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Over time, people have had different ideas about God. Very rarely are they purposely malicious, but instead stem from a misunderstanding of Scripture and God’s very nature. In the past, we’ve discussed the importance of having good theology, and today’s topic will be a wonderful example of why. Let’s discuss why Open Theism just doesn’t work.
What is Open Theism?
Although the idea has surely existed since ancient times, Open Theism didn’t gain much traction until the last few centuries. The idea behind it is simple: God doesn’t know the future, and is continually learning and changing as time goes on. In other words, the future isn’t “closed” and guaranteed, but “open” and unknown.
Those who support this belief would insist that they have a more accurate and classical view of God. Many would claim that the mainstream view of God, as having all knowledge and sovereignty over the future, is a perversion of Greek philosophy. And their support for it isn’t as far-fetched as some might imagine.
Supporters can clearly make a case for God’s limited knowledge throughout the Bible. Consider what happened after God told Abraham to sacrifice his son:
“Do not harm the boy!” the angel said. “Do not do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God because you did not withhold your son, your only son, from me.” (Genesis 22:12)
There are also instances of God changing His mind, such as His reversing His decision to destroy Ninevah in Jonah. God also seems to be incapable of having His will fulfilled, desiring all to be saved through the blood of Christ yet knowing not everyone will be (1 Timothy 2:3-4). Further, God’s limited knowledge would explain why He seems to keep making new covenants throughout history as His plans are in continual need of change.
The argument for Open Theism can largely be broken down into one main point: a loving God wouldn’t infringe upon our free will by knowing the future. If God knows what will happen, and especially if He declares what will happen, then our decisions are already determined, if not outright programmed. How can God invite us to choose Him if He already knows our answer? How can He punish people for making a decision He knew they’d make before the world began?
That’s a limited breakdown of the belief, but it should give us a groundwork to begin with as we examine some of its larger flaws.
Biblical issues
To keep this article brief, let’s discuss three larger issues that stem from Open Theism. These each build on one another, showing why the idea that God doesn’t know everything is simply impossible by what we see in the world and throughout the Bible.
The problem of Genesis 1:1
Genesis 1:1 is surprisingly profound. Though it doesn’t set out to make any scientific statements, its simple wording provides an incredible glimpse into God’s existence.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)
Let’s consider what we know about the universe. In order for anything to exist, it requires 3 things to be true:
- It needs material to be made out of
- That material needs space to hold it
- It requires time in order for it to actually exist from one moment to the next
Amazingly, all three of those elements are present in Genesis 1:1. It’s clear that God created material (earth) and the space for it to exist in (heavens). Yet notice when this all happened: in the beginning. Before God created space and matter, He had to start the clock. He had to create time itself in so that space and matter could experience existing.
The concept of time being created is hard to grasp, but consider what this necessarily means about God’s existence. For Him to create these things, He must exist outside of them.
We can’t possibly fathom what it means to live outside of Genesis 1:1, but we may be able to get a hint at how God views time. Picture a timeline that charts everything that has happened from the beginning of the universe until this moment. We are able to look at any moment in history and know exactly what happened and can move between dates at will. However, we can only see what has happened because we are still bound by time, only able to experience what happened then and what’s happening now.
That timeline can help us grasp how God views time. Yet instead of being limited to seeing and interacting only with the past and present, His timeline stretches on endlessly. God can simultaneously experience the War of 1812, the building of the pyramids, and the year 2042.
No example of God is perfect because nothing in His created universe is even remotely like Him. Yet one thing is clear: it is completely impossible for God not to know everything because His very nature isn’t limited to only knowing the past and present. To say God must change and learn as new information is presented would require Him to be a being just as limited as we are.
Prophecy isn’t God’s weather forecast
God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? (Numbers 23:19)
God hates lying. What we call “sin” isn’t just a random list of rules, but simply anything that is against God’s character. God also hates arrogance, as we see in places like James 4:13-15. Why? Because arrogance puts our will and knowledge over God’s. It says that we have some measure of control over future circumstances.
Yet in Open Theism, God does the same thing. Any instance of promise or prophecy can’t be spoken with absolute authority as one who knows and establishes the future. Instead, God can be nothing more than a glorified weatherman. He can look at data, see patterns, calculate likelihoods… but nothing He says is absolutely trustworthy. At best, His words can only be believable because God has had thousands of years to learn and grow.
