Open Theism is the logical conclusion of consistent Arminianism, but takes their logic one step further than Classic Arminians would. It affirms that since man has a libertarian free will, God cannot know the future. If God knew the future, he would also know the certainty of our future choices, that could not be otherwise. Given this premise, the open theist argues that we cannot chose differently than what God foresaw so we couldn't have free will. Therefore God makes highly educated guesses as events transpire. In the end, God is controlled by His creation (time).
The Open theist affirms that God cannot exhaustively know future events for if God had known from all eternity everything someone will do in the future, then the fact that they will choose the thing has been settled in God's mind, and cannot be otherwise. Hence, the person has no more power to alter the fixed-past-settled-with-certainty fact of what they shall choose to do than they have to altar any past fact. Therefore, they reason, that they cannot make free (or morally responsible) choices that God knows with certainty they will make. The Open theist views the possibility to choose otherwise as the sin qua non of moral responsibility. therefore God must only know my future choice as a possibility, not a settled reality.
Greg Boyd, one of the main proponents of OT, claims that he unequivocally affirms that God possesses every divine perfection, including the attribute of omniscience, that God perfectly knows everything THERE IS to know. Open Theists affirm that the future is open to various possibilities and that this is outside the scope of knowledge since it has not happened yet. What may or may not happen in the future, according to Boyd, has no truth value. Of course this would mean that God would be confined within time itself (something He created).
thus, the proponents of Open Theism erroneously deduce that time (God's creation) exerts a superior power over His ability to know anything outside the present, by confining Him to the present ... within the finite creation. By this view, the proponents of Open Theism deny the unlimited power of God to know the beginning from the end and, by default, declare that there is something greater than God himself (time).
Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it. - Isaiah 46:9
| Title |
Notes |
Historical Contingencies and Biblical Predictions (.pdf)  |
Dr. Richard L. Pratt, Jr. |
Does the Bible Affirm Open Theism?  |
John Frame |
Prayer and the Power of Contrary Choice:Who Can and Cannot Pray for God to Save the Lost? (.pdf)  |
C. Samuel Storms, Reformation & Revival 12.2 (Spring 2003): 53-67 |
Open Theism - Part 3  |
Sam Storms |
Open Theism - Part 2  |
Sam Storms |
Open Theism - Part 1  |
Sam Storms |
Open Theism and Divine Foreknowledge  |
John Frame |
Their God Is Too Small: Open Theism and the Undermining of Confidence in God  |
Bruce A. Ware |
Open Theism  |
www.OnDoctrine.com - Quotes, articles, essays and books |
Has God been held Hostage by Philosophy?  |
Roger Olson, Douglas F. Kelly, Timothy George, and Alister E. McGrath (Christianity Today, 2001) |
Most Moved Mediator  |
K. Scott Oliphint |
Sovereignty, Suffering and Open Theism  |
Thomas R. Schreiner (pdf) |
My God and Their God  |
Thomas R. Schreiner (pdf) - An unpublished article on Open Theism |
Open Theism  |
Matthew J. Slick (CARM.org) - Theology and Scripture |
The Openness of God Controversy  |
J. Ligon Duncan, III - An Edited Transcription of a Seminar presented at the Philadelphia Conferences on Reformation Theology (2001) |
The Mode of Divine Knowledge in Reformation Arminianism and Open Theism  |
Steven M. Studebaker - Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society (Sep 2004) |
Some Practical Consequences of Openness Theology  |
Eric Lasch (pdf) - National Association of Nouthetic Counselors |
Some Biblical Arguments Used by Openness Theology  |
John A. Battle (pdf) - Western Reformed Seminary Journal |
