Does The Bible Affirm Open Theism?

Agroup of thinkers known as “open theists,” such as Clark Pinnock, John Sanders, Gregory Boyd, and William Hasker, seek to do justice to the give-and-take in Scripture between God and human beings. For example, in Exodus 32:7-10, God tells Moses he will destroy Israel for worshiping the golden calf and raise up a new nation from Moses himself. Moses intercedes, however, and in verse 14 God “relented.” God also seems to change his mind in several places, such as in Isaiah 38:1-5, where Isaiah prophesies that King Hezekiah will die, but in response to Hezekiah’s repentance adds 15 years to his life. Another example is Jonah 3–4, where God retracts an announcement of judgment in response to Nineveh’s repentance.

From these and other such passages, the open theists infer that God is a temporal being (not “above time,” as in much traditional theology, but within time), that he changes his mind, that his plans are influenced by creatures, that he sometimes regrets actions that he has performed (see Gn 6:6), and that he does not have exhaustive knowledge of the future. In their view, God’s regretting and relenting come about because free human decisions are utterly undetermined and unpredictable. Therefore, God must adjust his plans to the free choices of human beings.

We should not ignore these “relenting” passages. On the other hand, we should also not forget the pervasive biblical emphasis on God’s sovereign control of the world and his exhaustive knowledge of past, present, and future. God brings about natural events (Ps 65:9-11; 135:5-7), even apparently random ones (Pr 16:33). He controls the smallest details of nature (Mt 10:29-30). He governs human history (Is 10:5-12; 14:24-27; Ac 17:26). He hardened Pharaoh’s heart (Ex 4:21; 7:3), and others as well (Dt 2:30; Jos 11:18-20; 1Sm 2:25; 2Ch 25:20), for his own purposes (Rm 9:17). He is also the source of human faith (Jn 6:37,44,65; Ac 13:48; 16:14-15; 18:27; Eph 2:4-10; 2Tm 1:9) and repentance (Zch 12:10; Ac 5:31; 11:18). So human freedom is not indeterminate as open theists maintain. We are free in that we do what we want to do, but behind our plans and desires are those of God (Jms 4:13-16).

In general, God “works out everything in agreement with the decision of his will” (Eph 1:11; see Lm 3:37-38; Rm 8:28; 11:33-36). And God cannot fail at anything he seeks to do (Ps 33:11; 115:3; 135:6; Pr 21:30; Is 14:27; 43:13; 46:10; 55:11; Dn 4:35; Rv 3:7).

Since God controls everything, he knows everything, including the future. Knowing the future is a test of a true prophet (Dt 18:22) and indeed of a true God (Is 41:21-23;

42:9; 43:9-12; 44:7; 48:3-7). Through his prophets God often predicts the future centuries in advance (Gn 9:26-27). Contrary to the open theists, who think God cannot anticipate human free decisions, he often predicts human behavior in detail (1Sm 10:1-7; Jr 37:6-10;

Mt 26:34). He predicts the behavior and character of human beings in the distant future (1Kg 13:1-4; Is 44:28–45:13).

How, then, should we understand God’s “relenting”? For one thing, God states as a general policy in Jeremiah 18:5-10 that if he announces judgment and people repent, he will relent; he will do the same if he pronounces blessing and people do evil. In other words, relenting is part of God’s unchanging plan, not a change forced on him by his ignorance. Further, God is not only transcendent (beyond our experience) but also immanent (involved in our experience). He has dwelled on earth in the tabernacle and temple, in Christ, and in his general omnipresence (Ps 139:7-12). When God interacts with people in time, he does one thing, then another. He curses, then he blesses. His actions are in temporal sequence and are therefore, in one sense, changing. But these changes are the outworking of God’s eternal plan, which does not change.

It is important, then, to see God as working from both above and below, in eternity and in time, and not only within time, as open theists propose.