About Open Theism and The God Who Plays Dice

A Book on the Openness of God
by Gregory Boyd



      Open Theism places an emphasis on the philosophy of libertarian freedom.  In order to be free, there can be no restraints which limit our decisions.  As free moral agents, our decisions should be free of influence (whether it be from without or within).  If we are influenced to choose something, then we did not, in truth, freely make that decision.  With this in mind, Open Theism tries to build its theological anthropology and theology proper on the "need" of libertarian freedom. 

      Because of their strong emphasis on libertarian freedom, Open Theists view a god who knows the future as an impossibility.  They would say that if God knew the future, then man cannot necessarily held responsible to his actions, because the future is fixed.  Therefore, man did not have the ability to make a free choice.  Gregory Boyd, an intellectual leader of Open Theism, promotes the idea that even though God does not know the future, he knows every single possible outcome and plans accordingly. 

      Boyd, along with a branch of Open Theism theologians, believes that there are some things that God makes happen.  However, Boyd is not clear as to what these things actually are and admits the haziness our Open Theism's understanding of what God actually enforces.  No matter which way it is taken, Open Theism does limit the sovereignty of God. 

    Intellectually, the idea behind Open Theism is very pleasing and comfortable.  Even though it is relevant, is it truly substantive?  I believe that Open Theism falls apart based on its theological foundation of anthropology and theology proper.  True libertarian freedom does not work in this world.  Our actions are highly influenced by the things around us.  With this in mind, we could make excuses all day for our present situation.  Then, is it truly our fault how we lived?  Should we blame Adam, or Eve?  Should God hold really us responsible?

     When we look at everything together, it seems that a compatibilist view of freedom is more in order.  Rather than a God who merely hopes, we have a God who is in control and knows the very future.  He is not bound by time, but sees the whole of history from the eternity past to eternity future.   Because of all of this, I believe the orthodox teaching of God's sovereignty and man's freedom proves itself to be the best explanation. 




Sites/Videos about Open Theism:


For Open Theism:

This video is Part I. of a lecture Gregory Boyd gave concerning Open Theism.  I strongly recommend watching the full series of 13 videos.  They are easily found on YouTube under "Gregory Boyd on Open Theism."  I did not put them all on here because of the issue of space.  



I promise that I am not stereotyping, but this video is pretty amusing while it explains some of the basics of Open Theism.  By no means am I trying to present Open Theism as uneducated or anti-intellectual.  This is meant more for enjoyment...

Against Open Theism:

http://carm.org/what-is-open-theism

http://carm.org/open-theismOLD