 Open Theism
Does God Know What Is Going On?In April, Art McCafferty (RMBM pastor in Lincoln) and I attended the superb modular class at Montana Bible College taught by Dr. Bruce Ware, leading spokesman challenging the theological concepts of Open Theism. What a stimulating time it was to be with Art and discuss God’s sovereignty and divine foreknowledge while observing the Fox News coverage of Iraqi statues of Saddam Hussein being pulled down. Open theism includes the view that God does not perfectly know the future. Omniscience is redefined to apply to God’s perfect knowledge of the past and the present, but not the future. This is seen as a way to reconcile two seemingly contradictory concepts. On the one hand man has a free will, but on the other that God knows each and every choice we will make ahead of time. It is alleged that holding these two convictions equally leaves us as robots. Are the present disagreements over open theism a "tempest in a teapot"? Open theists claim to hold to a doctrine of inerrant Scripture. But ponder some of the consequences of holding this view, including the belief that God’s foreknowledge is only partial. First, what does this view suggest about the validity of our historic view of biblical inspiration? God determined what would be written in the Bible, exactly what He wanted said. Yet this in no way distorted or abolished the personality, writing style, intention, and free will of the human authors in what they wrote. Secondly, what implications does a belief in God’s only partial knowledge of the future have for the whole field of biblical prophecy? Our historic, orthodox belief is pinned on God accurately predicting what will happen in the future. Is it really true that God planned before the creation of the world to send Jesus as the sacrifice for our sins? Peter preached to the Jews, "This man [Jesus] was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge, and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross." (Acts 2:23, NIV). Does God’s foreknowledge absolve any of the guilt of those who put Jesus to death? In my view, open theists have created far more problems than they have solved. Their strenuous efforts conflict when they defend man’s completely free will yet portray a God Who is very personally involved in our everyday lives. For my part I will continue to believe that "He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight" (Eph 1:4, NIV), and with the Psalmist that "All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be"(139:16, NIV). | 