Do you take an open view of God?

Question:

Good day, Brother Jeff,

I have gotten very satisfactory answers from you since I started using your site. You answer like a real teacher.

I'm just shuffling off progressivism from my life and neither do I want to be an extremist to the left or right in any matter. I just want the truth.

In your answers to issues about God's foreknowledge, you seem to take an open view of God. How biblically viable is that view?

Also, is the "Silence is permissive" logic not useless against polygamy and transgenderism?

Be blessed.

Answer:

I don't ascribe to a particular theological viewpoint. I teach what I find in the Scriptures, whether it matches someone's theology or not.

"Open Theism" is a philosophy that the future is not fixed. There is always a range of possibilities and that God directs the future toward His goals. The free-will choices of people may cause God to respond in different ways to keep His goals on track. It is contrasted to Calvinism, which sees the future as being fixed before the world was even made. Everything that is happening is merely playing out what God already determined will be, including whether a person is saved or not.

As far as I summarized what Open Theists teach, I don't disagree with the concept. But it is not because I ascribe to their teachings. Rather, I've looked through the Scriptures and have made similar conclusions. I would hope that in my discussions on free-will that I've sighted plenty of passages to support my conclusions.

God's silence on a topic only tells us that we do not know what God wants. You cannot conclude permission from silence nor can you fully conclude prohibition. But in many subjects, people claim silence when God has not been silent.

For example, God has clearly stated that marriage is been a man and a woman (Matthew 19:4-6). Leaders of congregations, who set the example for the rest of the congregation, must be husbands of one wife (I Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:6). Thus, polygamy is ruled out by what God has said.

Transgenderism is ruled out because God said He made mankind as male and female (Genesis 1:27). Men and women are not to dress as the other gender (Deuteronomy 22:5). Transgenderism is a form of lying about who you are, which is forbidden by God (Colossians 3:9-11). To say that God hasn't talked about this issue is to ignore what God has said.