Does God Plan the Future? God's Omniscience Revealed in the OT Covenants  |
Christopher K. Lensch (pdf) - Western Reformed Seminary Journal |
Open Theism: Its Nature, History, and Limitations  |
Dennis W. Jowers (pdf) - Western Reformed Seminary Journal |
What is "Openness of God" Theology?  |
Pilgrim Covenant - A side-by-side comparison (chart) of the Biblical/Reformed View verses Openness View |
A Critique of Free-Will Theism - Part 1  |
Robert A. Pyne and Stephen R. Spencer (pdf) - A Christ-centered and cross-centered evaluation of open theism. |
A Critique of Free-Will Theism - Part 2  |
Robert A. Pyne and Stephen R. Spencer (pdf) - Examines the theological implications of open theism, particularly inclusivism and postmortem conversion. |
What God Knows  |
Timothy George  |
God of the Impossible: A Personal Reflection on God’s Providence Over My Open Theism  |
David Schrock  |
Is Divine Foreknowledge Like A Box Of Chocolates? (.pdf)  |
Clayton Diltz |
Gregory Boyd’s Infinitely Intelligent Chess Player  |
G. Richard Fisher - The Remaking of God Into Man’s Image |
The Open View of God: Does He Change? (.pdf)  |
Dr. Mike Stallard |
The Openness of God and the Historical Jesus  |
Samuel Lamerson, page 27 |
“The Openness of God Controversy”  |
Western Reformed Seminary Journal |
Closing the Door on Open Theism  |
Martyn McGeown |
The Hermeneutics Of Open Theism  |
Robert L. Thomas |
Is There Knowledge In The Most High?  |
Larry D. Pettegrew |
Open Theism's Attack on the Atonement  |
John F. MacArthur |
Isaiah 40-48: A Sermonic Challenge To Open Theism  |
Trevor Craigen |
The Openness Of God: Does Prayer Change God?  |
William D. Barrick |
Uncertain Hands of God and Men  |
Bruce Ware (Video, Audio, PDFs) |
Was Jesus an Open Theist? A Brief Examination of Greg Boyd’s Exegesis of Jesus’ Prayer in Gethsemane (.pdf)  |
Charles L. Quarles |
An Early Response to Open Theism: Edward Taylor's Gods Determinations, and the Puritan View of History (.pdf)  |
Stephen J. Nichols, Reformation & Revival 12.2 (Spring 2003): 111-129. |
The Openness Of God: A Critical Assessment (.pdf)  |
Stephen J. Wellum, Reformation & Revival 10.3 (Summer 2001): 137-160 |
Uncertain Hands of God and Men: Providence in Process Thought and Open Theism  |
Bruce Ware |
God's Foreknowledge and Free-Will  |
Stephen Charnock |
Does God 'Change His Mind?'  |
Robert B. Chisholm (pdf) |
The False God & Gospel of Moral Government Theology  |
E. Calvin Beisner - Orthodoxy and the "Power of Contrary Choice" (Libertarian Freewill) |
Isaiah 40-48 and Open Theism  |
Grace Fellowship |
Open Theism and Divine Immorality  |
Jeremy Pierce |
How to Teach Open Theism at Vacation Bible School (.pdf)  |
Russell D. Moore |
Making God in the Image of Man (Opem Theism)  |
Paul W. Martin |
Open Theism  |
Ron Nash - Interview |
Do Humans have more freedom than God?  |
J.W. Hendryx |
Pastoral Implications of Open Theism  |
Tom Ascol |
The Rabbis and the Claims of Openness Advocates  |
Russell Fuller (Excerpt from Beyond the Bounds) |
An Examination Of Open Theism  |
Gregg Cantelmo B.A.; MDiv |
Greek Philosophical Roots of Open Theism  |
Jeremy Pierce |
"Open Theism" is Incompatible with Inerrancy  |
Roger Nicole |
The Open-ness of God  |
John M. Brentnall |
What are the Basic Tenets of Open Theism  |
Matt Slick |
Open Theism and Libertarian Free Will  |
Matt Slick - Good contrast of Libertarianism (and its connection to Open Theism) and Compatibilism |
Select Bibliography on Open Theism  |
Justin Taylor |
Does God Know the Future? An Overview of the Open Theism Debate  |
Mark Rathel |
Is Open Theism Consistent with Biblical Christianity?  |
Mark Rathel |
Pagan Philosophy’s Influence on Open Theism  |
Mark Rathel |
The Openness of God Rejected by the ETS  |
Russell D. Moore |
Foreknowledge Debate Clouded by "Political Agenda"  |
David Neff - Evangelical Theologians differ over excluding Open Theists (Christianity Today, 2001) |
Does God Make Mistakes?  |
John Piper - A Response to Greg Boyd's Treatment of Jeremiah 3:6-7, 19-20 |