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Countering Open Theism

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Attached is an excerpt from the book Four Views of Divine Providence, Chapter 4: God Limits His Control; (Heading) The Open Model of Providence, (Sub-heading) Love and Freedom; contributed by Gregory A. Boyd. There are three other contributors in this book and they each state their positions and defend them as necessary.

Boyd is a proclaimed opponent of Process Theology as well as an Open Theist. I am a conservative Reformed Presbyterian and as you might guess I am not a proponent of process nor openness theology. I believe they are simply heretical.

The excerpt is intriguing because of how Boyd describes love and the micro-chip creator. I am wrestling with the impersonal piece of being programmed with love or to love.

Questions
1) How might I go about discerning the Providence of God and that the Open model or view with regards to love is unbiblical?
2) How might I apply this to my personal, practical, and ministry work?

Thank you!

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Solution Summary

A brief overview of the potential misgivings of and counters against Open Theism are discussed, relative to a specific excerpt from Gregory Boyd.

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Thanks very much for the posting; I hope this one helps you out as much as the others have, and that I can continue to offer my best to help your success.

I appreciate the excerpt, and also knowing your position - this will help me explain things in a way that your position may favor. In terms of defending the traditional, non-open theist view, then:

Boyd assumes from the beginning, operating on the view that "love is the goal of creation." As far as my knowledge of Reformed theology goes, I believe the goal of creation is actually God's glory, yes? Love is a part of revealing that glory, of course, but it is not in and of itself the goal - the means are not necessarily the end, so to speak. So if we are correct about that, then it seems we are already at odds with Boyd's views. Unfortunately for him, the entirety of his views seems to rest upon this assumption, for it is ...

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