret things of the LORD' that we cannot possibly know or comprehend.
From the perspective of man and creation the future does not exist, but God is eternal, the Alpha and Omega, there is no past or future in God, just GOD IS.

I believe God knows everything, including the future, but that does not mean He wills or causes everything that happens. Does that make God impotent? No, because he allows all those things, but is still able to use them to bring about His sovereign will. God is sovereign and in control BECAUSE He knows what will happen and has a plan, not because He controls every move.

I don’t have a problem with defining sovereignty that way.

But if God knows now that I will eat a turkey sandwich for lunch tomorrow, guess what I’m havin for lunch tomorrow?

Sooo if you know the outcome beforehand and act in opposition to it, then repent from said actions and act in direct contrast to your original "plan/purpose” .... how is that omniscience or even sovereignty as being defined here?
Wouldn’t that plainly be an impossibility?

If "You are going to eat pizza tomorrow" is an absolutely true sentence, then you cannot refrain from eating pizza tomorrow. The "movie" must run its course.

If "You are going to eat pizza tomorrow" is an absolutely false sentence, then you cannot eat pizza tomorrow. The "movie" must run its course.

And so with all other human actions. If the future is settled, we have no option but to play out the settled "movie reel".

What we must decide is this: Is it possible that the sentence, "You are going to eat pizza tomorrow" is NEITHER true nor false? Some would argue it does not become true or false until you have made your choice. For you have free will.

In my opinion, human efforts to make human free will compatible with absolute foreknowdge are doomed to failure.

Personally, I don’t have a problem at all with the idea that the future does not exist now. I realize that freaks people out but doesn’t bother me a tad.

I guess absolute foreknowledge does not bother me either, but I must give up the idea of being free and must accept that I am being moved like a chess piece. But the implications of that are devastating to the glory of God so I try not to think about it.

Brother Todd,
I can def relate to that-

Several scriptures come to mind but an easy one is Genesis 6 where

5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

I mean that seems to fly in the face of the definitions of sovereignty and omniscience previously given in this thread, no?

Brother Fletcher, Jesus was the lamb slain from before the foundation of the earth, so man's sin did not come as surprise to God.

Some things must be recognised. God is the one with omniscience, not us. So God's knowledge of the future does not effect us and our ever day living choices.

I still maintain that God knowing all the future does not take away our free choice, He just knows what it will be!
You only have to read the many OT prophecies regarding Israel's fate to see that God knows what they will do in the future and what He will do in response. He also puts the responsibility fully on them and encourages a better choice, even though He knows they won't. I don't see any problem with this. May be I'm too simple! :)

Todd, taking your chess analogy, it would be better to consider us as the other player, rather than inanimate chess pieces, which we are not. If the player opposite pocesses all knowledge about what moves we are going to make, then he will plan his moves perfectly to win, but he is not forcing or compelling us to make those moves, we are choosing, but he knows. Seems quite simple to me.

Some in here are acting like we no longer have a free will if God knows ahead of time what we will do. I know it may seem that way but I think we are letting the time dilation factor sway our thinking on this. In no way do I think that God's foreknowledge CAUSES or FORCES our hand. To put it succinctly, God's knowing what we will choose to do in no way changes the fact that we CHOSE to do it. There is no invisible hand forcing us like chess pieces around a chess board. I really don't want to argue about this. If you insist that everything is not only deterministic but fatalistically decided by God, I will pray for you. That paradigm to me is very disturbing and besmirches the character of God.

Edit: If you say that since God knows ahead of time what you will do, you CAN'T do otherwise, I would say you WON'T do otherwise. The difference between can't and won't is critical to understand this issue.

Dave-

I wanted to clarify something: is it your position that God knows what we will do because he is really really smart (for lack of a better term) or because he foresaw us doing it (ie he looked into the future)?

There is a subtle but important distinction.

Brother Dave,

I get what you’re saying,... I suppose it to be a lil different, more of potential vs literal...

For example;
If I take my lil boys boating, I put a life preserver (Christ crucified) on them before they even enter the boat, as I’m well aware of the "potential” they may not obey me and fall out of the boat. But if I knew beforehand that my boys would not only disobey me but also fall out and be mortally wounded, would it not be an act of total irresponsibility or worse on my part to ever put them in the boat at all?

Many may say that God’s ways are higher than ours and that’s true, however not (in my understanding) to the extreme that many will take it to explain things. God, according to scripture, loves us and wants to be known by us.

Todd, God saw before hand, not just smart.
I agree with True Witness's post.

Fletcher, I think all human examples and analogies will fall short of explaining God's nature.
Scripture clearly teaches God's omniscient foreknowledge and also our free will to choose life or death and God's infinite righteousness. I just accept it is so and have no issue with that and do not try to work it all out based on my perceptions.

First off, the ones here that can figure out God, please let me know, that way I can skip over anything you have to say. :-)