Is Open Theism Biblical?

Eli Kittim

Open Theism

Open theism (aka openness theology) is a theological movement which holds that God doesn't exercise complete sovereignty over the universe but allows it to be "open" to the contribution of human free will. Put differently, because God cannot possibly know the future in an exhaustive sense, the future is not predetermined by him. Paradoxically, even though open theists seem to affirm God's omniscience, they nevertheless deny God's foreknowledge and claim that he doesn't know everything that will occur. In his book The Grace of God, The Will of Man, Clark Pinnock, a Christian theologian and proponent of open theism, writes:

"Decisions not yet made do not exist
anywhere to be known even by God. They
are potential— yet to be realized but not yet
actual. God can predict a great deal of
what we will choose to do, but not all of it,
because some of it remains hidden in the
mystery of human freedom ... God too faces
possibilities in the future, and not only
certainties. God too moves into a future not
wholly known ..."

Similarly, in his book Letters from a Skeptic, author Greg Boyd, a leading advocate of open theism, explains it thusly:

"In the Christian view God knows all of reality
—everything there is to know. But to assume
He knows ahead of time how every person
is going to freely act assumes that each
person's free activity is already there to
know—even before he freely does it! But it's
not. If we have been given freedom, we
create the reality of our decisions by
making them. And until we make them, they
don't exist. Thus, in my view at least, there
simply isn't anything to know until we make
it there to know. So God can't foreknow the
good or bad decisions of the people He
creates until He creates these people and
they, in turn, create their decisions."

Open theism is basically a new model through which scholars have tried to explain the relation of God's foreknowledge to the free will of human beings. Their argument runs as follows: humankind could not really be free if God knew absolutely everything pertaining to the future. And since open theists believe that human beings are completely free, it follows that God cannot absolutely know all there is to know about the future. This argument would carry over to our understanding of Biblical eschatology and would suggest not only that the future is unknowable, but also that God doesn't know the future.

Invalid Arguments

However, it seems to me that open theists are committing a logical fallacy, namely, equating the foreknowledge of God with determinism. If that were the case, their conclusion would be correct, to wit, that a deterministic foreknowledge of God would necessarily be incompatible with human free will. But the premise is misconceived. Foreknowledge in and of itself doesn't necessarily presuppose determinism. Just because God can foresee the future doesn't mean that he causes it. Calvinism, of course, is the other extreme which maintains that God is the cause of all events, thereby postulating hard determinism without apologies. However, If we, as free agents, were to act in whichever way we chose, and God could foresee our decision, God's foreknowledge and human free will would be perfectly compatible!

What is more, Open Theism asserts that although God knows all truths, there are certain possibilities which cannot yet be established about the "open" and undetermined future, and thus even God himself doesn't know their outcome. But this, too, seems to be a logical fallacy. They create a strawman argument in which they falsely equate foreknowledge with logical impossibilities. Once again, the premise is invalid. Just because the "truth" of what will happen is based on many complex, contingent factors, and is unknowable to human beings, doesn't necessarily imply that it's equally impossible for God to know it. On the contrary, it wouldn't be considered illogical for God to know the outcome of any given event. Yet Open theists claim that it's as logically impossible for God to create squared circles or make 2 + 2 = 5 as it is for him to know the future. But foreknowledge is not a logical impossibility like a squared circle or a married bachelor.

This, of course, can take the form of a very deep and protracted philosophical discussion about the nature of free will and the essence of God's sovereignty, namely, to what extent are we free agents, and so on. According to open theism, instead of God exhaustively knowing the course of history in toto, God gradually gains knowledge of events as they occur. This is viewed as the "open view of God" since it considers God as open and receptive to new realities. Thus, in contradistinction to classical theism, open theism suggests that God is, in some sense, dependent on the material world to enhance his knowledge.

There is, however, a contradiction in this premise. How could one compare God's learning curve from the point of view of time if God is said to be timeless? And how could a transcendent God possibly be dependent upon an "inferior reality" (as both Paul and Plato put it) to gain knowledge?

Bible Proofs of God's Immutability

Opponents of open theism accuse the latter of employing anthropopathisms (i.e. the practice of ascribing human emotions to God). Moreover, Open theist interpretations of the Bible comprise anthropomorphic characterizations of God as "changing His mind" or "seeming to gain knowledge" or even "being surprised" (see Gen. 6.6; 22.12; Exod. 32.14; Jon. 3.10). But these passages should not be read out of context. God is simply trying to describe himself in ways that we can relate to. God's language of being disappointed with humanity doesn't mean their actions caught him by surprise. The idea that he "changes His mind" is to illustrate in human terms that he responds to human behavior and allows our free will to make an impact, especially through prayer, not that he literally is unaware of future events. In fact, the immutability of God can be demonstrated Biblically. For example, in Malachi 3.6 (NRSV), God declares "For I the Lord do not change." In Numbers 23.19, Scripture reads:

"God is not a human being, that he should
lie, or a mortal, that he should change his
mind. Has he promised, and will he not do
it? Has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it."

1 Samuel 15.29 says:

"the Glory of Israel will not recant or change
his mind; for he is not a mortal, that he
should change his mind."

Bible Proofs of Future Prophecies

Not a few scholars think that in dismissing classical theism's doctrine of God's exhaustive foreknowledge, open theism is dangerously reinterpreting the God of the Bible. In this radical re-envisioning of the God of Scripture, how can a clueless God, concerning the future, guarantee the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies? Yet contrary to this position, Psalm 139 verses 4 & 16 read:

"Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord,
you know it completely ... Your eyes beheld
my unformed substance. In your book were
written all the days that were formed for
me, when none of them as yet existed."

How could God predict explicit details about Jesus Christ in the Hebrew Bible if he doesn't even know what the future holds? And, more importantly, how could God possibly guarantee our salvation if he doesn't have the slightest clue about the future? Furthermore, did God lie in Isaiah 46.9-10 where he declared that he can see the future?:

"I am God, and there is no one like me,
declaring the end from the beginning and
from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, 'My purpose shall stand, and I will
fulfil my intention.' "

Conclusion

Open Theism is an attempt to balance God's foreknowledge and humanity's free will. Open theism's conclusion is that God doesn't possess an infallible knowledge of the future. But just as Calvinism is an extreme form of theological determinism, turning humans into pre-programmed robots, so open theism goes to the opposite extreme by turning God into a human being who hasn't the foggiest idea of what the future looks like. Besides rejecting the credible evidence of eschatology and Bible prophecy, on which our faith and hope depend, open theism ultimately fails to demonstrate its key points both scripturally and philosophically!