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.
Jesus of Nazareth passeth by
58-0524 §44
And when he come in the presence of Jesus, perhaps Nathanael told him, said now ... or, Philip told him on the road around, said, "When you come in His presence, you remember that old fisherman? He told him who he was and who his father was. Why, when you come in His presence, He will probably tell you who you are." "Nonsense," said the other one, "I don't believe it." And when he got into the presence of Jesus, Jesus said, "Behold an Israelite in whom there's no guile." It astonished him; he said, "Rabbi (or Teach...
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever
53-0506 §23
Now, notice. Then, the first thing you know when He noticed him and seen him coming, it astonished the man. Now, if you'll notice what a strange thing it was when all those Hebrews then, when they seen all those... Remember: staunch men, renowned men, holy men, scholars of the Bible. You couldn't lay one finger on their life and say they wasn't holy. They kept the commandments of God just as true as could be kept, see. They were holy. They didn't do one thing, day nor night. Eat, sleep, and read the Scriptures. The...
We would see Jesus
60-0708 §46
Well, he comes on up till he gets in the presence of the Lord Jesus. No doubt as soon as he heard Him speak, that man spoke different from any man he had ever heard. He spoke with authority; He knowed what He was talking about. So He said to ... standing, speaking, or in the prayer line, or whatever position He was in when Philip and Nathanael came up. Jesus turned His eyes and looked out into the congregation, or into the line, wherever it was, and said, "Behold, an Israelite in whom there is no guile." Well, some...
The second miracle
51-0722E §15
Now, we, all we, us believe that. I sent a little thing with it; it tells you how you get to your pastor and get him to come. And confess your faults and get rid of everything, and then lay it on there. There's nothing in the way; God will do it. Don't you believe that? Now, God be with you. And thank you again, from the pastors to the co-workers, the strangers in our gates, the custodians here at the auditorium, all the ushers, you've all been wonderful, and may God's richest of blessings be upon you all. Pray for...
At Thy Word
51-0506E §4
Then the next thing He did, was to just speak a Word. The man was trying to get Him to come pray for someone. He said, "Go your way; thy son liveth." And the next day, his father come to the place where he--his home in his own country, and he met one of his servants. And he said, "Thy son liveth." He said, "What time did he begin to amend?" He said, "About a certain hour yesterday." And Jesus... Or the man knew that that was the hour that Jesus said, "Thy son liveth." And himself believed. He believed what Jesus sa...