God asked Cain, “Where is your brother?” The passage makes it obvious that God asked the question not because he did not know the answer and needed a man to tell him. This is because when Cain denied that he knew, God revealed that he already knew what happened, that Cain had killed Abel. He said, “What have you done?” But again, he was not requesting information. It was a rhetorical question, for he immediately added, “Your brother’s blood cries out to me.”

From this we derive two principles that should control our thinking in theology and in biblical interpretation:

First, it is a nonnegotiable Christian dogma that God knows all things. We could add that God knows all things because he causes all things, including human thoughts and deeds, but it is possible to put that aside for now and focus on his knowledge. God knows the truth about all things, and he cannot be deceived. Cain’s answer was contrary to the truth, but that did not affect God’s knowledge. He knew the truth and saw through Cain’s deception.

Second, it is established that when God asks a question, it never means that he does not know the answer, and therefore, when he asks a question, it must be for a purpose other than to obtain information. In fact, our passage stresses God’s knowledge, since he knew the truth clearly even in the face of Cain’s deception. Although God already knew what happened, instead of immediately confronting Cain, he produced an occasion or a context in which he could discuss it with the man.

Thus when God asks a question, or when he speaks in a manner as if he is less than omnipotent and omniscient, it is not due to any deficiency in himself, but it is for the purpose of effecting interactions with his creatures in a way that is intelligible and meaningful for them.

There are those who think that such interactions are possible only if God were limited in power and knowledge, and they seize upon passages where God acts and speaks in a manner that permits his creatures to respond. However, given the previous considerations, this doctrine is impossible, but it must be condemned as heresy and blasphemy.

Interactions that are intelligible and meaningful to the creatures does not depend on any impotence or ignorance in God, but it depends on what some would call his condescension. A man cannot function as if he is deity; his mind cannot embrace or communicate all knowledge in an instant. If God and man are to interact with each other, God would have to communicate in a way that man can follow, understand, and respond, and this is what God has done throughout history, and in a public and permanent form, in the Bible.

Contrary to what some heretics have taught, this does not mean that God communicates with man solely in terms of analogies, or that man has only an analogy of information about God’s being and God’s mind. There is no biblical basis for the strange doctrine. God’s condescension does not alter the nature or status of the information communicated – it is merely a different way to communicate.

John wrote that we shall know as we are known. But unless we become deified in heaven, and we will not, God will still have to condescend when he communicates with us, so that if we only have an analogy of the truth now, we shall have only an analogy of the truth forever. This contradicts John as well as the whole testimony of Scripture. Rather, if we shall remain human, and if we shall know as we are known, it means that we can possess univocal knowledge about God even now. The difference is only in the degree or amount of knowledge. Paul affirms as much when he wrote, “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” We have an abundance of knowledge about God now, and we shall have even more knowledge in the future, so much so that it can be said that we shall know then as we are known now.

All of this amounts to a refutation of the traditional doctrine of the incomprehensibility of God, which represents God as a mystery, even though we are made in his image, and even though he has revealed and explained himself. Ironically, the doctrine has been used as a test of orthodoxy, when the traditional formulation is itself a rejection of God and of Scripture, and an example of heresy and blasphemy. Christians should not be embarrassed to oppose it, and to overthrow those who assert it. Do not be afraid of the ecclesiastical powers. No theologian, seminary, or denomination, and no council or confession or church court, or any other human authority, has the right to usurp the power of Christ and force you to believe false doctrine. Throw off the yoke and fight back.

When God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, even though he said, “now I know” the patriarch’s obedience, it was to maintain the interaction for the benefit of the man, and not because the omniscient God discovered something new. As the Lord stopped the sacrifice, a ram was already prepared, caught by its horns in the thicket. He knew the man’s heart all along, but the command produced the occasion for Abraham to demonstrate his obedience, for God to renew and add to his promises, and for revelation to be recorded and interpreted, since Abraham’s faith was a metaphor for belief in the resurrection.

When God showed Ezekiel a valley of dry bones and asked, “Can these bones live?” he was not requesting input that he needed. The prophet wisely answered, “Lord, you know.” And of course the Lord knew, for he himself would cause the bones to arise and flesh to come on them. Likewise, when Jesus asked Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” the Bible explained, “He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.”

Now the Lord Jesus tests all men by the Christian message, for he sends us to ask on his behalf, “Who do you say that I am?” He asks this not because he does not know what people think – he is the good shepherd, and calls his own sheep by name. Rather, the divine shepherd condescends and interacts with men. By their reaction to the gospel, they are revealed to be either the children of heaven or the children of hell. Those who believe with their hearts and confess with their mouths that Jesus Christ is Lord shall be saved, and those who do not shall be damned.

There are those who, like Cain, attempt to deceive him, calling him, “Lord, Lord,” although their hearts are far from him. But even as he asks men whether they would repent and believe the gospel, he already knows their hearts, and he will say to the imposters, “Why do you call me Lord, but refuse to do what I say? Surely I never knew you!” And he will cast them out into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.