I love John Sanders for this title. He comes from the openness theology which I do not fundamentally subscribe to but practically agree with. I have to make this point clear before I proceed with the discussion of God and risk.
Openness theology tends to reduce from the sovereignty of God by intentionally or unintentionally portraying God as incapable of knowing the future in many alternative articulations of their fundamental doctrine. Our covenant-relationship theology fundamentally disagrees with this and we propose that God does not know what He refuses to know, and yes, God CAN help NOT knowing because He is indeed sovereign and we cannot put Him in a box. God indeed has chosen NOT to know many things, even perhaps how much coffee I will be drinking 3 days from now. If He knows it, then the event would be unchangeable and I am locked into a predestined (in the Calvinist sense) activity. God, however, has demonstrated in the Bible time and again that He chooses to be more flexible and a LOT LESS controlling.
We practically agree with openness theology in the sense that the Bible does portray that there are things that God does not know, rarely explicitly but many times implicitly. A God who gets angry is a hypocrite if He already knows ahead of time that He would get angry. A God who gets surprised is another hypocrite because a surprised reaction definitely means the absence of knowledge or information prior to the event. Jesus Christ himself expressed surprise at the centurion's faith and even declared that He had NOT SEEN such faith in all of Israel. Jesus Christ also expressed the same reaction to the Syrophoenician woman who would settle for the crumbs that fall from the children's table after Christ called her a dog. We have to assume that a very moral and perfect God CANNOT be a hypocrite so the only logical conclusion is to state that there are things that God INTENTIONALLY does not know.
Now on to the issue of Risk and a Sovereign God. I believe we have discussed various facets of God and Risk in the other blogs but this one will be both a review of those and a focused discussion on just Divine Risk. Only classical theology which springs from Hellenistic philosophies portray a sovereign God with absolute control over every little thing and practically AFRAID to take any risk. And yet, a focused reading of all of Scripture will portray a God who takes risks ALL the time!
My fundamental beef here is that since I am challenging classical theology on this, am I the biblical false teacher or are they? I will prove in this blog that they are and Satan has indeed succeeded in his mission to distort Scripture through the ages by painting a pseudo-God instead of portraying and profiling the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob correctly. As a result, we have a huge generation of converted sinners who refuse to be transformed to live a life of holiness simply because they believe that a Sovereign God is responsible for all of that. The subliminal belief is that if they are not holy, then it is God's fault and not theirs. Look around and see all these Christians making all of these excuses as to why they divorced, why they remarried a divorcee, why they get habitual intoxication, why they evade taxes, why they don't really love their next door neighbor, etc.
THE GOD WHO RISKS IS THE GOD WHO LOVES ABUNDANTLY BUT IS ALSO JEALOUS, CURSES, JUDGES AND PUNISHES!!!
Risk Defined Actuarially (Mathematically) and Logically:
Mathematics: The chance of getting LESS THAN 100% of desired outcome.
Investopedia: The chance that an investment's actual return will be different than expected. Risk includes the possibility of losing some or all of the original investment.
Wikipedia: Risk is the potential of losing something of value, weighed against the potential to gain something of value.
Merriam-Webster : the possibility that something bad or unpleasant (such as an injury or a loss) will happen
Dictionary.com: exposure to the chance of injury or loss.
Major Divine Risks
Openness theology tends to reduce from the sovereignty of God by intentionally or unintentionally portraying God as incapable of knowing the future in many alternative articulations of their fundamental doctrine. Our covenant-relationship theology fundamentally disagrees with this and we propose that God does not know what He refuses to know, and yes, God CAN help NOT knowing because He is indeed sovereign and we cannot put Him in a box. God indeed has chosen NOT to know many things, even perhaps how much coffee I will be drinking 3 days from now. If He knows it, then the event would be unchangeable and I am locked into a predestined (in the Calvinist sense) activity. God, however, has demonstrated in the Bible time and again that He chooses to be more flexible and a LOT LESS controlling.
We practically agree with openness theology in the sense that the Bible does portray that there are things that God does not know, rarely explicitly but many times implicitly. A God who gets angry is a hypocrite if He already knows ahead of time that He would get angry. A God who gets surprised is another hypocrite because a surprised reaction definitely means the absence of knowledge or information prior to the event. Jesus Christ himself expressed surprise at the centurion's faith and even declared that He had NOT SEEN such faith in all of Israel. Jesus Christ also expressed the same reaction to the Syrophoenician woman who would settle for the crumbs that fall from the children's table after Christ called her a dog. We have to assume that a very moral and perfect God CANNOT be a hypocrite so the only logical conclusion is to state that there are things that God INTENTIONALLY does not know.
Now on to the issue of Risk and a Sovereign God. I believe we have discussed various facets of God and Risk in the other blogs but this one will be both a review of those and a focused discussion on just Divine Risk. Only classical theology which springs from Hellenistic philosophies portray a sovereign God with absolute control over every little thing and practically AFRAID to take any risk. And yet, a focused reading of all of Scripture will portray a God who takes risks ALL the time!
My fundamental beef here is that since I am challenging classical theology on this, am I the biblical false teacher or are they? I will prove in this blog that they are and Satan has indeed succeeded in his mission to distort Scripture through the ages by painting a pseudo-God instead of portraying and profiling the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob correctly. As a result, we have a huge generation of converted sinners who refuse to be transformed to live a life of holiness simply because they believe that a Sovereign God is responsible for all of that. The subliminal belief is that if they are not holy, then it is God's fault and not theirs. Look around and see all these Christians making all of these excuses as to why they divorced, why they remarried a divorcee, why they get habitual intoxication, why they evade taxes, why they don't really love their next door neighbor, etc.
THE GOD WHO RISKS IS THE GOD WHO LOVES ABUNDANTLY BUT IS ALSO JEALOUS, CURSES, JUDGES AND PUNISHES!!!
Risk Defined Actuarially (Mathematically) and Logically:
Mathematics: The chance of getting LESS THAN 100% of desired outcome.
Investopedia: The chance that an investment's actual return will be different than expected. Risk includes the possibility of losing some or all of the original investment.
Wikipedia: Risk is the potential of losing something of value, weighed against the potential to gain something of value.
Merriam-Webster : the possibility that something bad or unpleasant (such as an injury or a loss) will happen
Dictionary.com: exposure to the chance of injury or loss.
- Creation of the Angels with the ability to rebel
- Creation of man in God's image
- The Kenosis of Christ
- The timing of the crucifixion
- True Free will
- True Love
- The Greatest Commandment
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