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Summary: Absolutely recommend this!!
Review: Pre destination and Pre determinism have been the most incredibly challenging aspects of my christian faith-my soul has spent countless hours in upheaval about this, even though I have been fourtunate enough to have encountered amazing teaching and direction in my life. This book has literally liberated the view I have on my life as being full of possibilities and open to the idea of My Heavenly Father actually giving me dreams that CAN be fulfilled. I sincerely had issues with religious ideas that contended in the nature of my having to struggle and be content in swallowing or staying in unnecessary situations that really could be (and should have been) overcome. It has also opened up my veiw on God being more of a refuge and an enormously empowering force in my life that I get to be inside of every day; allowing every day to be something new and an opening to God working in my life and through me in amazing ways Every Day. Liberation?? Absolutely. The book is written in more of a textbook manner (at least the first two chapters, so bare with it), because when you hit the third chapter, it all starts flowing really well - being pieced together - and wow! its like breathing new air. Loved it. Definately recommend it to anyone just waiting to grow further in God's Love. Absolute, Unconditional, Penetrating, Incomparable Love.
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Summary: Declaring End From Beginning, Ancient Times Things Not Yet
Review: While thought-provoking and thorough,does not do justice to Jesus knowing Peter's denial and 'free-will'return, Judas' free-will apostasy(prophesied 1000 yrs.prior)and predictions of Peter's death and John's remaining; Jesus knowing the hearts of all (Jn.21:17,Acts1:24,15:8).Both Peter and John(1Jn3:20)state God knows ALL THINGS. Sounds like OMNISCIENCE on face value plain sense. One item unknown by God would yield penultimate knowledge.Shouldn't call ltd. foreknowledge omni.Rev.1:19 has Jesus revealing 'the things which will take place after this' including multiple free-will decisions by human and angelic agents in explicit detail as absolute certainties, not conditional divine, best-guess prognostications eg. Nostradamus, Jeane Dixon, etc. Is.55:8-9'My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts."Jesus also quotes sheep and goats on Judgment Day (Mt.25:37,44) and Mt.7:22"Lord, Lord...", 2,000+ yrs. before they will be actually uttered. Now that's exhaustive OMNIscience!" Rev.6:15-16 quotes "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb...who shall stand?"cf Lk.23:30,Hos10:8 How would the Lord know what the judged will specifically say in thousands of years in a contingent, free-agent future unless that was not an issue for an OMNIscient God? These and multiple other Bible texts will need to be closely examined individually and corporately for the author to raise his finite thoughts a bit higher to catch a clearer glimpse of infinite, exhaustive, OMNIforeknowledge - Is. 46:10,Jn1:48, Lk.22:10-12,Mk.11:2-6,Gal.1:15-16,Acts18:9-10,27:23-26,34;21:10-14. It's also helpful to wonder why and how Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Knox, Wesley, Edwards and other founding fathers of the faith could have missed the Scriptures that limited God's omniscience about ALL future events, thoughts, words, etc., only to be discovered recently by 'fresh thought and modern insight'. Would God Almighty really want to wait until 20th/21st Centuries before His people began to get such an important attribute of their Creator finally right! I am unaware of any other monotheistic scholarship (Jewish, Islamic, Roman Catholic, etc.) that seriously puts forth such an openness of God theory in any convincing, God-blessed way.
