Open theism
Serious error
The teaching that God does not know the future free choices of people, because those choices do not yet exist to be known, so the future is partly open even to God.
Also called: open theist, openness theology, open view of God
What it means
Open theism teaches that God knows everything that can be known, but that the future free decisions of people cannot be known, even by God, until they are made. God knows every possibility and is wise enough to respond to any of them, but he takes risks, is sometimes surprised, and may change his plans as history unfolds. Its holders believe this makes God's relationship with people genuine and explains why he seems to grieve, test, and relent in Scripture.
The view arose among evangelical scholars in the late twentieth century. It was widely debated, and many evangelical bodies concluded that it falls outside historic Christian teaching on God. Historic Christianity has always confessed that God knows all things, including the future choices of every creature, and that his knowledge is not learned from events but is eternal and certain.
What Scripture says
God declares the end from the beginning and says his purpose will stand.
Before a word is on my tongue, the Lord knows it completely.
All the days ordained for me were written in God's book before one of them came to be.
Jesus foretells Judas's betrayal so that when it happens, the disciples will believe he is who he says.
God challenges the idols to declare what is to come, because knowing the future marks the true God.
God works all things for the good of those he foreknew and predestined.
What is wrong with it
Scripture treats exact knowledge of the future as a mark of the true God, the thing that sets him apart from idols. And the future God foretells is full of free human choices: Cyrus by name a century early, Peter's three denials, Judas's betrayal, the soldiers dividing Christ's clothing. If God could not know free choices in advance, he could not have made these prophecies, and the cross itself, carried out by "lawless men" according to God's "set plan and foreknowledge" (Acts 2:23), could not have been promised. Open theism must read these passages as lucky guesses or as God forcing the outcome, and neither fits the text.
How it undermines the truth
It undermines God's foreknowledge, and with it the reliability of prophecy and promise. If God does not know what people will freely do, then every promise that depends on human choices, including the promise that Christ will return, that the gospel will reach the nations, and that those he called he will glorify, is God's best estimate rather than his sure word. It undermines his sovereignty, since his purposes can be frustrated by choices he did not foresee. And it undermines his wisdom, since a God who learns can also have been wrong.
How it can harm a church
The harm is sharpest in suffering. Open theism is often offered as comfort: God did not see your tragedy coming and grieves it with you. But that leaves the sufferer with a God who was taken by surprise, who cannot promise that this evil will be worked for good, and who cannot guarantee it will not happen again. The Christian comfort of Romans 8:28, of Joseph's "you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good," depends on a God who knew and ruled. Members also learn to pray to a God who might be talked into or out of things, and to read prophecy as provisional.
This page describes a teaching, not the faith of any person who holds it.
Where it comes up
Confessions: WCF 2.2; WCF 3.1; WCF 5.1; LBCF 1689 2.2; LBCF 1689 3.2
On this site: Doctrine of God
Related terms
Classical theismHistoric orthodoxy
The historic Christian teaching that God is infinite, eternal, unchanging, and perfect in himself, not dependent on or improved by his creation.
ImmutabilityHistoric orthodoxy
God does not change in his being, character, knowledge, or purposes.
Relational theismFlagged as a concern
A view that keeps much of historic theology but sets aside doctrines such as impassibility, immutability, or simplicity, so that God is changed by his relationship with creation.