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055 - Lv That God Understands All Things At The Same Instant · Summa Contra Gentiles, First Book (On God)

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  Speaker 1: Chapter fifty five of Suma Contragentilees, First Book on God
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  Speaker 1: by Saint Thomas aquinas translated by the Fathers of the
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  Speaker 1: English Dominican Province. This LibriVox recording is in the public
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  Speaker 1: domain chapter fifty five that God understands all things at
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  Speaker 1: the same instant. From the foregoing, it is also made
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  Speaker 1: evident that God understands all things at the same instant.
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  Speaker 1: For our intellect is unable actually to understand several things simultaneously,
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  Speaker 1: because since the intellect in act is the thing understood
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  Speaker 1: in act, if it were to understand actually several things
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  Speaker 1: at the same time, it would follow that the intellect
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  Speaker 1: is simultaneously several things according to one genus, which is impossible.
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  Speaker 1: And I say according to one genus, because nothing hinders
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  Speaker 1: the same subject receiving different forms of different genera, even
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  Speaker 1: as the one body receives shape and color. Now, the
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  Speaker 1: intelligible species by which the intellect is informed, with the
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  Speaker 1: result that the things themselves are actually understood, are all
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  Speaker 1: of one genus, for they have one essential nature, although
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  Speaker 1: the things whereof they are the species do not agree
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  Speaker 1: in one essential nature. Wherefore neither are they contrary to
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  Speaker 1: one another, as are the things outside the mind. Hence,
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  Speaker 1: it is that when we consider a certain number of
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  Speaker 1: things in any way united together, we understand them at
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  Speaker 1: the same time. For we understand a continuous whole simultaneously
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  Speaker 1: and not part by part. And in like manner, we
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  Speaker 1: understand a proposition and not the subject first and the
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  Speaker 1: predicate afterwards, because we know all the parts by one
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  Speaker 1: species of the whole. From this we may gather that
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  Speaker 1: whatever number of things are known by one species, they
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  Speaker 1: can be understood simultaneously. Now all that God knows he
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  Speaker 1: knows by one species, which is his essence. Therefore he
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  Speaker 1: can understand all things simultaneously. Again, the cognitive power does
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  Speaker 1: not know a thing except the intention be there. Wherefore,
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  Speaker 1: at times we do not actually imagine the phantasms preserved
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  Speaker 1: in the organ, because the intention is not directed there too,
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  Speaker 1: for the appetite moves the other powers to act involuntary agents. Hence,
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  Speaker 1: we do not consider simultaneously a number of things if
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  Speaker 1: the intention be not directed to them simultaneously, And those
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  Speaker 1: things that must needs come under one intention must be
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  Speaker 1: understood simultaneously. Since he who considers the comparison between two
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  Speaker 1: things direc his intentions simultaneously to both, and considers both
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  Speaker 1: at the same time. Now, all those things that are
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  Speaker 1: in the divine knowledge must come under one intention. For
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  Speaker 1: God intends to see his essence perfectly, and this is
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  Speaker 1: to see it according to its whole power, under which
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  Speaker 1: all things are comprised. Therefore, God, in seeing his essence,
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  Speaker 1: sees all things simultaneously. Moreover, the intellect of one who
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  Speaker 1: considers many things in succession cannot possibly have only one operation,
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  Speaker 1: for since operations differ according to their objects, the operation
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  Speaker 1: whereby the intellect considers the first thing must needs be
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  Speaker 1: distinct from that whereby it considers the second. But the
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  Speaker 1: divine intellect has only one operation, which is its essence,
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  Speaker 1: as proved above. Therefore it can considers all that it knows,
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  Speaker 1: not simultaneously, but successively. Further, succession is inconceivable apart from
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  Speaker 1: time and time, apart from movement, since time is the
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  Speaker 1: measure of movement according to before or after. Now, no
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  Speaker 1: movement is possible in God, as may be gathered from
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  Speaker 1: what has been said above. Therefore, in God's thought there
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  Speaker 1: is no succession, and consequently, whatever he knows he considers simultaneously. Again,
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  Speaker 1: God's act of understanding is his very being, as shown above.
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  Speaker 1: Now there is no before and after in the divine being,
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  Speaker 1: but it is all simultaneously, as proved above. Therefore, neither
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  Speaker 1: is there before and after in God's thought, but he
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  Speaker 1: understands all things simultaneously. Moreover, every intellect that understands one
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  Speaker 1: thing after another is at one time understanding potentially, and
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  Speaker 1: at another time actually, For while it understands the first thing, actually,
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  Speaker 1: it understands the second potentially. But the divine intellect is
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  Speaker 1: never in potentiality, but is always understanding actually. Therefore it
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  Speaker 1: understands things, not successively, but altogether simultaneously. Holy writ bears
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  Speaker 1: witness to this truth, for it is said in James
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  Speaker 1: Chapter one, verse seventeen, that with God there is no
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  Speaker 1: change nor shadow of alteration. End of Chapter fifty five,
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  Speaker 1: read by Michael Shane, Craig, Lambert Elsie