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God’s Regrets and Divine Foreknowledge
Category: General
Tags: Divine Foreknowledge, Free Will, God of the Possible, Open Theism, Scripture, Wisdom
Topics: Open Theism
One aspect of the portrait of God in Scripture that suggests the future is partly open is the fact that God sometimes regrets how things turn out, even prior decisions that he himself made. For example, in the light of the depravity that characterized humanity prior to the flood, the…
Has Your Confidence in Open Theism Changed? (podcast)
Category: ReKnew Podcast
Topics: Open Theism
Greg discusses the evolution of his open theism. http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0815.mp3…
Does God Will ANY Suffering at All? (podcast)
Category: ReKnew Podcast
Topics: Open Theism, Providence, Predestination and Free Will
Greg talks about suffering for different things and God’s will for our suffering. http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0788.mp3…
Did God Know Mary Would Cooperate With God? (podcast)
Category: ReKnew Podcast
Topics: Open Theism, Responding to Objections
Greg considers how the Bible COULD have been… http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0750.mp3…
The Future of Open Theism: From Antecedents to Opportunities (book review)
Category: Essays, General
Tags: Book Reviews, Books
Topics: Open Theism
a book review by Greg Boyd While there were many precursors to the movement, Open Theism first exploded on the scene as a controversial issue among Evangelicals in the wake of the 1994 publication of The Openness of God (ed. Clark Pinnock). The years immediately following the publication of this…
Boyd’s Bad Ass Tattoo
Category: General
Tags: Free Will, Open Future, Open Theism
Topics: Free Will and the Future, Open Theism
by: Greg Boyd In the process of working through a philosophical issue surrounding the openness of the future around twenty years ago, I and two friends (Alan Rhoda and Tom Belt) ended up creating the “Hexagon of Opposition”, or “Hexagonic Logic of Futurity,” as I’ve sometimes called it. I’ll explain…
What is the significance of Esther 4:14?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Open Theism, Q&A
Topics: Open Theism
Verse: Esther 4
The wise Mordecai encourages Esther to bravely risk her life by pleading the case of the Jews before King Xerxes, saying, “…if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows…
Can Science Inform Our Theology?
Category: General
Tags: Open Theism, Quantum Physics, Science
Topics: Open Theism
Over the last century, we have witnessed a revolution in various areas of science that relate to how we see the world and even God. For example, the Platonic notion that time and change are less real than timeless stability is being abandoned in light of the fact that physicists…
Paradigm Shift Questions
Category: General
Tags: Open Theism, Q&A, Spiritual Warfare, Theodicy, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Open Theism
A couple that was recently introduced to ReKnew and several of my books recently wrote to tell me that they are in the process of embracing the warfare worldview along with the open view of the future. They said that they “realize that these things aren’t minor adjustments but are…
When God Needs an Intercessor
Category: General
Tags: Divine Foreknowledge, Free Will, Intercession, Prayer
Topics: Open Theism
Verse: Ezekiel 22
In the previous two posts, we have been exploring biblical narratives that point to how God’s knowledge is temporally conditioned and thus supports an open view of the future, or open theism as it is commonly called. The first addressed how God regrets and the second how God discovers. In…
When God Discovers
Category: General
Tags: Divine Foreknowledge, Free Will, Open Theism
Topics: Open Theism
Scripture consistently portrays God’s knowledge as conforming to the ways things really are, and part of the way things really are is temporally conditioned. Scripture never expresses the commonly-held sentiment that time is somewhat illusory. God “remembers” the past and anticipates the future. Insofar as he empowers humans to freely…
When God Regrets
Category: General
Tags: Divine Foreknowledge, Free Will, Future
Topics: Open Theism
The openness of the future is illustrated in the Bible’s depictions of God as grieving the outcome of decisions he himself has made. Regarding the incredible wickedness of humanity before Noah, for example, we read, “The Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved…
When God’s “Plan A” Falls Through, What’s Next?
Category: General
Tags: Free Will, God of the Possible, God's Will, Open Theism
Topics: Open Theism
Image by Katie Tegtmeyer via Flickr Suzanne was angry, to say the least. Since her early teens, her only aspirations in life were to be a missionary to Taiwan and to marry a godly man with a similar vision, and she prayed daily about these. She went to a Christian…
Past Sermon Series: Crap Happens
Category: Sermons and Video Clips
Tags: Greg Boyd, Sermons, Theodicy, Woodland Hills Church
Topics: Apologetics, Open Theism, The Problem of Evil
Why God, why? This may be the most repeated prayer in history. Most people have said it at one point or another, if only under their breath. Why sickness? Why suffering? Why doesn’t God respond to my prayers? Why do I struggle so much? Honest questions like these deserve honest…
What Unfulfilled Prophesies Say About the Open View
Category: General
Tags: Free Will, Future, Goldingay, Open Theism, Prophesy
Topics: Open Theism
Image by Lori Greig via Flickr Yesterday, we posted about how Messianic prophesies are understood in the open view of the future. Today, this post will look at prophesies that are not fulfilled in the way predicted and what that can tell us about the open view of the future….
The Open View of Messianic Prophesies
Category: General
Tags: Determinism, Divine Foreknowledge, Free Will, Open Theism, Prophesy
Topics: Open Theism
Image by Lawrence OP via Flickr A number of passages speak of particular events being foreknown by God, even events resulting from individuals’ free will. For example, dozens of prophesies in the OT accurately predict details about the coming Messiah (e.g., he would be born in Bethlehem; arise out of…
Problems with the Simple Foreknowledge View
Category: General
Tags: Arminianism, Calvinism, Future, God, Open Theism, Satan and the Problem of Evil
Topics: Open Theism
Some have proposed a model of divine foreknowledge which allows them to avoid the dilemma of affirming either that God creates people for the purpose of sending them to hell (Calvinism) or that he creates them without certain knowledge of their fate (open theism). In this alternative view God knows…
The Open View and Predestination
Category: General
Tags: Divine Foreknowledge, freedom, God's Character, Open Theism, Predestination, Satan and the Problem of Evil
Topics: Open Theism
Paul wrote in Ephesians, “For he [God] chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ …” (Eph 1:3-4). Some argue that the particular way Scripture portrays God’s providential…
Dealing With Objections to Open Theism, Part II
Category: General
Tags: Across The Spectrum, Chaos Theory, Determinism, Objections to Open Theism, Open Theism, Probability
Topics: Open Theism
Image by Tau Zero via Flickr There are four major objections to Open Theism. In this post, we are dealing with the third and fourth. (See yesterday’s post to read about the first two.) Objection #3: God cannot foreknow only some of the future. It is often argued that for…
Dealing With Objections to Open Theism, Part I
Category: General
Tags: Across The Spectrum, God's Sovereignty, Objections to Open Theism, Omniscience, Open Theism
Topics: Open Theism
Image by nixter via Flickr There are four major objections to Open Theism. Today we will deal with the first two and then tomorrow the third and fourth. For a basic introduction to Open Theism, click here. Objection #1: The open view denies omniscience. It is often argued that the…