Andrew Sullivan bio-essay, the omniscience of God
It isn’t short, and it isn’t sweet.
But, if you want to read a fascinating bio-essay of Über-blogger Andrew Sullivan (anyone receiving 23 million hits a month certainly earns the right to that title), then head over to INTELLIGENT LIFE Magazine…
Andrew Sullivan’s story is inherently implausible. How did an HIV-positive gay Catholic conservative from the poky English town of East Grinstead end up as one of the most powerful writers in America? Today his blog, the Daily Dish, is regularly named as one of the most influential in America, and in November it reached 23m hits in the month. Politicians from Condoleezza Rice to Barack Obama himself have courted Sullivan in the hope of friendly posts. After he moved his blog to the website of the venerable Atlantic Monthly magazine, the traffic there rose by 30%.
Listen to the transparent theological reflection of an eight-year old Sullivan, saddened as he was by the truth of the omniscience of God:
Sullivan was also slowly realising he was gay—yet he had no vocabulary to understand it. He says he didn’t hear the word “gay” while at school. “It’s hard for people to understand now, but there was a total silence about homosexuality. It was unmentioned and unmentionable.” Aged eight, he asked his mother if it was true that God really knew everything about you. She said yes. “Then there’s no hope for me, Mum,” he replied, and returned, despondent, to his bedroom.
To the 8-year olds and 80-year olds out there who believe in the omniscience of God and yet turn away in despair, hear the words from a recent John Piper sermon, speaking on the omniscience of Jesus:
One Who Is Always Willing to Love You
Therefore, you always have a person who is willing to love you, knowing absolutely everything about you. The reason I say he is “willing to love you” is that Jesus has a special covenant love for those who trust him. He doesn’t love everybody in the same way. Listen to the way he prays in John 17:9, “I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.” In other words, Jesus intercedes for those whom the Father has given him. These are his friends. These are his disciples. These are his sheep. These are the children of God. These are those who are born again. These are those who believe. And are you in that number?
“To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). If you receive him, there will always be one person who will love you knowing everything, absolutely everything about you. You will say with the disciples in John 16:30, “We know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.”
I pray that this glimpse of the glory of the omniscience of the only Son of the Father will move you to admire him more than anyone, and love and trust him and follow him.
Scott Lamb pastored Providence Baptist Church in St. Louis for seven years, and now serves as Director of Research for the President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. 
Um, OK. Sullivan may be influential to people who enjoy the narcissistic ravings of a loony, anti-semitic purveyor of gay porn. For the rest of us though, not so much.
It always amazes me that mortal man can positively claim to know an ultimate truth.
It amazes me that an all-powerful and loving God, knowing humanity and it’s shortcomings would not reveal Himself to us. In fact, if you can’t accept that He did, than you probably don’t understand Christianity. The certainty argument is legitimate, but only in absence of divine revalation. It’s a great argument to justify whatever you want to toss in - homosexuality, immorality, pretty much any behavior you want.
If we cannot know God with certainty, the foundation of Christianity is lost, and we might as well just stop whatever it is we are doing or believe and just hope for whatever diety may or may not exist to pity us and maybe give us some type of positive afterlife. We can never know any truth and thus cannot know what is desired or required by said potentially existant diety.
fortunately none of this is the case.
His childhood was not a happy one from what I have read about him. Family hs a history of mental instability as well. To say this guy is unique is an understatement. But, hey, it takes all kinds to make the world go round…
Sullivan, does, however raise a serious question for the religious absolutists.
If, as more and more genetic evidence indicates, homosexuality is a trait some percentage of the population is born with, then what does the conservative church have to say about that? The only answer that seems to come is the one Mr. Sullivan is rebelling against: That homosexuals have no place at the table.
I struggle with this. I, too, have a homosexual child.
The omniscience and omnipotence of the Deity does not automatically imply that the Deity acts on these. Allow the Deity the freedom to choose when and how to express itself.
C’mon at eight years old(this is second -third grade)
Sullivan was also slowly realising he was gay—yet he had no vocabulary to understand it. He says he didn’t hear the word “gay” while at school. “It’s hard for people to understand now, but there was a total silence about homosexuality. It was unmentioned and unmentionable.” Aged eight, he asked his mother if it was true that God really knew everything about you. She said yes. “Then there’s no hope for me, Mum,” he replied, and returned, despondent, to his bedroom.
What were you slowly realizing about your sexuality at age of eight?Especially back then when sex was not so open.
Delusional!
Can girls be meechums too daddy?Or are we just parameechums?
“It’s hard for people to understand now, but there was a total silence about homosexuality. It was unmentioned and unmentionable.” Now, if you want to announce your homosexuality, just use nearly omniscient Google.
http://www.criminaljusticeusa.com/blog/2009/25-surprising-things-that-google-knows-about-you/
Scott, when I read of Andrew Sullivan’s despair as an 8-year old I can only feel sadness that he believed that if God knew everything about him God would inevitably reject him. God knows everything about all of us and yet God loves us anyway (doesn’t mean he doesn’t want us to change, but again I believe that goes for all of us).
But I’m not sure how the sermon you quote would help anyone who was feeling the same way. In fact, I think it might reinforce the sense of rejection or exclusion. Speaking only for myself, I don’t love Jesus because of his omniscience. And I don’t love him because of fear of what might happen to me if I’m not “in that number.” I love him because he loved me first. It has nothing to do with my goodness or worthiness, and everything to do with His.
hs,
I know absolutists get a bad name and sometimes rightfully so. But do you think God intended to leave us hanging? I you believe in the God of the Bible, then is it such a problem to understand that we haven’t been told everything, but we have been told what we need to know?
As to the homosexuality issue, would you agree that some pedophiles, serial killers, and various other have a natural propensity for the behavior? I don’t recall the Bible telling us that human nature (genetics is part of our nature) is necessarily good. In fact the flesh is often referred to negatively - after all we are in a cursed and fallen world. I don’t think we could look at genetic birth defects, cancers etc. as being “from God,” so why would we have to look at genetic behavior disorders as such? There is no premise that just because we are “made that way” that “that way” is good.
I won’t defend the general treatment of homosexuals by churches…there is much wrong with the lack of love and outreach.