Doormat
New member
How does open theism explain God's apparent detailed knowledge of the future?
toldailytopic: What is Open Theism? What do you think of it?
- Thread starter Nathon Detroit
- Start date
How does open theism explain God's apparent detailed knowledge of the future?
God has a great many plans and the ability to make them happen.
Nang
TOL Subscriber
Whatever your sages print . .
God either controls all things, or He chooses to control nothing.
The former is called Theism and the latter is called Deism.
Relationship between God and man is found in Theism, through the accomplishments of Jesus Christ over sin, alone.
Deists believe God created, and just let all history happen, starting with the fall of man, accordingly, and then demands God is watching, but man must reverse himself, according to some kind of moral strength (which have been long lost).
Bah . . . such humanistic, religionist, teaching has no power.
Only the grace of God as revealed in Jesus Christ, has the power to save created and fallen souls.
Nang
www.opentheism.info
Open Theism is a more biblical, coherent free will theism than Arminianism or Molinism or Process Thought.
It is the antithesis of deterministic, compatibilistic Calvinism that is unbiblical and impugns the character/ways of God.
I love you, AMR...
This is a ridiculous straw man caricature. No wonder you reject it.
Don't confuse the view with Process, Mormonism, New Age, etc.
Open Theism affirms the sovereignty, transcendence of God and the immanence of God. It does not elevate man, but recognizes man is created in the image of God, a significant other with a say so, but ontologically distinct from God. It does not limit or bring down God and does not impugn His character and ways like Calvinism does.
Your statements show that you lack integrity and credibility and should zip the lip.
Does your view of God allow Him to know where Alice in Wonderland is right now? Some things are inherently unknowable, by God's sovereign choice.
Are you an ostrich in the sand?:noid:
This is a great book on the will of God that is Open Theism friendly. It beats the alternative blueprint/bullseye view:
http://www.amazon.com/Decision-Making-Will-God-Alternative/dp/1590522052
Huh? Open Theists seek to understand God's self-revelation in Scripture free from negative traditions/philosophical influences that are not true.
Open Theists, etc. fear God, love God, obey God. Exploring the nature of providence does not negate justification/sanctification for any of us.
Arrogant/ignorance?
It is a relational, free will theism vs determinism. Calvinists should be the only one vocal against it.
False dichotomy...the third option is that God controls some things, but not other things (two motifs found in Scripture...one you make figurative without warrant).
You also wrongly assume that hyper-Calvinism is the only version of theism with any support. Arminianism is not Open Theism, but there is no one 'classical theism'. You are like the Catholics claiming they go back to the Apostles (but they don't).
You really don't know what you are talking about. At least understand what you are rejecting. Your view is also tainted by man's thinking, so don't be so dogmatic.
Doormat
New member
I agree, but does He have prescience in the open view or is it precluded?
Exhaustive definite foreknowledge is logically impossible if libertarian free will is a gift from God/reality.
God can and does know some vs all things about the future (two motifs).
Determinism could explain EDF as could simple foreknowledge, but these are not defensible views.
Another pertinent issue is whether 'eternal now' timelessness is true or whether God experiences an endless duration of time (divine temporality). This will impact our conclusions about predestination, omniscience, free will, etc.
Doormat
New member
How is any foreknowledge possible if the future is unknown by the observer?
Is. 46 and 48 shows how God can bring things to pass by His ability and thus declare these things in advance. God is also intelligent and is able to extrapolate things about the future based on exhaustive past and present knowledge. The mistake is to think that God somehow sees the non-existent future as certain/actual vs anticipatory or that He causes all things and thus knows all things.
God determines/knows some things, while other aspects are indeterminate and left to be settled by contingent choices. He knows reality as it is, so He correctly distinguishes possible, necessary, actual, certain, probable (modal logic).
God cannot choose to not know the knowable. The reason He does not know the future is inherent in creating a non-deterministic future that is not there yet to know. He is not ignorant of anything knowable. The future is at least partially open/unsettled and known as such. His limitation of exhaustive future knowledge relates to the type of world He actualized, not an act of will to be ignorant of the knowable.
oatmeal
Well-known member
After reading the first four posts, open theism has no agreed upon meaning.
"open theism" is a useless title. Time to get back to what scriptures teach.
John 17:17 God's word is truth.
I Timothy 2:4 we are to come to the knowledge of the truth
Why so we can have fellowship with God, with His son and with fellow believers. I John
oatmeal
"open theism" is a useless title. Time to get back to what scriptures teach.
John 17:17 God's word is truth.
I Timothy 2:4 we are to come to the knowledge of the truth
Why so we can have fellowship with God, with His son and with fellow believers. I John
oatmeal
Selaphiel
Well-known member
www.opentheism.info
Open Theism is a more biblical, coherent free will theism than Arminianism or Molinism or Process Thought.
It is the antithesis of deterministic, compatibilistic Calvinism that is unbiblical and impugns the character/ways of God.
I love you, AMR...
Process thought is a form of open theism, though not one typically held by conservative evangelicals. The reason being that process thought holds that the indeterminism of reality is not by choice from God, but rather from metaphysical necessity, and that a new understanding of omnipotence is required in light of this fact. For the process thinker, saying that God makes a sovereign choice when creating an indeterminate world presents a problem down the line, namely that it fails to address the problem of evil in any philosophically satisfactory way, it simply pushes the problem one step back.
genuineoriginal
New member
The appearance of detailed knowledge of the future is seen more clearly in hindsight.
Luke 24:25-27 25 Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: 26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? 27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. |