Living with Tozer's God

Blogpost #22

Chapter 10: The Omniscience of God and His Solution for Eliminating Evil

Some animals eat everything. We call them omnivorous. Some people think they are almighty; they have even declared themselves to be gods. But, then they die...and so does their claim to being god. Some people think they know everything; we usually end up calling them arrogant fools. Only the one, true and living God knows everything. He alone is omniscient in the true sense of the word.

Most folks don't know that our word science is taken from the Latin word scientia or knowledge. We usually think of the word science in technical terms. We think of physical science or botanical science. It limits our knowledge to one area. But, when we add omni- (Latin for 'all') we get "all-knowledge" or omniscience. By definition, this term can only be applied to one, all-knowing, unique being, God.

But, what is the value of omniscience? Stop and think about that for a minute. IF you could have omniscience for a day, how would it benefit you? What would you do? How could it benefit others?

The most obvious benefit would be the ability to know the future. In the minds of most people, this would seem to be of enormous value. To know the future has an instant appeal. Just yesterday, some lucky soul won a $600 million dollar lottery. The odds were 175,000,000 to 1. If you had omniscience, you would have known the winning numbers and also won the lottery. The history of lottery winners would seem to indicate this might not be the blessing it would seem, but I doubt you could convince the winner of that...at least not right now.

The point is, omniscience removes the risk (though not the responsibility) from every decision. If you already know the outcome, playing the lottery is not a gamble. Omniscience knows every outcome...and every potential outcome. It knows every option and the inward thoughts of every person who has the potential to affect that outcome. When you combine this with the thousands of decisions and possible decisions and the knowledge of the inner thoughts, attitudes and motivations of 6 billion+ people, (every day!)... it becomes pretty mind-boggling! But, that's what it means to be omniscient.

It's one thing to contemplate all the possible advantages and positive and profitable options which a day with omniscience might bring, but there's also a "dark side". With the knowledge of all the good things, also comes the knowledge of all the bad things.

The Dark Side of Omniscience

You would know if there's going to be a terrorist bombing in the world tomorrow...and where it would be. You would know if a young, runaway girl is going to be abducted and sold into sex slavery. You would know how many babies would be born in a failed abortion and murdered on the table. You would know the depth of government corruption and who the real culprits are. You would know every angry word spoken, every act of unfaithfulness, every lie and deception, every burden each person carries and every cry for help. What would you do with this knowledge? What could you do?

You might think that you should use this knowledge to fix things, to solve the world's problems. While your thoughts and desires may be benevolent and charitable, the fact is, you could do very little. Knowledge is not power, unless you have the power to act and change things. Omniscience does not give you the power to act and change things.  But, let's assume for a minute that you do have the power to act and change things. What would you do? Would you act to solve all the world's problems? How exactly would you do that? What would be your plan and strategy? What you're really saying is that you would want to remove "evil" from the world. That sounds noble. But, how would you do it?

IF you will stop for a minute and actually think through what you might do, you'll be amazed at how little you might be able to accomplish! Unless you resort to simply annihilating everyone you perceive as "evil", you won't make much progress. And, by the way, don't be surprised to find out you're likely to be eliminating a lot of folks whom you thought were pretty good folks! Remember, the Bible teaches that there is "none righteous, not even one"!

But, if you have the knowledge of what is evil and the power to act and change things, don't you have the responsibility to act and eliminate it? This question has plagued philosophers and theologians for centuries. In its simplest form, the question is: How can a good God allow evil to exist? The fact is plain to all that God has apparently chosen not to eliminate evil and suffering. Is that true? Let's think about it.

The Burden of Responsibility

God has all-knowledge. He has always had all-knowledge. Therefore, He knew before time began that evil would come, yet He allowed it. We don't know all about evil, but we know enough to know how ugly, how vicious, how cruel it can be. Why would God allow it? And, now that it's here, why doesn't He step in and eliminate it? He has the power and knowledge necessary to eliminate all evil, but He doesn't do it. Why?

