SortingBeans

This post is part of a series that will be discussing theology; in particular Open theism.
In this post I asked for you all to help me choose a series topic to write about. I got two good responses which I enjoyed:

1. Open Theism from Arminian Today
2. Ramifications of truly believing Jesus as Lord and Savior of one’s life by YouSeeDryBones.com

I like them both, so I would like to combine them

Please carefully read the following disclaimer: While I do not intend to hurt someone’s feelings or offend anyone, it may be offensive as I talk about truly following Jesus in regards to open theism. I may challenge your theological position. When this happens, interact with others in the comments and let’s do this together. If you are super offended, well, I am really here to exalt Christ. And if me exalting Christ in the context of Scripture is offensive to some, it seems there is no other thing for me to do than pray and praise God.

Now, off to the thread
I began this series with a picture and a question, which you can see and read here. I asked for comments on the interpretation of these words and picture, and lo and behold, someone fell for my trap (yes, you know who you are)! This person’s comment opened up my next post. This comment left was in response to Isaiah 40:8:

“. . . there is no way for the thoughts of man through theology to suppress those of God through Scripture.”

I wrote some words my father used to often say, “What is of God you cannot stop and what is of man will come to not.”

When I think of Scripture and God’s lasting word that is recorded Isaiah 40:8, I think of another Scripture: Acts 5, in particular, Acts 5:39. The Apostles were being persecuted after healing many in the earlier part of the chapter. Acts 5:17-18 says that the high priests and the Sadducees were filled with jealousy and arrested the Apostles. Soon after, the Holy Spirit shows up on the scene, lets the Apostles out of jail (basically breaks them out of prison, which would be against the law, think about that) and leads them back into the courts and charges them to teach the “full message” of the new life.

Soon after this, the Sadducees found the Apostles missing, were stumped on how this could happened, and found them and brought them back into the full council of Sanhedrin.

These religious leaders wanted to Kill the Apostles!
But one of the Pharisees, named Gamaliel, spoke to the rest of the council. He basically said, “Watch out, you might be doing the wrong thing. If these guys are fake, they will die with the rest! But if they are real, and God is behind this, we will never be able to stop them. That’s right, we’ll be fighting against God, not them!” Read it for yourself in Acts 5:34-39.

What do we make out of this?

Not only do we have O.T. Scripture affirming God’s everlasting word – how it cannot be thwarted – but we even have Pharisees affirming the everlasting word of God.

Open Theism states that God does not necessarily know the future and is therefore dependent on the future working out before fully knowing the end result. To put it short, God can be surprised.

If God’s word is everlasting, then how can it be unexpected?

In light of the few passages we have here in this post, how does the theology of Open Theism line up to these?

- Jonathan J.