Questions for open theists

by Matt Slick

Open theism teaches that God does not know the future either because He chooses to, or because the future is unknowable.

Following are questions to ask open theists:

1. Do you believe that God learns?
   1. According to Open theism, God does not know the future free will choices of people, though He knows all possible choices they could make. Therefore, when people finally make those choices, God then learns what those choices are. Therefore, the God of open theism learns; that is, he learns what becomes the choices of his created beings.
   2. If God is learning, then isn't He growing in understanding and gaining in knowledge?
2. Do you believe that God can make mistakes?  For example, can God believe one thing will happen and it does not?
   1. If God learns what people will do only after they have done it, then is it possible for God to expect someone to do one thing and yet he doesn't do it? Is it possible?
      1. If yes, then you propose a god who makes mistakes and learns from his mistakes.  Can such a god be trusted?  Is such a god biblical?
      2. If no, are you saying he guesses the future properly every time?  If so, then he is knowing the future free will choices of all people.
   2. If God can make mistakes, then how do you know that the atonement isn't a mistake?  How do you know that His making you isn't a mistake?
3. The Bible says that Jesus bore our sins in His body on the cross (1 Pet. 2:24).  If this is so, then how did God know which sins to place on Christ since we hadn't committed them yet when Jesus was crucified?
   1. If you say that God put all possible sins that could be committed on Jesus, then how would God know which sins would actually be committed?  If He put all potential sin on Jesus, then there might be sins placed on Christ that were never committed by anyone.
   2. If you say that God put every kind of sin on Christ, then Jesus didn't bear our sins in His body, did He? ...since your position would mean that individual sins were not born by Christ.
   3. If you say that God does not need to know every sin we will commit, on what basis do you say he does not have to know?  Just saying He doesn't proves nothing.  If you answer that it is because the future is unknowable, then you beg the question; that is, you assume the thing to be true which you are trying to prove and that is not proof.
   4. If you say that sins aren't a substance to be placed on Jesus, then you fail to understand imputation which says that our sins were reckoned to Jesus account.
   5. VERSES:
      1. 1 Pet. 2:24 says, "and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed."
      2. 2 Cor. 5:21, "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
4. Jer. 1:5 says, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you."  If the future doesn't exist, how can God know Jeremiah before he was born?  How did God know for certain he would be born?