Background:

I wanted to pull all the references from the topical guide under God, Omniscience of to help us get a ‘deeper acquaintance with the word of God.’ In a future post we will look at the topic of God, Foreknowledge of (As a side note, I am developing a small R package to process items from the topical guide).

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has a Topical Guide to the Scriptures that was initially published in 1979. It is seen as a foundation for any scriptural topic. The Encylcopedia of Mormonism says;

The Topical Guide is not exhaustive, however, either as a concordance or as a listing of all passages on given topics. Although by necessity it is selective and somewhat interpretive, its purpose is not to define or limit thinking but to stimulate scripture study and suggest profitable directions that study may take. It strives to offer not only a quick path to specific destinations but also a gateway to deeper acquaintance with the word of God.

As we continue, I have broken the omniscience verses into different categories to help us tackle the concept. I hope that by the end of this post that you can see that the full list of verses does not contradict the view that God can be the God of the possible.

The grouping

I separated the 93 references under God, Omniscience of into one of the following five categories

History: Verses that only talk about knowledge of all current or historical information. For example, Acts 15:18 states, “Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.”

Heart: Verses that are explicit about God knowing all information about his children. Their emotions, thoughts, and desires. For example, Psalms 44:21 states, “Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.”

Space: Verses that explain the spatial or geographic reach of his knowledge. For example, Proverbs 15:3 states, “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.”

Future: Verses that include statements about knowledge that moves into the future. Some of these verses contain elements of the three previous as well. For example, Words of Mormon states, “And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will.”

Unlcear: Verses that are affirmative of his omniscience but not specific about its dimensionality (space, time, or heart). For example, 2 Nephi 9:20 states, “O how great the holiness of our God! For he knoweth all things, and there is not anything save he knows it. "

From this grouping, the following table summarizes how each type is allocated across our 5 books of scripture. Notice how the Old and New Testaments are heavily in the ‘Heart’ descriptions of omniscience. Also, the latter-day revelations contain about 3/4 of the ‘Future’ references.

Book	Heart	Future	Space	History	Unclear	Total
Book of Mormon	8	10	0	1	8	27
Doctrine and Covenants	7	2	2	0	0	11
New Testament	10	2	1	2	8	23
Old Testament	16	4	1	0	4	25
Pearl of Great Price	1	4	1	0	1	7
Total	42	22	5	3	21	93

Below is an image of the full interactive table that you can review here.

The Future verses

Under the premise of God having a contingent future, I want to explain how some future events are known, and others are contingent. Here are a few eloquent quotes from Gregory Boyd.

We hold that God determines (and thus foreknows as settled) some, but not all, of the future. [pg 23]

…

The future is settled to whatever extent the sovereign Creator decides to settle it. God is not at the mercy of chance or [agency]. God can and does predetermine and foreknow whatever he wants to about the future. [pg 31]

…

The God of the possible is the author of the whole storyline of creation and the one who offers possible alternatives to his human and angelic creations. The rise and fall of nations is to some extent providentially guided according to God’s plans for world history (see Dan. 2:21). But within this general guidance, there is plenty of room for individuals to exercise free will. [pg 43]

…

While Scripture portrays the crucifixion as a predestinated event, it never suggests that the individuals who participated in this event were predestined to do so or foreknown as doing so. It was certain that Jesus would be crucified, but it was not certain from eternity that Pilot, Herod, or Caiaphas would play the roles they played in the crucifixion. They participated in Christ’s death of their own free wills. [pg 45]

…

There is a degree of openness in the future, but God is absolutely certain about the range of possibilities contained in this openness, for he is the one who created it. [pg 151]

…

Prayer opens the door for God to sovereignly alter what otherwise would come to pass. And the happy result is that a [tragedy] that might have occurred was prevented. That, I submit, is a god you can trust. Trusting God to make a difference in our future only makes sense if the future is for us and for him partly open. Only if God is the God of what might be and not only the God of what will be can we trust him to steer us away from what should not be and in the direction of what should be. [pg 153]

What type of future knowledge?

So let’s put future knowledge into a couple of different categories to see how our 22 verses about future omniscience align.

1. Near future omniscience
2. Storyline for Plan of Salvation events
3. Fixed future omniscience

I have labeled each of the 22 verses into one of the above categories. Some are very clear as to their grouping, and some could align with Storyline or fixed future. Finally, a few verses leave a strong case for a fixed future. The table below shows how I identified each reference.

Below is an image of the full interactive table that you can review here.

