Open Theism: Who Is Flirting With It?

I believe you said this:

5. I suggest that we need to find better explanations for these anthropomorphic language rather than questioning the nature of God.

You're trying to explain away the Bible by assuming it's using "anthropomorphic language."

 

I understand. But you're using the type of language to nullify the words of the Bible. At that point, I suppose everything is up for reinterpretation. If the Bible uses anthropomorphic language to make a point, I would suggest that we pay attention to the point being made. There are a lot of different types of literature in the Bible. They need to be interpreted in light of their style e.g. Revelation is largely symbolic. But they all still convey a message, just in different ways.

 

No one in this thread denies the use of the literary device of anthropomorphism in the bible and neither do Open Theists. The challenge is determining/interpreting which passages actually use this literary device. Classical theists would list more passages than Open Theists. Whether that is justified or not requires a careful look at the literary context of each passage under question.

 

I fall into the camp that recognizes anthropomorphisms in the bible while questioning whether everything we call an anthropomorphism actually is one based on the literary context.

 

I haven't tried to "harmonize the anthropomorphic". There are somethings we can stay agnostic about right?

I go to a passage and recognize that my pretext of the omniscience of God suggests certain words in those passages to be anthropomorphic. I try to see if the use of anthropomorphism is actually something that the context suggests is actually the case. Usually it is really hard to tell and I don't try to "harmonize" anything but leave it as something the text isn't clear about and tack it on to another mystery of God that I can ask him about in person. There are lots of those in the bible.

 

In as much as God is HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, all of our major premises are necessarily false due to our libertarian free will which is enslaved to the depravity of our nature.

Man does not want to be like God--he wants to be God. Satan has the same problem. We have two kinds of people on this globe: children of God and children of Satan. Some folk seem not to know how to discern them. God has allowed the god of this world to control the world systems. We are in the last hour of the last day--using God"s time.

Are we ready?

Selah,

Bro. James

 

The soveriegnty of God can be taken so far to the left that man is given more control of his life than fits reality. And it can be taken so far the other way that some men are veiwed as being created to be damned. Both are extreme and unbiblical.

 

Exactly, both extremes have no place in Scripture. They have no place in our worship or any other aspect of our lives.

 

What does "the left" mean in relationship to religion? I think you like many are mixing up religion and politics.

 

Never heard of it until tonight. But from what I've just read Hogwash seems a good description.

 

Do they use any scripture to support their view? I can't imagine there being any unless they twist it beyond recognition.