8. State
briefly the biblical basis for, and formulate the doctrine of, God’s
omniscience. Relate this doctrine to the teaching of “open
theism.”
God is
omniscient, which means all-knowing.
It’s beyond our human minds to comprehend what that really means, but
A.W. Tozer described it well when he wrote;
“God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all
matters, all mind and every mind, all spirit and all spirits, all being and
every being, all creaturehood and all creatures, every plurality and all
pluralities, all law and every law, all relations, all causes, all thoughts,
all mysteries, all enigmas, all feeling, all desires, every unuttered secret,
all thrones and dominions, all personalities, all things visible and invisible
in heaven and in earth, motion, space, time, life death, good, evil, heaven and
hell.
Because God knows all things perfectly, He knows nothing
better than any other thing, but all things equally well. He never anything, He is never surprised,
never amazed. He never wonders about
anything nor (except when drawing men out for their own good) does He seek
information or ask questions.”1
Is
that not awe inspiring? What an
incredible God He is. Scripture tells of
God’s vast knowledge unlimited by time. On
a personal individual basis God knows us more intimately than we do ourselves,
and the whole of our lives is an open book before Him. Psalm 139:16 says; “Your eyes saw my unformed
body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them
came to be.”
Open theism
suggests that there are limitations to the knowledge of God. This doctrine came about because people could
not resolve that humanity could have free-will if God already knew the outcome
of all things. So, theologians have come
up with this concept that; “God does not exercise meticulous control of the
universe but leaves it "open" for humans to make significant choices
(free will) that impact their relationships with God and others. A corollary of
this is that God has not predetermined the future. Open Theists further believe
that this would imply that God does not know the future exhaustively.
Proponents affirm that God is omniscient, but deny that this means that God
knows everything that will happen.”2
Open
theism is a humanistic attempt to validate human freedom of choice, and as a
result diminishes God’s majesty, sovereignty, and brings into question the
veracity of many other attributes of God.
It’s pathetic, erroneous, and extremely dangerous; a doctrine that must
be refuted.
I accept that
it’s hard to understand how I make my own choices from the minute to the life
altering; and at the very same time God is all-knowing and therefore would have
complete foreknowledge of any and all of my choices all at once. This is true.
He knows, I don’t. He has an eternal
vantage point that I do not. He created
us as free-will being so that worship is genuine, not forced robotics, but
sincere. It is humbling, and so amazing
to me that God knew His creation would rebel, God knew His Son would need to
die, God knew and yet He created, He allows sin, and loves enough to
redeem. That is my omniscient God who is
beyond my understanding, and yet I am okay with that, I am actually comforted
by the fact that He is bigger, more infinite and divine than my logic can make
reasonable. I will not cheapen who He
is. I will bow, I will worship, and I
will be in awe of Him.
2 www.theopedia.com/Open_theism
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