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.
Looking for Jesus
54-0228E §42
But Jesus perceived their thoughts. He knew what... He knew where there was a fish there, had a coin in his mouth, to pay some tribute. Is that right? He knowed where two mules was hitched, where two ways... Is that right? And He had need to go by... Oh, many places, just where He knew, foreknew... God showed Him a vision on what was going on. And He foretold just exactly, and everything He said come to pass, just the way He said it. And in the lines, He knew the people. He knew their condition. But He could only h...
Seals 9: Questions and Answers on the Seals
63-0324M §87
He knowed every breath that you'd breathe and how deep it would go in your lungs. That's infinite. Now, if He's infinite, that makes Him omniscient. Is that right? And if He's omniscient, that makes Him omnipresent because He knows just exactly the minute, hour, time to the split instant of 55,000th of a second to when it's going to happen. See? Get the idea now? Then He knows all things. And that's the reason he has all power, knows all things, and can do all things. Now, let's see. Now, and all the children that...
We would see Jesus
58-0612 §27
They never knew Elisha, or they wouldn't have sent those little kids behind him when Elisha ... saying, "Old bald head, why didn't you go up?" And Elisha turned and cursed those children. Two she bears killed forty-two children. They didn't know John the Baptist. Even his disciples didn't know him, till after he was beheaded. They said to Jesus, "Why does the Scribes say that Elias must first come?" Jesus said, "He's already come and you didn't know him." No one knew, hardly, but just a very few, that Jesus was the...
Hebrews, Chapter 7, part 1
57-0915E §66
If you'd take it over to like in Jeremiah 1:4, God said, "I knew you before you was even formed in your mother's womb. And I sanctified you and ordained you a prophet to the nations." Then what can you say that you did? What can I say that I did? It's God that showeth mercy. God knew us before the foundation of the world. He's not willing that any should perish. Certainly not. But if He's God, He knowed who would be saved and who wouldn't be saved, or He didn't know anything. If He didn't know... If he didn't know...
Sir, we would see Jesus
63-1112 §65
Why? It had been prophesied that Jesus would do this very thing. When He told the Jews, He said, "Well, which one of you can condemn Me? Which one of you can accuse Me of sin?" Sin is "unbelief." He said, "Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are the ones that testify of Me." They should have knowed it. They thought they knowed it; but, they didn't, they'd have knowed He was the Word right there. He could discern the very thoughts in their hearts, and so forth, and do just ex...