We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

Isn’t it true that God doesn’t know the future in the open view?
This is the single most common misconception people have about the open view. Open Theists and Classical Theists disagree about the nature of the future, not about how much God knows about it. Both sides grant that God knows everything. He is omniscient. He knows everything there is to know about all of reality, including the future. The disagreement is that, whereas Classical Theists believe that the future consists entirely of settled realities — and thus hold that God knows it as entirely settled — Open Theists believe that the future is partly comprised of possibilities — and thus hold that God perfectly knows it as partly comprised of possibilities.
Have you ever read one of those Choose Your Own Adventure books? The author writes out a number of possible story lines from which a reader can choose. The reader has a choice about which story line they want to read, but would anyone say the author of the book doesn’t know the future of their own book because of this? Of course not. It’s just that, in contrast to novels that include only one story line, their book includes a number of possible story lines, and the author knows all of them.
So it is with God in the open view. God creates something like a “choose your own adventure” world. The Creator sets up the parameters of human freedom and pre-settles whatever he wants to pre-settle while leaving open to human free will whatever he wants to leave open. He foreknows perfectly all the possible story lines that free agents could follow. Now, would you say this Creator doesn’t know the future? How could we say this? He foreknows all the possible story lines.
The difference between the classical view of the future and the open view of the future is that, in the open view, God has to know much more than in the classical view, just like the author of a Choose Your Own Adventure book must know more than a traditional novelist in knowing his book. But Open Theists are convinced God is capable of this much more extensive knowledge.
Category: Q&A
Tags: Open Theism, Q&A
Topics: Open Theism What it is and is not
Related Reading

What is the “classical view of God” and what about it do you find objectionable?
The “classical view of God” refers to the view of God that has dominated Christian theology since the earliest Church fathers. According to this theology, God is completely “immutable.” This means that God’s being and experience never change in any respect. God is therefore pure actuality (actus purus), having no potentiality whatsoever, for potentiality is…

How do you respond to Genesis 49:10?
“The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations be his.” In Exodus 32:10-14 God threatens to destroy the Israelites and start over with Moses. But Moses intercedes and God changes his mind. For Open…

What is the significance of 1 Chronicles 21:15?
“And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; but when he was about to destroy it, the Lord took note and relented concerning the calamity; he said to the destroying angel, ‘Enough! Stay your hand.’” This powerful passage tells us why God sent the angel and why he changed his mind. If God…

Molinism and Open Theism – Part II
In the previous post on this topic I briefly outlined Molinism and then discussed “the grounding objection.” In this post I’ll first discuss another fundamental objection to Molinism and then discuss how it is overcome by the Open View of the Future. In the process it will be clear how the Open View differs from…

What is the significance of Joel 2:13–14?
“Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him…?” As we have seen, God’s willingness to alter his course of action—even after he’s prophetically announced…

The Rorschach Test
The choices we make will either increase or decrease our ability to recognize light when we see it. As we choose goodness, we increase our capacity for goodness. What do you see when you read the Bible or look at God or interact with others? Everything is a Rorschach test to some extent, revealing the light…