What Does God Know and When Does He Know It? The Current Controversy over Divine Foreknowledge

Rating:
Summary: Exposes neo-philosophy of openism
Review: Dr. Erickson does not disappoint. He once again shows how the best way to handle the Bible is by first examining one's own presuppositions and philosophic bent in the exegesis process before analyzing the texts.

This is the finest strength of the book, whereby he shows the Traditional Evangelical approach and Biblical givens that will be used to interpret passages in question. Most indicting against the open theists is their failure to do just that. They go headlong into interpretation and pronouncement of their opinions without declaring their obvious dependency on neo-philosophic speculation. Erickson exposes their stunning lapse. He shows how their arguments against Historic Evangelical position collapse in the realm of undeclared, unsupported and assumed First Principles that are non-negotiable. Open theism is too heavily reliant on the contrivances of modernist philosophers like Charles Hartshorne.

When I looked up Hartshorne on the web, much disturbing information about 'Omnipotence and Other Theological Mistakes' and Process Philosophy that challenge the Bible and Historic Christianity became abundantly evident.

Any belief system that relies even remotely on Hartshorne as one of its heroes and mentors must to some degree be Hartshornian in presuppositions and First Principles. While open theists seem to knock Historic Evangelicals for reliance on Greek Philosophy, the question is: whom do they themselves rely on? Which Greeks are hiding under their sanctimonious mattress?

The book is fair, balanced and easily readible. I understand D.A. Carson has been working on a book to add to the discussion. I enjoyed his essay in God Under Fire, which in 30 pages nearly accomplished what Dr. Erickson does here in a full volume.

My only quibble is how the book ends not with a bang, but a whimper. Instead of outright declaring open theism to be non-evangelical, he says the tone and emotion of the debate needs to be moderated. Perhaps so. But a spade should still be called a spade, truthfully in love and lovingly in truth. Any less and it's neither truthful nor loving in Christ's sight. Just reading Rev. 2&3 makes one shudder about how Jesus felt about false doctrine damaging His precious churches! We too must beware!

Rating:
Summary: Commended to the attention of clergy and lay readers alike
Review: Millard J. Erickson is an experienced theology instructor who has served several evangelical seminaries and who has more than twenty-five books and numerous published articles to his credit. In What Does God Know And When Does He Know It?: The Current Controversy Over Divine Foreknowledge, Professor Erickson grapples with tough questions and issues that transcend academic contemplation and reach into personal life, such as "When we pray, do our prayers make a difference, or is everything that will happen already determined?" and "Does God have a plan for our lives, and is it based on a knowledge of all that will happen?" A powerful, astutely reasoned treatise filled from cover to cover with deep spiritual reverence and a respect for the divine while simultaneously striving to better understand common concerns in the light of profound faith, What Does God Know And When Does He Know It? is strongly commended to the attention of clergy and lay readers alike.

Rating:
Summary: A helpful defense of the traditional understanding
Review: The debate over openness theology or free-will theism continues to bubble along nicely. Books both for and against continue to pour from the presses. In the past two decades some thirty volumes have been penned directly on this issue. One of the latest to weigh in, offering the "no" case to openness thought, is What Does God Know? Written by veteran theologian Millard Erickson, it explores one major component of openness thought, the belief that God does not know the future. Erickson has actually written before on openness theology, with parts of The Evangelical Left ( Baker, 1997) and God the Father Almighty (Baker, 1998) offering critiques of the movement.

Erickson begins by assessing the biblical support offered both by open theists and classical theists. This is followed by a look at the hermenuetical issues involved. It seems these sections could have been a bit stronger, and he seems to over-rely on Bruce Ware's God's Lesser Glory (Crossway, 2000) here. But it is a good introduction to the biblical material that is being debated.

He next explores the historical development of God's foreknowledge, arguing that although it was not a major doctrine of the early church councils and creeds, it was in the main supported throughout church history by most of the church. There have always been dissenters on this issue, but they have tended to be in the minority, and often on the edges of orthodoxy.

He then explores the philosophical debate surrounding God's foreknowledge. These are some of the stronger chapters in the book, as Erickson has always had as good a grasp of philosophy as theology. He demonstrates that the claims of the openness camp concerning classical theism's over-reliance on Greek philosophy are overstated and somewhat misleading. He also shows that openness thought is also quite depended on philosophy in its own right.

He concludes by looking at the practical consequences of these two theological systems, and how they impinge on other major doctrines of the faith.

All in all this is a very good restatement of classical theology, and a very incisive and irenic critique of openness thought. Erickson is always a joy to read and he has done a good job here in defending the traditional understanding that God does indeed know all things, even the future.