in fact, God not only has infallible foreknowledge of all possible branches of free choices, but sovereignly actualises this particular branch of free choices (ie. the branch of free choices which we freely live out in the world) out of an infinite number of possible branches of free choices - for His glory.
furthermore, both open theism (which i disagree with) and middle knowledge (which i agree with) affirm that God has infallible foreknowledge of all possible branches of free choices.
the key difference is that according to open theism, God does not know in advance which possible branch of free choices will come about; according to middle knowledge, God knows in advance which possible branch of free choices will come about.
in fact, God not only knows in advance which possible branch of free choices will come about, but sovereignly actualises this particular branch of free choices (ie. the branch of free choices which we freely live out in the world) out of an infinite number of possible branches of free choices - for His glory.
in other words, God causes this particular branch of free choices (ie. the branch of free choices which we freely live out in the world) to come about.
"Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen." - Acts 4:27-28 (NIV)
"From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'" - Acts 17:26-28 (NIV)
divine sovereignty neither undermines nor is undermined by human responsibility. divine sovereignty incorporates human responsibility!
I don't agree with your assessment of Open Theism. You say that, according to this view, God doesn't know the outcome of all of the possible choices of free will. Greg Boyd is one of the leading proponents of Open Theism. If you look at the Q & A section of Greg Boyd's website www.gregboyd.org - it speaks of God knowing all of the possible outcomes of possible choices. He just doesn't know in advance which choice will be made.
ReplyDeletehi tim,
ReplyDeletethanks for your comment. allow me to revise my assessment of open theism.
as you point out, open theism affirms that God has infallible foreknowledge of all possible branches of free choices. i take back my statement that 'according to open theism, God does not have infallible foreknowledge of all possible branches of free choices'.
nevertheless, i disagree that God does not know in advance which choices will be made. surely God knows in advance which choices will be made, given that He made the very first choice (from which all other choices on this particular branch of choices arise) to create the world in His image.
Luke,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your reply.
"i disagree that God does not know in advance which choices will be made. surely God knows in advance which choices will be made, given that He made the very first choice (from which all other choices on this particular branch of choices arise) to create the world in His image."
Not sure that follows ie That the person making the first choice will know what all the other choices free agents will make subsequently.
Nethertheless, I guess that is the nub of the question, does one believe that God knows the in advance what choices we will make. I am an open theist because that describes what I believe. You are not which is fine.
I do believe that Christians have some traditions of allowing variance on our interpretations of scripture and our resulting Theology eg On Baptism, Communion etc - while still accepting people into the Christian fold who hold varying positions. We do though have to find at core what makes us distinctively Christian and not allow compromise on that ie How to be saved, the Identity of Christ - I generally find the early creeds eg the Nicene & Apostles creed helpful for that.
I also find it interesting that no-one of the early creeds has any implications with regard to Open Theism ie it isn't a make or break issue. Hence it is not a heresy.
Thanks again - great to hear people thinking about these issues.