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Summary: A brilliant Biblical relook at divine foreknowledge
Review: A superb outline of the 'Open' view of God (also known as Neo-theism, Free-will theism or Presentism); Boyd challenges the classical view of divine exhaustive foreknowledge and presents a concise (yet logically exhaustive) argument that a faithful reading of Scripture will teach us that God faces genuine possibilities and that some aspects of the future are unknown even to Omniscience Himself. Written in a style combining the gentleness of a pastor with the argumentational prowess of a scholar, Boyd gives a very well-timed and accessible Biblical look at the openness of God. This book distinguishes itself from some of the recent works from the 'Open God' school by its almost exclusive focus on Scriptural data and exegesis (the first two chapters - short but full of sting - form the best intellectual offensive from the Bible that I've read for Neo-theism thus far), giving only a bare sprinkling of philosophical theology. I believe that anyone seriously interested in the nature and attributes of God must thoroughly examine the exegetical arguments set forth here, especially from the OT (Mr. Kenneth Bass would do well to focus on this issue instead of dwelling on perceived mismatches in Boyd's way of addressing two different issues; point is, if we don't agree with Boyd, can we produce a better Scriptural argument?). Do not brush aside the 'divine repentance' passages but ask honestly why you have trouble accepting statements about God changing His mind as literal (if indeed you do - I know I did!). The third chapter proceeds to list down certain practical and experiential advantages in adopting the Open God model, and the fourth chapter rounds up with an apologetic which tackles 18 most common objections to this view. Given the book's introductory purposes, these two chapters are unfortunately kept to an outline format. Still, Boyd gives good insightful responses to some knee-jerk reactions to his view ("What do we mean by a partially open and partially determined future?"), as well as briefly elaborating a Neo-Arminian view of Romans 9 (especially with its many apparently deterministic passages). It's for certain that many authors (including Boyd) will be building on the sketches presented in God of the Possible. A new evangelical paradigm shift is on (putting classical Reformed theology firmly on the defensive), and it's hard to foresee its full emergence and acceptance being prevented in the near future. Representatives of the opposition will have to do a lot more and a lot better than argue by philosophical outrage (which, I feel, is what almost all critics of free-will theism begin with). Like Boyd, they will need to have a firm footing in Scripture. But they need to take caution - for it is in His Word that the God of the possible will show us that even the most strongly held convictions are not impossible to disprove.
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Summary: Changing His Tune
Review: Certainly Boyd travels far from the well-worn path of Protestant determinism when he makes the claim that "...the view of God as eternally unchanging in every respect (and thus as possessing an eternally unchanging knowledge of all world history) owes more to Plato than it does to the Bible" in this book. Boyd attempts to present a more Biblical view of the foreknowledge of God than the Classical view presented by Calvinism and Arminianism. I find it interesting that Boyd finds little use for the philosophy of the Early Church and Medieval periods in this book since he subscribed whole-heartedly to it in his polemic against Oneness Pentecostals ("Oneness Pentecostals and the Trinity", Baker, 1992). Although he is addressing a different subject, it certainly makes one wonder what the correct position should be. Overall the book is interesting since it brings an Orthodox Theologian to deny eternal security and attempts to discredit an Orthodox view of predestination in favor of a more recent view. This is significant again due to OPT where Boyd argues that the older doctrines must be given more weight than the more recent. The discussion surrounding the Open View of God was certainly enhanced by this book. However, it does cast some doubt upon the consistency of the author's views.
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Summary: Boyd Brings It All Together
Review: This book opens up a whole new world of understanding God, pain, passion, and intervention. Why does God allow awful things to happen? If God know everything in advance, why doesn't he stop the awful catastrophes in our lives from happening? Where is he? Boyd brings it all together in a scripturally coherent way. Never do you feel that he is leading you away through a fog of ambiguity - every point is backed up by scripture. It's amazing what we don't see in the scriptures due to our preconceptions about the nature of God. This book is highly recommended.
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Summary: Lukewarm doubletalk
Review: Boyd tries to find a new middleroad between the "cold" of Arminianism and the "hot" of Calvinism. He fails. What he ends up with is a "lukewarm" doctrinal stew. Jesus' opinion of the "lukewarm" in either theology or life is clearly stated in Revelation chapter 3.
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Summary: Is all of the future settled?
Review: Dr. Boyd argues against the classical portrait of the future. He wrestles with the biblical passages that indicate an exhaustively determined future, and those passages which indicate otherwise. He proposes a model of the future that is partly open and partly settled and a God who knows each perfectly. He effectively argues that this view of the future seems to be most consistent with our everyday experience, and most consistent with a healthy view of God. I hope classical theologians will not simply dismiss this increasingly popular view without wrestling with the supporting scriptures that Boyd has brought to our attention.
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Summary: A theology for those interested in conquering the future!
