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.
It wasn't so from the beginning
60-0306 §11
God being infinite, He knew all things. Before the world was ever created, He knowed every fly, every gnat, every time he'd ever bat his eye, and how much tallow he had, before the world ever started. That's infinite. He knowed the end from the beginning, so that makes Him infinite. He knows. So then He's omnipresent by knowing all things what's going on. Now, whatever He says, it is forever the truth. If God is ever called on the scene to make a decision, and He makes that decision, it has to be forever the same w...
And when their eyes were opened, they knew Him
64-0416 §63
Now, if I let you out on time I wouldn't have time to call a prayer line up here, although I think you got prayer cards. You don't need to be up here. God's just as great out there as He is anywhere. You believe He's omnipresent? Certainly He is. He's omnipresent because He's omniscient. Now He knows [unclear word] at the end, because ... He being omniscient, He knows all things. So therefore, He's everywhere by being omniscient. Just like the word "predestinate." It's a bad word. I used to feel it going, and caugh...
Hear ye Him
56-1215 §15
And Christ promised that He would meet on the earth wherever two or three were gathered together. He promised it. Now, sometimes He meets and counsels with ... one time with five hundred. Another time after His resurrection, He met with seventy. Another time with twelve. Another time with three. Another time with one. Wherever men are gathered together, Christ promised to meet with them. He's omnipresent, everywhere, covers all space. He's omnipresent, omniscient, and He's omnipotent, all wisdom, all power, all pla...
Then Jesus came and called
64-0417 §20
So then the man that they had confidence in had flatly turned them down, and would not do them a favor. And they sent the second time, and He still turned them down; and let the man die, and be embalmed, and put in the grave and buried. Now you talk about a dark hour! That was the darkest hour that little home had ever seen. And then Jesus come along. That's Him. Them in that dark hour---see, He lets it happen sometimes---the darkest of hour. Then Jesus come along. His presence always brings new hopes. This may be...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 7:E-69
Now where is this book located? Luke 10:17-24, "And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject to us through Thy Name. And He said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. In that hour J...