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.
Then Jesus came and called
64-0417 §48
But you know God has a way of forcing the issue sometimes to make you do it. So you know, he had a little girl---his only child. And she got real sick, and he called the doctor. And the doctor done all he could do, and the little kid got sicker and sicker. Now the doctor had called him out and said, "Jairus, I hate to tell you this, Doctor, or Reverend Jairus, but you know what? That baby's going to die. It's just got about a hour more to live." I can imagine all, hysterically, the people standing around, weeping....
The Seal of God and the Mark of the Beast, part 2
61-0217 §51
Notice. Harden their heart. Now, when was there ever a complete global strife after that time? Was the first World War. All of the armies, the nations, were gathering into one [blank spot]... They was riding on the decline of the first World War. Nobody knows today whoever made a issue of peace. Kaiser Wilhelm said he didn't do it. No general said he didn't do it. But notice how strange it was. It was on November the eleventh, at eleven o'clock in the day---the eleventh day of the month, eleventh month in the year,...
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever
55-0603 §13
Now, notice closely as we search reverently. Now, we'll have to see what He did, and the life He lived, and the things He taught. And what He taught, He handed down to the disciples. And after about two rounds of them, then Jude sent back and said, "Now, wait a minute; you're getting off the line. Let's go back and contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints at the beginning," way back when they first started. They were getting off the beaten path. So, if we can see what they had at the beginning, t...
We would see Jesus
62-0727 §45
So, when John came, they asked him. They said, "Art thou that prophet?" He said, "I am not. But he comes after me. I'm not worthy to bear the latch on his shoes. He's coming after me. I am not that prophet, but he will come after me. And I say unto you that he is among you now, and you don't know it." And He was. Said, "There's one standing among you right now who you know not. He is the one." He was so sure He was living in that day just be ... he knowed his job was to announce the Messiah. And when he was announc...
Why I'm against organized religion
62-1111E §21
If He's God at all He has to be infinite. And if He's infinite, He cannot be infinite without being omnipotent. He cannot be omnipotent without being omnipresent. He can't be omnipresent without being omniscient. So, you see, all that makes Him God. So, He knowed the end from the beginning. He knowed who would and who would not, and He knowed there was many who would, so He sent Christ to make an atonement for those who would come. Now, nothing we do can have anything to do with it. Jesus said, "All the Father has...