People can claim to believe all kinds of things, but the true test of belief is whether or not they actually live as though what they believe is true. What I find interesting is that in terms of prayer, relationship with God, responsibility for sin, and evangelism, most Christians tend to live as though open theism is true. Although I would have liked to cover all four of these areas with this one article, it was getting way too long, so I have broken it up into sections. This first article deals with prayer.
I realize that I am jumping into this discussion without laying a lot of groundwork for open theism. If you are unfamiliar with open theism, or need a refresher, a good summary can be found here http://www.opentheism.info/
The purpose of this article is not to demonstrate that open theism is biblical or logically consistent (though I believe it is both). Rather, my goal is two-fold: first, to show how the majority of Christians seem to live as though they believe in the God of open theism (doctrinal statements to the contrary), and second, to shed some light on why I find open theism so personally compelling. And so, without further ado, this is why I think that most Christians pray like (or ought to pray like) open theists.
Prayer.
Open theism appeals to me on several levels, one of which is in the motivation that it provides for Christians to pray. If you are a Christian who believes that prayer can actually accomplish something in the world that would not have happened if you had not prayed, you might be a closet open theist. One of the things that makes open theism unique among theologies is its view of the future as being open to possibilities, even for God. This has incredible implications for petitionary prayer. What it means is that God may actually bend his will, change a planned course of action, or even change his mind, based on the prayers or actions of his people. When open theists read in the Bible that God repented (sometimes translated relented, changed His mind, was sorry, or was grieved), they take it to mean that God actually was planning to do something, and then actually decided to do something else. Usually, when God does this, it is in response to the repentance or petitions of people on earth. Here are three examples from the lives of Jonah, Moses, and David:
In Jonah chapter 3, God told the Ninevites through Jonah that He was going to destroy Nineveh and its inhabitants. This was not a conditional statement; there were no conditions given. There was no “unless you repent” clause, at least not explicitly. A straightforward reading of Jonah requires us to conclude that God fully intended to destroy the city, as He said He would. His intentions changed when He saw the repentance of the Ninevites. Jonah 3:10 “When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented (KJV has “repented”) concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.” (NASB) The Ninevites truly repented, and God truly repented. To repent simply means to turn away from, or to change direction or course of action. If the Ninevites had not repented, God would have destroyed the city.
In Exodus 32:9-14, God sees the wickedness of His people, and says to Moses, “Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.” Moses intercedes on behalf of the people, and God changes his intended course of action: 32:14 “So the LORD changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.” (NASB). The King James Version states it even more forcefully, “And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.” (KJV). I do not believe that God makes idle threats, nor do I believe that He was simply testing Moses to see what he would do. In other words, if Moses had not interceded on behalf of the people, I believe that God would have carried out his perfect and loving intention to destroy his wicked, idolatrous people and begin anew with Moses, as He had done previously with Noah. An actually change in God’s intended course of action occurred.
One more example: 2 Sam 24:15-17, 25 So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand men of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. 16When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented from the calamity and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough! Now relax your hand!” And the angel of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 17Then David spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel who was striking down the people, and said, “Behold, it is I who have sinned, and it is I who have done wrong; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let Your hand be against me and against my father’s house…25David built there an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Thus the LORD was moved by prayer for the land, and the plague was held back from Israel.
(For a good overview of most (all?) of the passages that speak of God repenting, relenting, or changing his mind, I direct you to Micahthesewell’s theophilux blog on God being interactive. He posted a link to some audio of himself teaching on “Nacham”, the Hebrew word which refers to God repenting. There are around 35 different instances of this in the Bible.)
Let me answer a few objections that will surely be raised at this point. Someone will ask, “Isn’t God repenting simply an anthropomorphism? Isn’t that just our human way of trying to understand God, like saying that God saved his people with his “right hand”? God doesn’t have a hand, but we use a human analogy to speak of God in order to understand his ways. My answer to this objection is that anthropomorphisms (human analogies) like God’s “right hand” are symbols that point to something else. So, God’s “right hand” is a symbol for his power to save, or his divine protection. But what on earth could God “repenting” refer to? If “repentance” is the symbol, what is the referent? The same holds true when we read in the Bible of God grieving, or rejoicing, or becoming angry. Open theists tend to infer that God is actually experiencing these sensations. If using emotions to describe the way God works in the world is merely making use of human analogy, what do those symbolic emotions refer to?
A second likely objection is that since God is immutable, he does not and cannot change. Since God cannot change, when He “repents”, it does not mean He has actually changed. We may not be able to understand what is happening in God when He repents, but it must be something other than an actual change, since He “changest not”. My response to this objection is that His immutability applies to His character and His nature, not His actions, intentions, plans, and emotions. His character does not change, and his nature does not change, but His actions and His plans may. His plans are perfect, but they are subject to change based on the free choices of humans. God is infinitely resourceful, and has no difficulty altering his plans to accommodate our choices. His new plans will be as perfect as His previous ones.
But I have digressed from my original purpose which was to look at some ways that most Christians seem to live as though they believe in the God described by open theism. The first of these is prayer. People who believe that their prayers can actually influence God to intervene in a certain situation will pray fervently and effectively. People who believe that the future is not entirely fixed and certain, but at least partially open to possibilities even in God’s mind, will pray as though their prayers can actually sway the hand of God towards or away from one of these possibilities. On the other hand, people who believe that God’s will is always accomplished on the earth irrespective of human choices, that everything that happens on earth was divinely ordained or foreknown by God will find it difficult to find the motivation to pray, since, que sera sera, whatever will be, will be. The point I am trying to get at is that if you pray like your prayers can actually move the hand of God… if you pray like the outcome of a future event may actually depend in part on whether or not you pray about it… then you are praying like an open theist.
The Ninevites heard the Lord tell them that He would destroy their city. They repented, threw themselves at the mercy of God, and God relented from the disaster. God told Moses to get out of the way, so He could wipe Israel off the face of the earth. Moses refused, (the audaci
ty!) pleaded before the Lord, and the Lord changed His intended course of action. David interceded on behalf of Jerusalem, the Lord was “moved by prayer”, and He repented of the disaster He was about to bring to the city. What an incredible God! This God who listens to the cries of His people! This God who even hears the genuine, desperate cries of a heathen city like Nineveh! He truly is slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness. God has chosen to create a universe in which we, His creation, get to partner with Him in directing the course of history. He has chosen to subject Himself to us in a sense, bending His will and changing His plans based on the repentance and intercession of lowly humans. He is not aloof, uninvolved, and detached. He is interactive and relational. In His love and wisdom He chooses to bring about His plans and intentions in history by allowing us to take part in them. This God who responds to us, who takes our prayers seriously, who is big enough to be sovereign without micro-managing… this is a God that inspires me to worship Him. This is a God who challenges me to engage Him seriously in prayer and intercession. This is a God who invites me to join with Him in bringing about His kingdom on earth, and I cannot help but fall more in love with a God like that.
