Religion and Theology

The article Is there knowledge in the most high written by Professor Larry D. Pettegrew, is an attempt to warn the reader about open theism which he sees as basically unbiblical and totally a misrepresentation of the personality of God. And when our view of God is not sound, God being the centre of everything would then mean for us a complete loss of control he says. He sets out to describe open theism, identify its basic teachings, show its many misinterpretations of old truths and emphasize the importance of  a sound knowledge of the scriptures.

Open theists believe their view of God is superior to that of the Arminian  or the Calvinist in presenting him as a closely personal being who allows man his freedom of choice. Hence, he does know everything save what the free man will do in the future. This sure answers, in his mind the reservation many have about the two extremes that arminism and Calvinism have come to represent in there strictest sense. This is copiously defended with lone quotations from the bible.

The open theist also believes that early Greek culture and civilization had a lot of influence on what the patriarchs of the church have passed down to us as church doctrines and that were it not for this weakness, church doctrines would have been significantly different. Much more like the open doctrine. To this the classic theists respond by saying the church moved with the times and also accuses the open theist of being another name for process thinking.

A cornerstone in the discussion of the open theist is also the literal interpretations of words that connote human feelings in describing God in the old testament. This means, for instance, that God can be surprised. In other words, he does not know all things  before hand. To this, the classical theist responds by pointing out that God is not subject to these passions and these ,words are used with respect to him just as a tool of communicating his holy will to us.

Of all the tools at the disposal of the open theist, perhaps the most potent and possible valid is the question about where God is when bad things happen to good people.