Question: How is it possible that as an omniscient triune God only one part knows the hour of another part’s return? I’ve read up on the hypostatic nature of Jesus and his duality but i’m not sold on that being why he wouldn’t know. And that would seem silly as if he’s saying “I don’t even know” but “shhhhh, in a few weeks I will.” And what of the third part, the Spirit?


Answer: According to Philippians 2, God emptied himself to take on flesh as Jesus. Jesus’ identity was fully God, but God subjected himself to a fully human body. Therefore, Jesus had to take on human restraints or he wouldn’t have been truly human. The supernatural things he did were because he was anointed by the Holy Spirit, just like the prophets of old who did similar things that Jesus did.

That being said, omniscience is not compatible with humanity. If Jesus knew all things, he would not have been human in any sense of the word. God emptied himself of that level of knowledge in the flesh of Jesus.

Here’s some more sources on it:


Question: So, since Jesus rose from the dead fully human, remained on the earth 40 days in flesh and blood, and physically ascended to heaven; do we assume Jesus is still fully man and fully God in the heavenly realm? Does he still have those restraints?


Answer: Resurrected Jesus is a new kind of human. If you look at the things he did after he was resurrected, he operates in both human and angelic ways. Paul tries to flesh out what his new physical/spiritual hybrid of a body is like in 1 Corinthians 15. That being said, the resurrected Jesus has a glorified human body—he’s something beyond humanity as we currently know it.

As to if he now has put off those restraints in Heaven, I don’t know. I assume he doesn’t need the restraints anymore. The human problem of sin had to be dealt with by a human being, which God did in the human form of Jesus. Now that he’s dealt with that, I don’t see any theological reason for him to withhold omniscience from himself.

But Revelation does at one point picture Jesus as trying to get the Father’s attention to ask if it’s time to head back to earth. Maybe that’s just good Trinitarian storytelling on John’s part. Or maybe that’s the actual truth of how things are, in which case I suppose God still withholds some information from himself.

Jesus’ return date is precious information. Had God told everyone very clearly what he was going to do with Jesus and the cross, Satan and his demons would have never tried to get Jesus crucified (1 Corinthians 2). Satan fell right into a bait-and-switch kind of trap. This is why prophecy is often guarded and cryptic. You don’t just spell everything out when you know the enemy is reading your plans.

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