If true, then all of God’s prophecies about Israel, Christ, or the future were steeped in arrogance and uncertainty. When He speaks, He gives no hint that what He says could fail. Every word from God is delivered absolutely, as though He can deliver what He says without any reason to doubt it.
Despite being all-powerful, if God must be limited because He can’t violate our will then there is absolutely no reason for Him to promise anything. Doing so is arrogant because He speaks as though He can guarantee what He clearly cannot, and to promise with no guarantee will eventually make Him a liar.
Most critically, imagine how this impacts God’s promise to redeem us through Christ’s death and resurrection. If God is capable of change after enough time and new information, we have no guarantee that what appeases His wrath now will be the same later. If God’s authoritative words are little more than well-educated guesses, then any hope we place in Christ is worth little. If nothing else, the mere idea should terrify us.
The Bible is filled with God’s sovereignty
We’ve determined why God’s nature demands that His knowledge simply can’t be bound by time. We see why God definitely knowing the future is not only consistent with the Bible, but ultimately necessary for anything He says to be trustworthy. Let’s end with a brief look at how God demonstrates that He is in full control of the future.
who announces the end from the beginning and reveals beforehand what has not yet occurred, who says, ‘My plan will be realized, I will accomplish what I desire,’ (Isaiah 46:10)
God Himself, speaking with absolute authority, never leaves room to doubt His plans. It’s not simply that He knows what will happen, as though He were a mere fortune teller gazing through a crystal ball, but He is actively involved in carrying out His desires.
For the Lord says, ‘Only when the seventy years of Babylonian rule are over will I again take up consideration for you. Then I will fulfill my gracious promise to you and restore you to your homeland. (Jeremiah 29:10)
Throughout Israel’s history we see God taking seemingly-dramatic steps to restore Israel to their God. Imagine if Israel spent 70 years in captivity and something happened that God never predicted! He never did this because the odds were in His favor that it would work out – He did it because He already knew the results.
And there will no longer be any curse, and the throne of God and the Lamb will be in the city. His servants will worship him, and they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. Night will be no more, and they will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, because the Lord God will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever. (Revelation 22:3-5)
Ultimately, God reveals His knowledge and control over the future all throughout the book of Revelation. God wasn’t allowing John to see His divine hopes and dreams for the future. John was seeing the future. A world free of sin, where God and His people will dwell together in perfect joy. Nothing we can do will stop this from happening, and all we can do is accept Christ’s death in our place so that we can have that mended relationship with God, now and forever.
Before Genesis 1:1 God knew we would choose ourselves over Him. He knew His own creation would hate and curse Him, and He knew His divine wrath would be poured out on Christ. Our savior wasn’t God’s last-ditch effort when all other options had failed. Before we were born God saw each of our wretched conditions, knew His son would have to be slaughtered… and still found it worthwhile to demonstrate His glorious love to a world that could never deserve it.
Open Theism creates more problems than it solves
In the end, Open Theism fails to line up with logic, reason, and God’s word. There are several problems it may seek to solve, making it an attractive idea. Some may hold to it because it makes God more understandable. Others may believe it because it goes along with their understanding of free will. For many, it answers the question “Why does God let bad things happen to good people?” That answer is simple in Open Theism: God didn’t know it would happen.
However, our ultimate goal as Christians is to pursue good theology. Not so we can be right, but so that we can better understand our perfect and holy God. Sometimes that pursuit leads us to what we’ve discussed today, causing us to admit we can’t fully and adequately understand or explain God’s ways. It’s so very tempting to bring Him down to our level and place upon Him the same restrictions we understand.
Yet that God isn’t who we see in the Bible. We see a God who is beyond our existence. We see a creator who chooses to involve Himself with His creation, seeing His perfect plans carried out without any risk of them failing. His ways of doing things may frustrate us in our limited understanding, and the impossibility of fully understanding Him may cause us to reject Him or seek more comfortable ways of thinking.
Yet in the end, our greatest desire is to be true and faithful to how God has revealed Himself to us through His word. That God has a plan that was set in place from Genesis 1:1, a plan that has never wavered or been disrupted. For reasons we can never understand, the ultimate climax of that plan has always been to send His son to take our sins upon Himself at the cross, paying a debt we never could so that we can have the eternal rest He shows us in Revelation.
God is in control. God knows all. And God is so good.
Indeed, my plans are not like your plans,
and my deeds are not like your deeds,
for just as the sky is higher than the earth,
so my deeds are superior to your deeds
and my plans superior to your plans. (Isaiah 55:8-9)
