If Jesus is God, why didn't he know when he would return?

Jesus states this directly: "concerning that day or hour no one knows... but only the Father"—including, in his own words, the Son himself. This is one of the clearest examples of Jesus expressing a real limitation during his earthly life.

Most Christian theologians explain this through what's often called Christ's voluntary self-limitation: taking on genuine human nature meant genuinely experiencing human limitations, including growing knowledge, rather than accessing unlimited divine knowledge at all times during his incarnate life. Luke says Jesus "increased in wisdom," language that only makes sense for someone with a real, developing human mind.

A more radical 19th-century proposal, called kenotic theology, argued the Son temporarily gave up certain divine attributes altogether during the incarnation, not merely limiting their use. Most theologians have found this harder to reconcile with full, uninterrupted deity, and it remains a minority position, though the underlying question—how divine and human knowledge relate in one person—continues to be discussed carefully rather than fully resolved.