Reformed. Christianity. Evangelism. Modern Culture.
Open Theism, also called openness and the open view, is a theological position dealing with human free will and its relationship to God and the nature of the future. It is the teaching that God has granted to humanity free will and that in order for the free will to be truly free, the future free will choices of individuals cannot be known ahead of time by God. They hold that if God knows what we are going to choose, then how can we be truly free when it is time to make those choices –since a counter choice cannot then be made by us, because it is already “known” what we are going to do.1 In other words, we would not actually be able to make a contrary choice to what God “knows” we will choose thus implying that we would not then be free.
In Open Theism, the future is either knowable or not knowable. For the open theists who hold that the future is knowable by God, they maintain that God voluntarily limits His knowledge of free will choices so that they can remain truly free. 2 Other open theists maintain that the future, being non existent, is not knowable, even by God.3 Gregory Boyd, a well-known advocate of Open Theism says,
“Much of it [the future], open theists will concede, is settled ahead of time, either by God’s predestining will or by existing earthly causes, but it is not exhaustively settled ahead of time. To whatever degree the future is yet open to be decided by free agents, it is unsettled.”4
But open theists would not say that God is weak or powerless. They say that God is capable of predicting and ordaining certain future events because He is capable of working in the world and bringing certain events to pass when the time is needed. Therefore, God could inspire the Old Testament writers to prophesy certain events and then He could simply ensure that those events occurred at the right time.
Furthermore, open theists claim that they do not deny the omniscience of God. They, like classical theologians, state that God is indeed all-knowing. But they differ in that God can only know that which is knowable and since the future has not yet happened, it can not be exhaustively known by God. Instead, God only knows the present exhaustively, including the inclinations, desires, thoughts, and hopes of all people.
In Open Theism God can make mistakes because He does not know all things that will occur in the future. According to them, God also takes risks and adapts to the free-will choices of people. They claim biblical support for their position by citing scripture where God changes His mind (Exodus 32:14), is surprised (Isaiah 5:3–7), and tests people to see what they will do (Genesis 22:12).
Finally, Open Theism tends to portray the God of orthodoxy as distant, controlling, and unyielding while promoting the God of openness as involved, adapting, loving, interacting, and caring for humanity.
Orthodox Christianity
Historic Orthodox Christianity states that God knows all things, even the entirety of the future, exhaustively. 1 John 3:20 it says, “…for God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.” Likewise, Peter said to Jesus inJohn 21:17, “…You know all things; You know that I love You…” God’s sovereignty is clearly taught in scripture and His sovereignty is tied to His omniscience. Orthodox Christianity teaches that God is very loving, very involved, and even condescends to our level and interacts with us in a manner that we can understand. This means that we will see what appears to be instances of God changing His mind, testing, and adapting. But, this is all due to God’s working with creatures who have limited vision, short life spans, and are sinners. God must work on our level since we cannot work on His.
God and time
The question about God’s knowledge of the future is very important because it deals with the actual definition of God’s nature in relation to the nature of the future. Is God all-knowing about the future or not? Is God existing in the future or not? Is God limited to the present or not? The answers to these questions reflect the very nature and scope of God’s existence. The open theists are pushing a description of God that reduces God from knowing all things, past, present, and future, to not knowing all things in the future. God’s omnipresence is also in jeopardy in Open Theism, since some open theists deny the existence of the future and thereby deny the omnipresence of God in the future.
Conclusion
My opinion is that openness is a dangerous teaching that undermines the sovereignty, majesty, infinitude, knowledge, existence, and glory of God and exalts the nature and condition of man’s own free will. Though the open theists will undoubtedly say it does no such thing, it goes without saying that the God of Open Theism is not as knowledgeable or as ever-present as the God of orthodoxy.
Open theism as seen above challenges every tenet of traditional theism, denying God’s sovereignty, His omniscience and His glory. Excerpted from Matt Slick’s “What is Open Theism?”
A Twisted Crown of Thorns ® 
I am an Open Theist. Open Theist do indeed believe that God knows all everything. It’s just that the future in fixed terms isn’t knowable. It isn’t part of ‘everything’. It doesn’t exist. Because it hasn’t happened yet.
Therefore God knows everything that can possibly be known. The future however, in its totality can’t be known in advance – it is logically impossible. This is not to limit God anymore than to say that God can’t create square circles. (He can’t create square circles because that is a logical impossibility by definition).
This is why Open Theists, like Boyd, would rather be called ‘Open Futurists’. Because they realise that this debate is nothing to do with God’s omniscience at all. It is rather a debate about the nature of the future. Is it knowable in advance? They don’t believe it is completely knowable because it is to some degree dependent on the choices of free will creatures – who haven’t made those choices yet. Hence, logically they can’t be known in advance (ala. square circles).
God does know some of the future with certainty though. This is the part of the future that He has made up his mind in advance to cause to come to pass when the times are right eg the second coming of Christ. Because He lives forever and has all power, He knows that He will be around when the time comes to bring those things about, and who can stop Him? That is why prophesy can be said with utter assurance.
It is unbiblical and naive (actually blasphemous) to assert that the Omnipotent God doesnt know what will be in the future and he could be twiddling his thumb eagerly waiting to see what mere man will do. God ordains the end and the means and all that happens is within his hands. He sees the end from the beginning. He is not limited by time and space. In which case why would we pray to Him? That is why in Genesis, Joseph could say to his brothers “that which you meant for evil -God had planned all along would work out for good”. Jesus knew Peter was going to betray him before the cock crowed thrice and he also knew one of his disciples was a devil and would be lost in the end. The bible allows us to know the revealed will of God in different situations and time lines but when God hasnt revealed the purpose or reasn why for example evil seemed to have prevailed in a particular scene doesnt mean it caught him offguard. No, He who watches over his own never sleeps nor slumbers. Who has known the mind of God and can impugn him with ignorance? Ask Job and see how many of the questions asked by God in Job 38-40 of God’s sovereignty can be answered or were even answered by Job. Think again. Open theism attributes more to free will and to man and creates a god that suites and serves man’s attributes.