A comment made to me the other day started me thinking. It was just an off-hand comment: "Was Jesus omniscient?" But it was asked in such a way as to imply that this is a real issue that deserves discussion. So I will discuss it, not because I think it deserves a hearing but because I believe it deserves a refutatation.
My first issue with this is purely scriptural. I think that it should be clear to us that Jesus was God. Take John 1:1-18. Here John lays out the foundation for the story he is about to tell. In this preface he describes the characteristics of Jesus in unambiguous terms. He is God, come to make God known to man. In addition, Jesus displayed his omniscience at various times throughout his ministy...think of his knowledge of the samaritan women or of Lazarus' death, or of Nathaniel standing under the fig tree. I think that it is clear that though Jesus didn't always put his omniscience on a pedestal, it was there.
My second issue is on mainly intellectual grounds. Many have tried to claim that there are mistakes in Jesus' teaching that show that he was limited by the ideas of his time. This casts all of his teaching under a shadow of unreliability. If he wasn't omniscient can we trust any of his teaching?
Finally, Jesus claimed to be God. One of the characteristics of God is omniscience. If we deny him that, we make him out to be a liar.
Part of the beauty of Christianity for me is the utter reliance on faith. I have searched for answers to the meaning of life and found nothing satisfying (or forty-two). One thing that helps maintain my sanity is the realization that I don't know everything and am not meant to do so. When Jesus says that he is God, I find comfort in the faith that he meant it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
yes. i think i asked that question. and the question is, what characteristics did Jesus give up to become human? fully God, fully human, yes, but obviously, as a particular human being, he couldn't be omnipresent, another characteristic of God's. did he not elect to give up certain divine attributes to become human?
Perhaps, though there is no indication that he did so--precisely the opposite. Omnipresence is the divine attribute that is most susceptible to this argument, but even here there is no indication that he gave it up. "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree."
You guys should read The Glory of Christ, by John Owen. It is the most exhaustive and demandingly precise Christology I know off, and it still manages to be transcendently spiritual and rich food for the soul.
Post a Comment