How is Jesus God if He Doesn’t Know All that the Father Knows?
A Jehovah’s Witness said this to me in a discussion: “If the Son doesn’t know what God knows, then the Son is not almighty God. Imposing ‘limitations’ on Jesus because of His humanity while insisting He was ‘fully God’ in ‘nature’ is a natural conflict. There is no scriptural support for this assumption that I can think of.” How would you respond to this?
Thanks for your question. Your friend is referring to Matthew 24:36 where Jesus says that only God the Father knows the day when heaven and earth will pass away and that He, the Son, doesn’t know. I can understand how someone could be perplexed by this. If Jesus is God, and God knows everything, why doesn’t Jesus know this? It seems that you and your friend both know that orthodox, traditional, evangelical Christianity teaches Jesus was fully God but took on the limitations of humanity when He was born in Bethlehem. This is a difficult thing to grasp, so I can understand his confusion. Where he errs is when he says there is no scriptural support for this.
There are numerous passages that speak of Christ’s deity and how He took on the limitations of humanity to be our Savior. The most important is probably Philippians 2:5-11.
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
As far as knowing for sure that Jesus is God, keep in mind Jesus used titles for Himself that only belonged to God (John 8:58). His enemies knew exactly what He was saying, that He was claiming to be equal with God, and that’s why they tried to stone Him (John 5:17-18). He took on prerogatives that belong to God alone, like forgiving sins (Luke 7:48) and judging mankind (John 5:22). He also accepted the worship of His followers, which was forbidden for any mere man or angel (Matt. 14:33). Paul made it clear Jesus is God in Col. 1:15-20. And don’t forget John 1:1-14 – the Word was with God and the Word WAS God. And then the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Every theological position has its own “difficult” verses that are hard to explain. Matthew 24:36 could be considered one of those for us who believe Jesus is God. The question you have to ask is “Which side’s explanation of its own difficult passages is more plausible?” If you start with the clear teaching of the verses above, Matthew 24:36 can be easily explained. On the flip side, I don’t see how a Jehovah’s Witness can start with the idea that Jesus isn’t God and then explain away all these verses I gave you.
[Editor’s Note: Jesus isn’t simply God, He is fully man and fully God (Chalcedonian Creed, 451AD). So, without any contradiction, we can affirm that Jesus had real limitations in His human nature (limited knowledge, limited power, changeability/growth/decay). At the same time, in His divine nature, none of those limitations apply. The mystery, then, is not about whether or how Jesus could be limited in his human knowledge or power, but rather about how his human and divine nature interact.]
Recommended Resources:
How to Interpret Your Bible by Dr. Frank Turek DVD Complete Series, INSTRUCTOR Study Guide, and STUDENT Study Guide
The Great Book of Romans by Dr. Frank Turek (Mp4, Mp3, DVD Complete series, STUDENT & INSTRUCTOR Study Guide, COMPLETE Instructor Set)
Jesus, You and the Essentials of Christianity by Frank Turek (INSTRUCTOR Study Guide), (STUDENT Study Guide), and (DVD)
Counter Culture Christian: Is the Bible True? by Frank Turek (Mp3), (Mp4), and (DVD)
Adam Lloyd Johnson has served as the president of Convincing Proof Ministries since 2023. Prior to that, Adam was a university campus missionary with Ratio Christi at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He has also taught classes for Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and has spent time living and teaching at Rhineland Theological Seminary in Wölmersen, Germany. Adam received his PhD in Theological Studies with an emphasis in Philosophy of Religion from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2020. Adam grew up in Nebraska and became a Christian as a teenager in 1994. He graduated from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and then worked in the field of actuarial science for ten years in Lincoln, Nebraska. While in his twenties, he went through a crisis of faith: are there good reasons and evidence to believe God exists and that the Bible is really from Him? His search for answers led him to apologetics and propelled him into ministry with a passion to serve others by equipping Christians and encouraging non-Christians to trust in Christ. Adam served as a Southern Baptist pastor for eight years (2009-2017) but stepped down from the pastorate to serve others full-time in the area of apologetics. He’s been married to his wife Kristin since 1996, and they have four children – Caroline, Will, Xander, and Ray. Adam has presented his work at the National Apologetics Conference, the Society of Christian Philosophers, the Evangelical Philosophical Society, the International Society of Christian Apologetics, the Canadian Centre for Scholarship and the Christian Faith, the American Academy of Religion, and the Evangelical Theological Society. His work has been published in the Journal of the International Society of Christian Apologetics, Philosophia Christi, the Westminster Theological Journal, the Canadian Journal for Scholarship and the Christian Faith, the journal Eleutheria, and the journal Religions. Adam has spoken at numerous churches and conferences in America and around the world – Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte, Boston, Orlando, Denver, San Antonio, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. He is the editor and co-author of the book A Debate on God and Morality: What is the Best Account of Objective Moral Values and Duties? published in 2020 by Routledge and co-authored with William Lane Craig, Erik Wielenberg, J. P. Moreland, and others. He is most recently the author of the book Divine Love Theory: How the Trinity is the Source and Foundation of Morality published by Kregel Academic in 2023.
Originally posted at: https://bit.ly/4dQF76S
