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.
The Angel of the Lord
53-0604 §11
And if someone comes by and says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and then reads out of the Bible to you what His life was, and what He did... He didn't claim to be a great person. "He was a man of sorrow, acquainted with grief." He wasn't a raw, blusterous sort of a man. He was a quiet man, but yet... He had kindness, but yet, when it was time to speak, He could speak. He beat the thieves out of ... money-changers out of the temple, and so forth, and said, "It's written, 'My Father's ho...
Believest thou this?
51-1003 §56
Now, here comes Mary and Martha and their dark hours had come. Jesus had failed them seemingly. All hopes was gone, that ever... Everything was in the black. And the first thing you know, the darkest hour they had, then Jesus come along. He usually comes just at that dark hour, doesn't He? How wonderful. I remember the darkest hour I ever seen. When I was laying yonder in Mayo Brother's Hospital, the doctors looked at me and said, "There's not a earthly chance for you to ever be well, Reverend Branham." Two years a...
And when their eyes were opened, they knew Him
64-0416 §31
Now we find then, He said ... He rebuked them. Watch. "Fools, and slow of heart to understand all the scriptural signs, and things that took place of this age. Fools, slow of heart to understand all that the prophets has said that should take place in this day, all these signs that you see. The Bible said these signs were to take place in this day, and you see them taking place. And then are you foolish enough not to believe it?" And Him talking that straight to them, and yet they didn't recognize it! Talk about bl...
Sirs, we would see Jesus
60-0109 §55
That's how He made Hisself known to the Jews. That's how He made Hisself known to the Samaritans. Now, if He lets the Gentiles come into judgment without bringing them the same way He made Himself known there, then He's unjust. If we pass into the judgment, into glory, upon technical theology, He didn't treat us like He did them. He gave them His Messiahic sign, and many of them misunderstood it. Many of them understood it and embraced it. And Jesus said just before His coming this would come again, and it hasn't b...
The resurrection of Lazarus
53-1122 §81
I see Him as He comes into the city now, triumphed, went away, He's on His road back now. And here's little Martha, they had buried Lazarus. He had been dead four days, rotten already, or contamination, ever what you want to call it. My kids would know it better if I said rotten, so that's what it was, his body was rotten, so they just took it back, put him in a grave and covered him up, went on back. Four days was gone, all hopes was gone. The darkest hour that the little family ever seen. Then the first thing you...