Storyline labels

Within the storyline labels, there are a few concepts that I need to explain. As Gregory Boyd described above,

1. Seeing a people is different than seeing a person. Patterns of Nations, Kingdoms, and His Plan.

• Alma 40:10 - ‘all the times which are appointed unto man’
• Ether 3:25 - ‘all the inhabitants of the earth which had been’¹
• Moses 7:41 - ‘all the doings of the children of men’

2. God is omnipotent and can bring events to pass, even in the infinite future, through his will.

• Words of Mormon 1:7 - ’the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore he working in me to do according to his will.
• D&C 130:7 - ‘where all things for their glory are manifest’
• Moses 7:67 - ‘all things, even unto the end of the world’ but he then describes what these ‘all things’ were and they are clearly the storyline events.
• Abraham 2:8 - ‘I know the end from the beginning’²
• Isaiah 41:26 - ‘declared from the beginning that we may know’
• Isaiah 46:10 - ‘I will do all my pleasure’
• Isaiah 48:3 - ‘I did them suddenly, and they came to pass’

On Isaiah 46 and 48, Greg Boyd has some clear commentary.

The point is even more emphatic in the next sentence: ‘I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have planned and I will do it’ (Isaiah 46:11). The Lord’s announcement that he declares ’the end from the beginning’ must be understood in the light of this specification. He tells us that he is talking about his own will and his own plans. He declares that the future is settled to the extent that he is going to determine it, but nothing in the text requires that we believe that everything that will ever come to pass will do so according to his will and this is settled ahead of time. [pg 30]

…

The Lord did this because he did not want the Israelites saying, ‘My idol did them’ (48:5). In other words, as a supernatural means of confronting the lie that idols have power to bring about events. Yahweh announced and then manifested his sovereign ability to bring about events. Again, this is not simply a matter of the Lord possessing information about what was going to take place. It was rather a matter of the Lord determining what was going to take place and telling his children ahead of time. [pg 31]

Fixed future labels

Three verses have strong implications about a comprehensive fixed view of the future. These include;

• John 6:64 - ‘But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.’
• 3 Nephi 26:3 - ‘And he did expound all things, even from the beginning until the time that he should come in his glory–yea, even all things which should come upon the face of the earth, even until the elements should melt with fervent heat, and the earth should be wrapt together as a scroll, and the heavens and the earth should pass away;’
• 2 Nephi 27:10 - ‘But the words which are sealed he shall not deliver, neither shall he deliver the book. For the book shall be sealed by the power of God, and the revelation which was sealed shall be kept in the book until the own due time of the Lord, that they may come forth; for behold, they reveal all things from the foundation of the world unto the end thereof.’

As to John 6:64 I like the answer that Greg Boyd gave.

They base this upon a questionable interpretation of the phrase ‘from the first’ (arche). However, the phrase need not imply that Jesus knew who would betray him from a time before the person decided in their heart to betray him (let alone from all eternity, as the classical doctrine requires). It can more plausibly be taken to mean that Jesus knew who would betray him early on (cf. Phil. 4:15), either from the moment this person resolved to betray him, or from the time Jesus chose him to be a disciple.

In 3 Nephi 26, we are reading about the words that Jesus spoke to the Nephite people. The scriptures don’t make it clear how long Jesus was with the Nephites. However, it seems improbable that he revealed every action that every person would take from the beginning to the end. I think the Nephites would still be listening to the story at this moment. This verse most likely is referencing ‘all things for their glory’ as is said in D&C 130:7.

Finally, in 2 Nephi 27:10 we may have a similar idea as 3 Nephi 26. I don’t think the gold plates were that big. If by some way the sealed portion does contain ‘all things from the foundation of the world unto the end thereof’ and not ‘all things for their glory’ we will not know this ‘until the due time of the Lord’.

Conclusion

I know some may argue against a few of my interpretations. However, I was rather surprised that we could make it through all 93 verses and only 14 of those verses had any potential of an interpretation for fixed future omniscience. Of those 14 verses, only three verses had really strong statements. Finally, I feel comfortable with my understanding of how those three verses don’t have to imply a fully fixed and foreknown future.

A verse that is not included under omniscience in the topical guide that I recently found is in Job 23:8-10. It reads,

Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him: But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

I find it fascinating that Job clearly states that God knows the history (‘backward’), spatial (’left and right’), and heart (’the way that I take’). However, when Job talks about forward there is an implication that God’s omniscience is different in the future. I do know that God is always with us and the he is eternally working towards our salvation.

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