How Can Jesus Be All-knowing If He Said He Didn't Know the Day or Hour?
1) Direct answer
Jesus is all‑knowing as God, but when He said He didn’t know the day or hour, He was speaking from the position of the Son—the servant role in flesh—where that knowledge was veiled and not given to be revealed through that office.
2) Scriptural explanation
- The Bible says, “Of that day and that hour knoweth no man… neither the Son, but the Father” (Mark 13:32). That’s Jesus speaking as the Son.
- Yet the same Scripture declares, “God was manifested in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16), and “in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). So the One in Him—the Father—knew all things.
- Jesus said, “The Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works” (John 14:10). The indwelling Father is the all‑knowing God.
- The disciples confessed to Jesus, “Now are we sure that Thou knowest all things” (John 16:30); and Peter said, “Lord, Thou knowest all things” (John 21:17). So He is not ignorant in His Godhead.
- As the Son, He took the form of a servant and humbled Himself (Philippians 2:7-8), grew in wisdom (Luke 2:52), hungered, slept, and wept. That shows the true human vessel.
- After the resurrection He said, “All power is given unto Me” (Matthew 28:18), and He told them, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power” (Acts 1:7). The times are held in the Father’s authority—God’s own counsel.
3) Simple clarifying logic
- There is one God. He was above us as Father, came among us in a body as the Son, and now dwells in us as the Holy Spirit. It’s not three Gods, and it’s not three persons—it’s one God revealing Himself in different offices.
- As man, Jesus could say, “I thirst,” and sleep in the boat; as God, He stilled the storm. As man, He wept at Lazarus’ tomb; as God, He called Lazarus out by name. So when He said the Son didn’t know that day and hour, He spoke from the servant position where that mystery was not to be made known.
- If He were merely a limited second person, how could Scripture say He “knows all things”? The answer is simple: the body is the Son; the indwelling is God. The Father in Him knew; the Son, as the obedient servant, did not reveal it.
Short reinforcement
No contradiction—just the mystery of God veiled in flesh. The same Jesus is truly man and truly God manifested: as the Son He submitted; as God He is all‑knowing.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Christ is the mystery of God revealed
63-0728 §184
. I've heard infidels one time told me that Jesus never did say He was the Son of God. He sure did. He certainly did. You just don't know your Bible. What did He say to the woman at the well? See? What did He tell her? "I know Messiah cometh, and when He comes He'll do these things." He said, "I am He that speaks to you"---and to Paul also and different ones. Notice. But now, the church has the preeminence.
We would see Jesus
60-0708 §47
Now Philip... Nathanael was a well trained scholar. So he said, "Rabbi (which means "teacher"), when did You know me? How did you know that I was a man with no guile? [I'd say today, "a honest, good man."] How did you know it?" He said, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the tree, I saw you." That was Jesus yesterday. If He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, that's Jesus today. You know what Philip said when He... I mean, Nathanael said when He did this? He said, "Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God....
Recognizing your day and its message
64-0726M §20
The time of the Gentiles has been in this Pentecostal feast. The trumpets, under---all of them was sounded under the sixth seal. And we picked it up last Sunday under the feast of the trumpets, if you all want to get it. What was it to do? To rush the Jews from all parts of the world back into their homeland. It must be there. And the opening of the seals under the sixth seal and under ... the seven trumpets sounded in the sixth seal. Now, the seventh angel's message is to open the mystery of the seals, calling the...
Sir, we would see Jesus
63-1112 §58
Now we find out, that when Jesus was speaking, and He recognized, this there were those ... three there. There were those who standing there, who had to answer to their congregation. There were those there who had to answer to their denominations, whether Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodian, whatever they might be. And so they stood there, and they said, "This man does that by Beelzebub. He is a fortune-teller," in other words. "He is a telepathist. He reads their mind." "Jesus perceiving their thoughts." They didn't ha...
Questions and Answers
62-0527 §52
A man come to me the other day and made me feel real bad. (I thought, "Surely I haven't been that loose in teaching," see.) He said, "Brother Branham, in about so many days I'm supposed to be operated on, next fifteen, twenty days." Said, "Do you think Jesus will be here? I won't even have to have that operation," see. You see, you misunderstand it. Don't do that! See, don't do that. Jesus may not come for another five thousand years. I don't know. He may be here yet tonight. He may come tomorrow. I don't know when...