Actually, at one point, He did. Remember there was a time on earth when God looked into the thoughts of men and saw that they were "only evil continually". Evil so permeated the minds and thoughts of men that righteousness could not survive. A child born into the world would be so surrounded by evil that they would be consumed by it. So God destroyed the world by a mighty flood. Only one man, Noah, and his family, survived. And they only survived because Noah was deemed righteous and obeyed God when He told him to build the ark.

But, it wasn't long before the sad truth was revealed that destroying mankind did not destroy evil. Mankind needed more than a new start. He needed a new heart. The seed of evil was in every man and that was the source of the problem. The hearts of men were polluted by their rebellion against God. Evil was man's choice and God had granted him the right to choose. The choice was free, but it came with consequences..and consequences can be costly.

It's important to remember that in the beginning, Adam knew God. He was comfortable being in His Presence. Adam and God were both righteous. But, that friendship could only last if Adam "honor(ed) God as God". God had given Adam a command so that there would never be a question about who had the right to rule on earth. Adam's dominion on the earth was real, but limited. He was a man under authority. He had the power to choose whether he would obey God and enjoy continued blessing, or rebel against God. When Adam rebelled, that all changed. Now all men know good and evil, but they do not know God!

Man was now a prisoner of his sin, what could God do? What would you have done? Remember, you can't just undo the past, and as God, you have a righteous and holy character which demands justice, so how do you solve the dilemma of man? He must be punished.  Actually, that's not quite accurate. Sin must be punished.

A godly minister I met with the other day shared how he shocked a congregation he spoke to when he said, "God doesn't forgive sin. He punishes sin. Always. No exceptions." At first, that may sound a bit heretical, but it's not. God can't just forgive sin. It must be punished. The punishment is death. That punishment is never waived, it is always demanded. Thankfully, God does forgive sinners. But, He can only do so because the debt of punishment has already been paid by another. He can forgive me only because Christ died in my place.

But God in His omniscience knows that simply forgiving me of my sins doesn't solve the problem of evil in me (the Noah problem). It means the wrath of God no longer abides on me and that is a great blessing! Tragically, many stop here, as if that were the whole message of the Gospel. But, it's only the beginning. The true gospel has the power to change me.

Stop and think about this.

If God's plan were to offer His Son to pay the penalty for the sins of all mankind, but leave their sin-filled hearts and souls unchanged, would that not be an enormous tragedy, a senseless waste of a beautiful life? We would still be the sinful, selfish monsters we always were. The only difference would be that we wouldn't be accountable for our sins! It would make a mockery of the death of Christ.

If we were left unchanged, we could have no fellowship with God. We would have no desire for it. There certainly could be no love relationship; evil men do not love God. They can't. They are His enemies. Sadly, this is what the advocates of "cheap grace" (those who offer salvation with no real repentance and no new birth) unwittingly promote.

But God, in His omniscience, saw the entire need of men and made total provision. He granted that the Son would have a company of "saints" who would share not only the death He died for the punishment of their sins, but they would also share in His resurrection to a new life, a new birth. They would have God's Holy Spirit literally indwelling their spirits and transforming them into the likeness of the Son of God Himself. One day, when the preparations are finally completed, they shall be fit to join Him forever in His Kingdom, where only the righteous dwell.

The question which the Gospel of Jesus Christ presents to all men now is simply this: You know good and evil. But, do you want to know God? Do you see your sin as evil? Do you want to be free of it so that you can seek God or do you want to continue in your sin and rebellion?

In His omniscience, God has given all men a new choice. They can turn from their rebellion and enjoy all the blessings of God or continue on the path to judgment. The choice is ours.

The simple fact is that IF all men would turn to Christ and follow Him, evil would be completely removed from the earth. The only reason evil is still here is because men love the darkness.

This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world,

and men loved the darkness rather than the Light,

 for their deeds were evil. John 3:19 NASU

9" But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, 

A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, 

so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him 

who has called you out of darkness 

into His marvelous light;1 Peter 2:9 NASU