170 lines
6.6 KiB
Plaintext
170 lines
6.6 KiB
Plaintext
Omniscient
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World Scripture
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OMNISCIENT
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Continuing with passages on God's sovereignty over human affairs, this section
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contains teachings on God's total knowledge of human thoughts and actions.
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Nothing is hidden from God. There is no place to hide from Him. Hence the
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believer should be sincere in his thoughts, and he can have confidence in the
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truthfulness of God's justice. We do not deal here with the question of divine
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foreknowledge: see Predestination, pp. 689-93. In Buddhism, Jainism, and many
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schools of Hinduism, the functions of omniscience and omnipotence to judge
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human affairs are not fulfilled through God's agency, but rather through the
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omnipresent workings of karma: see Divine Justice, pp. 183-91.
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Our Lord! Lo! You know that which we hide and that which we proclaim. Nothing
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in the earth or in heaven is hidden from God.
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1. Islam. Qur'an 14.38
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You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
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You discern my thoughts from afar.
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You search out my path and my lying down,
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and You are acquainted with all my ways.
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2. Judaism and Christianity. Bible, Psalm 139.2-3
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Mark well three things and you will not fall into the clutches of sin: know
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what is above you--an eye that sees, an ear that hears, and all your actions
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recorded in the book.
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3. Judaism. Mishnah, Abot 2.1
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To God belong the East and the West;
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whithersoever you turn, there is the Face of God;
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God is All-embracing, All-knowing.
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4. Islam. Qur'an 2.115
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- - - - - - - - - - -
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Qur'an 14.38: Cf. Qur'an 2.284, p. 189; 26.220, p. 752. On angels as God's
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watchers, see Qur'an 13.10-11, p. 190. Abot 2.1: Cf. Abot 3.20, p. 187. Qur'an
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2.115: This has been interpreted by Muslims to mean that God appears to people
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of every culture and religion, east and west. God, who is one Unity (tawhid),
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embraces every one of his creatures. Cf. Amos 9.2-4, p. 187.
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- - - - - - - - - - -
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For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword,
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piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and
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discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before Him no
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creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom
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we have to do.
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5. Christianity. Bible, Hebrews 4.12-13
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Surely God--He has knowledge of the Hour;
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He sends down the rain; He knows what is in the wombs.
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No soul knows what it shall earn tomorrow, and
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no soul knows in what land it shall die.
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Surely God is All-knowing, All-aware.
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6. Islam. Qur'an 31.34
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The eyes are not prevented [from seeing] by a hedge; God has nothing hid from
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him.
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7. African Traditional Religions. Ovambo Proverb (Angola)
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You who dive down as if under water to steal,
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Though no earthly king may have seen you,
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The King of heaven sees.
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8. African Traditional Religions. Yoruba Proverb (Nigeria)
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In the Book of Songs it is said,
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In your secret chamber even you are judged;
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See you do nothing to blush for,
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Though but the ceiling looks down upon you.
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Therefore the moral man, even when he is not doing anything, is serious; and,
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even when he does not speak, is truthful.
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9. Confucianism. Doctrine of the Mean 33
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See you not that God knows all that is in the heavens and on earth? There is
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not a secret consultation between three unless He is their fourth, nor between
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five unless He is their sixth, nor between fewer or more unless He is in their
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midst, wheresoever they be.
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10. Islam. Qur'an 58.7
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Hebrews 4.12-13: For a similar passage in the Hebrew Bible, see 1 Samuel 16.7;
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cf. Jeremiah 17.10, p. 189. Doctrine of the Mean 33: Cf. Great Learning 6.1-4,
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p. 724. Qur'an 58.7: Cf. Matthew 18.20, p. 271, where a similar image is used
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to make a different point.
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- - - - - - - - - - -
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The great Ruler of all these worlds,
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beholds as if from near at hand
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the man who thinks he acts by stealth:
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the Gods know all this of him.
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When one stands or walks or moves in secret,
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or goes to his lying down or uprising,
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when two sitting together take secret counsel,
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King Varuna knows, being there the Third.
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This earth belongs to Varuna, the King,
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and the heavens, whose ends are far apart.
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Both the oceans are the loins of Varuna,
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and He is merged within the small water drop.
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If one will go away beyond the heavens,
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still he cannot escape King Varuna;
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his envoys move about here from the heavens,
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and, thousand-eyed, they look upon the earth.
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King Varuna observes all that which lies
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between heaven and earth and beyond them;
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the twinklings of men's eyes have been counted by him;
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as a dicer the dice, he measures everything.
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These fatal snares of thine, O Varuna,
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that stand stretched seven by seven-and-threefold,
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let all these catch up the man who tells a lie,
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but pass by one who speaks the truth.
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With a hundred nooses bind him, Varuna,
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let him not who lies escape thee, Looker on men!
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Let the mean fellow sit stretching his belly
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like a cask of which the bands have been cut.
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Varuna is that which is the warp,
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Varuna is that which is the woof,
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Varuna is of our own land, he is of foreign lands.
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Varuna is transcendent, he is immanent.
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11. Hinduism. Atharva Veda 4.16.1-8
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The sun shines and sends its burning rays down upon us,
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The moon rises in its glory.
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Rain will come and again the sun will shine,
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And over it all passes the eyes of God.
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Nothing is hidden from Him.
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Whether you be in your home, whether you be on the water,
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Whether you rest in the shade of a tree in the open,
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Here is your Master.
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Did you think because you were more powerful than some poor orphan,
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You could covet his wealth and deceive him,
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Saying to yourself, "I cannot be seen"?
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So then remember that you are always in the presence of God.
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Not today, not today, not today!
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But some day He will give you your just reward
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For thinking in your heart
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That you have but cheated a slave, an orphan.
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12. African Traditional Religion. Yoruba Song (Nigeria)
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Atharva Veda 4.16: Varuna is the Vedic god who represents the divine attribute
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of justice, weighing sins and also forgiving them. Etymologically, he is
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related to Zoroastrian Ahura Mazda. Cf. Amos 9.2-4, p. 187. Yoruba Song: On
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the theme of delayed recompense, see Qur'an 3.176-78, Ecclesiastes 8.10-12, p.
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186.
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- - - - - - - - - -
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