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resting on the consciousness of His omnipotence. It is called necessary knowledge, because it is
not determined by an action of the divine will. It is also known as the knowledge of simple
intelligence, in view of the fact that it is purely an act of the divine intellect, without any
concurrent action of the divine will. The free knowledge of God is the knowledge which He has
of all things actual, that is, of things that existed in the past, that exist in the present, or that
will exist in the future. It is founded on God’s infinite knowledge of His own all-comprehensive
and unchangeable eternal purpose, and is called free knowledge, because it is determined by a
concurrent act of the will. It is also called scientia visionis, knowledge of vision.
b. Its extent.
The knowledge of God is not only perfect in kind, but also in its inclusiveness. It is
called omniscience, because it is all-comprehensive. In order to promote a proper estimate of
it, we may particularize as follows: God knows Himself and in Himself all things that come from
Him (internal knowledge). He knows all things as they actually come to pass, past, present, and
future, and knows them in their real relations. He knows the hidden essence of things, to which
the knowledge of man cannot penetrate. He sees not as man sees, who observes only the
outward manifestations of life, but penetrates to the depths of the human heart. Moreover, He
knows what is possible as well as what is actual; all things that might occur under certain
circumstances are present to His mind. The omniscience of God is clearly taught in several
passages of Scripture. He is perfect in knowledge, Job 37:16, looketh not on outward
appearance but on the heart, I Sam. 16:7; I Chron. 28:9,17; Ps. 139:1-4; Jer. 17:10, observes the
ways of men, Deut. 2:7; Job 23:10; 24:23; 31:4; Ps. 1:6; 119:168, knows the place of their
habitation, Ps. 33:13, and the days of their life, Ps. 37:18. This doctrine of the knowledge of God
must be maintained over against all pantheistic tendencies to represent God as the
unconscious ground of the phenomenal world, and of those who, like Marcion, Socinus and all
who believe in a finite God, ascribe to Him only a limited knowledge.
There is one question, however, that calls for special discussion. It concerns God’s
foreknowledge of the free actions of men, and therefore of conditional events. We can
understand how God can foreknow where necessity rules, but find it difficult to conceive of a
previous knowledge of actions which man freely originates. The difficulty of this problem led
some to deny the foreknowledge of free actions, and others to deny human freedom. It is
perfectly evident that Scripture teaches the divine foreknowledge of contingent events, I Sam.
23:10-13; II Kings 13:19; Ps. 81:14,15; Isa. 42:9; 48:18; Jer. 2:2,3; 38:17-20; Ezek. 3:6; Matt.
11:21. Moreover, it does not leave us in doubt as to the freedom of man. It certainly does not
permit the denial of either one of the terms of the problem. We are up against a problem here,
which we cannot fully solve, though it is possible to make an approach to a solution. God has
decreed all things, and has decreed them with their causes and conditions in the exact order in