Open Theism must understand the Omni's of God
Open Theism must understand the Omni's of God
God, logically and necessarily is outside of time, and I will prove it logically.
If God isn't constrained by time unidirectionally, as the Open Theist claims He is, the foundation of Open Theology, Mormonism, and a good many other philosophies or theologies, crumbles.
I am not attempting to trample anyone's theology, but it will do so. Reader beware.
Most of us understand that something or someone has always had to exist, eternally.
What is eternal, cannot be contained in temporal. Scripture says the heavens are His throne, the earth His footstool, that He is from eternity to eternity, that absolutely not one thing that is or can be made, is capable of existing without Him.
God is eternal (like a line), no analogy can describe this because everything but our life in Him (like a ray), is finite, can be measured, has limitation(like a segment).
God is immeasurable, thus this analogy will only help one apprehend why God necessarily is not experiencing time as we do.
Finite analogy of the infinite: If a jar and all contents were analogous of God, and even by Open View description, all inside the jar is known by God. There literally can be nothing new in the jar. There is no room and anything added would necessarily come from outside the jar, thus God would be a product of a larger God, if the OV were correct.
Open Theists claim that God experiences time unidirectional. They have to believe this or the whole framework of Open Theism falls. Why? Because God would be Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent. The Open Theist claims that the rest of us are influenced by Greek philosophy. This is incorrect: we are 'logical' as the Greeks were 'logical' rather. It is a strawman. My only reason for bringing it up, is to show that logic works, no matter who thinks logically. Even if they are Greeks.
Proof that God is outside of time by analogy and logic:
Time must move unidirectionally. There is no such thing as going back in time. Open Theism agrees with this and in fact, it is their logical hallmark that suggests God must move unidirectionally move through time too. "What happened 'before' God created?" they ask. "Before" is a 'created' and limited question imposed on the question, however.
Time and the conception of time is 1) physically constrained 2) a physical perception 3) a random variable between two points 4) forces finite concepts upon the infinite and an infinite God.
In order for anyone to tell you the time, time has to have passed, else "it would always be noon." What changes from noon to 2 PM? Physical movement and that alone. The perception and framework of time has to do with mathematic numerals (something to measure), and is nearly the same as our concept of lines, segments, and rays.
Time is a segment or series of limited segments. No time A, No time B nor duration.
<____________________________> Line bi-durative infinite
.____________________________> Ray finite to durative infinite
.____________________________. Segment finite with some durative properties
God has no beginning. It is an accepted truth because 1) scriptures says so 2) obvious logical sense says so 3) all of Christendom agrees
A nonbeginning logically is at least bi-durative. Clocks cannot go back in time. Only reference points can be understood from what is past. We cannot go back there, but it requires a time-stamp/date. God has none. He CANNOT be merely unidirectional. He is at least bi-durational, thus timeless. The only point of interaction between God and man is because He places Himself within our time-frame. We are unidirectional, thus His interaction is unidirectional at least as far as we perceive it.
Whatever God's extent (He has none, but we cannot conceive other than as finite beings, the infinite), He says there is nothing beside Him nor will there ever be.
As part of the jar analogy, think of a jar that can become larger, but the contents are always the same inside the jar. Even a vaccum created is but the energy difference, no change. God must certainly know all elements of His 'finite' creation else it would necessarily have to come from outside of Himself and He could no longer be God. Greek? Yes, but I didn't read this from a Greek, I found it doing mathematics in relation to infinite quantities.
Therefore, God possesses all omni's by necessity else something else would be His God. This is scripturally true. It is logically true. It is mathematically true.
