Attribute of God

Omniscience

God knows all things—himself, the possible, and the actual—and classical Arminians are not open theists; both camps confess exhaustive knowledge and part over how that knowledge relates to the decree.

Omniscience is not a guess that improves with time. Jesus knows what is in man; the Father knows what we need before we ask; the Spirit will declare the things that are to come; Paul bows before knowledge too deep to track. Arminius and Wesley, no less than Calvin and Westminster, refuse a God who learns. The live fork is not whether God is ignorant, but whether his knowledge of future free acts is grounded in an unconditional decree, or whether—sometimes with middle knowledge—he knows what creatures would and will do without that knowledge itself causing the act. The verses still come first.

Start with the verses

Arminian

Arminius will not surrender God’s omniscience. God understands all that is, will be, has been, can be, or might be on any hypothesis—including future contingents—and he understands them by one infinite intuition, not by waiting to see. The certainty of that knowledge rests on the infinity of God’s essence, not on an unchangeable will that makes every act necessary.

The Arminian fork is causal, not cognitive. “Things do not exist because God knows them”; he knows them because they are future. Middle knowledge, which Arminius reports from the schools, is one historic way of saying God knows what would follow if this or that were laid down, without that knowledge itself authoring the creature’s choice. Romans 8’s “foreknew” is heard as personal acquaintance that precedes predestination, not as a decree wearing a milder name.

Pastoral Arminian notes keep prayer from becoming theater: the Father already knows, and still bids us ask. They also keep judgment honest—1 John 3’s God who is greater than our hearts and knows everything. No classical Arminian needs God to be ignorant in order for the invitation to be sincere.

Reformed

Westminster’s two sentences are the Reformed hinge. Knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent of the creature: nothing is uncertain to God. And yet he has not decreed because he foresaw. Foreknowledge is not the ground of the decree; the decree is not a response to a future God merely watches. Calvin’s Christ in John 2 needs no testimony about man. He knows the heart.

On this reading, Romans 8’s chain and Romans 11’s depth are one counsel. God knows all possible conditions, as WCF 3.2 grants; he does not wait on them. Daniel 2’s God who reveals mysteries is the very God who numbers the hairs and who will judge in righteousness—which he could not do if anything were dark to him.

Pastoral Reformed notes use omniscience for both fear and rest. Nothing is hidden, so hypocrisy is a bad investment; nothing is hidden, so the church is not finally a surprise to its Lord. The fork with Arminians is not whether God knows the future, but whether that knowledge is independent of creaturely choice in such a way that the decree, not the future act, is first.

Key contrast Both confess that God knows all things, including future free acts; classical Arminians are not open theists. Arminians typically deny that knowledge itself causes those acts (sometimes via middle knowledge); the Reformed typically deny that God decreed because he foresaw, locating certainty in a counsel independent of the creature.

Historic quotes

Voices from both camps

Historic words on the all-knowing God—so each camp speaks in its own voice.

Arminian Notable voices

“The understanding of God is a faculty of his life… by which He distinctly understands all things and every thing which now have, will have, have had, can have, or might hypothetically have, any kind of being… not excluding even that entity which belongs to reason.”

Jacobus Arminius · Public Disputation 4, “On the Nature of God” (§XXX)

“The understanding of God is certain, and never can be deceived, so that He certainly and infallibly sees even future contingencies, whether He sees them in their causes or in themselves. This certainty rests upon the infinity of the essence of God… Though the understanding of God be certain and infallible, yet it does not impose any necessity on things.”

Jacobus Arminius · Public Disputation 4, “On the Nature of God” (§XXXVI–XXXVIII)

“Free knowledge is also called “foreknowledge”… and since it follows a free act of the will, it is not the cause of things; it is, therefore, affirmed with truth concerning it, that things do not exist because God knows them as about to come into existence, but that He knows future things because they are future.”

Jacobus Arminius · Public Disputation 4, “On the Nature of God” (§XLIV)

Reformed Notable voices

“In his sight all things are open and manifest, his knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent upon the creature, so as nothing is to him contingent, or uncertain.”

Westminster Confession of Faith · Chapter 2.2

“Although God knows whatsoever may or can come to pass upon all supposed conditions, yet hath He not decreed anything because He foresaw it as future, or as that which would come to pass upon such conditions.”

Westminster Confession of Faith · Chapter 3.2

“Christ perceived every thing in men that is concealed from our view… Christ, therefore, who knows the hearts, had no need of any one to inform him what sort of men they were.”

John Calvin · Commentary on John (on John 2:24–25)

Quotations lightly abridged for length; wording follows standard English translations of the sources named.

Keep reading

The verses stay first

Open the passages above, or browse doctrines beside these notes.

Browse the Bible Doctrines