Review: In is book "Soul Tsunami" Leonard Sweet says that "the defining question for the church today is what to do with the future." The future, according to Sweet has become a "no-go zone". He quotes Jürgen Moltmann who says "Many abandon Christianity because they can find in it not power of the future." The future and Gods plans for the future is the reason why Greg A. Boyds book "God of the Possible" is such an important book for the church in a post modern society. There is absolutely nothing that links us to the past with such force, or hinders our view of the future with such intensity, as the depressing determinism of Calvinism and the pseudo-freedom fatalism of Armenianism. Nothing is as important as our view of the future and this is why the revelation of the "Open view of God" that Boyd with such clarity and conviction communicates needs to be reasoned through and laid hold off. This book is a wonderful starting point! Understanding the concepts presented in this book will for many be the difference between the prevailing religious pessimistic defeatism of our day and the victorious hope of those dreaming Gods dreams for the future. My friend, whoever you are, this book is a "must" read! If the Church is ever to truly conquer the future in any significant way we need to have a theology that allows us to do so. The significance of this timeless truths about Gods character and being should not be underestimated. The "Openness' of God" view of provides the theological and philosophical framework that is needed for Gods people to look forward with faith.
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Summary: With God all things are "possible"
Review: Greg Boyd once again takes the "unseen" God and gives him a personal more understandable character. In his book Boyd takes the reader through a step by step debate between the Open View and Classical View of God , and why he is convinced the open view is the only viable option. Beginning with the classical Calvinist and Arminian views Boyd tears down, piece by piece, argument by argument, the logic of this Platonically based view of "all-controlling" God. He then proceeds to describe the freedom and joy found when a believer discovers the open view of God. His argument is not only philisophically and logically sound, but also has a biblical base. To conclude Boyd takes on some of the tough questions posed from his skeptics and provides not only a convincing discourse but supporting biblical evidence as well. I agree with Boyd when he said, "many of those who honestly examine the evidence for the open view and choose to reject it do so not because the evidence is weak but because they fear its implications."....a God of the possible!
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Summary: A Biblical View of a Partly Open Future
Review: Christians have usually believed that the future was eternally settled in the mind of God (foreknowledge) if not the will of God (predestination). An increasing number of Bible-believing scholars and laypeople are questioning this belief. If the future is eternally settled, how can humans be truly free? If God is certain what evil people like Hitler are going to do before he creates them, isn't he responsible for what they do? If God loves everyone, like the Bible says, why does God create people he is certain will go to hell? Why pray to alter things if the future is eternally settled? And why does the Bible repeatedly depict God as experiencing surprise, regret, disappointment, changing his mind, asking questions, or speaking about the future in terms of "maybes" -- if in fact he knows the future as exhaustively settled? Questions such as these have led many to the conclusion that the future is NOT eternally settled. Rather, the future is partly open to possibilities, so God (who knows all things perfectly) knows it as a realm of possibilities. In other words, even God sees some of the future as POSSIBLY this way and POSSIBLY that way. This view has come to be called "the open view of God." Many have found this perspective to be biblically illuminating, philosophical statisfying, and spiritual liberating. Others have fiercely opposed it. Some have accused "open theists" of being motivated by non-biblical considerations -- e.g. process philosophy, western individualism, etc. They sometimes insist that this view of the future undermines God's omniscience and sovereignty. In this book I attempt to prove that this is not at all the case. I share the BIBLICAL material that led me 17 years ago to embrace "the open view of God." I show that this view EXALTS God's omniscience and sovereignty more than any competing view. And I explain why many have found that this view brings positive benefits to their life. Whether or not you end up agreeing with me, I think you will find this book worthwhile if 1)You have ever puzzelled over the paradox of foreknowledge and free will; 2)You have ever wondered about depictions of God in Scripture as facing an open future; 3)You are not entirely closed off to the possiblity that we still have new insights to learn from Scripture; and 4)You suspect open theists are not motivated by a desire to follow the Bible. At the very least, this book will challenge you with biblical material and theological reflections you may not have encounterd before. Whatever conclusion you arrive at, challenges like this can only benefit you.
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