Process Theology-Part 1
ReI have heard that God, Evil, and Suffering Class at Luther Seminary is overflowing with students. The Biblical View set forth is that God does not will such bad things to happen as September 11 or the Tsuanmi. Well it is true God isn't the one that wills that these actions take place, for these actions take place due to human sin and its ramifications. For if one never saw the serious consquences set forth by sin, how could one ever be brought to repentance. So God uses suffering for good. No one is immune from this suffering, except God who cannot suffer for to suffer is to be without hope. The reason no one is immune, is because all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.
Process Theology is different from Open Theism in a couple ways.
1. Open Theism does not believe in the co-eternity of Man and God. God does not need Man to actualize God.
2. Open Theism does hold that God created the Earth out of nothing.
3. Open Theism believes in Satan, where as in Process Thought God is only trying to lure people to his ideal, to make himself more like God.
4. Open Theism does not deny the Omnipotence of God.
5. Open Theism is more focused on the actuality of the relationships between Man and God, when it comes to issues of faith. Process Theology is more focused on the actuality of God in its relationship with Man.
Both are centered on the ideas of
1. A Di-Polar relationship of God to the world in that he knows all in the present, but does not know all in the future. Because of this they hold to the idea that God is both changing and unchanging.
2. The future for God is based on a series of possiblities that can be acted upon. So life is a series of determining experiences, instead of a foreknown existence.
3. Both like to focus on Bible verses which speak of God changing his mind.
4. Both draw on metaphysics and philosophy in explaining God. Metaphysics in explaining the idea that experiences that relate to other expriences that set forth events in place.
I want to focus on part 1 on two things. One texts which speak of God changing his mind used by both Process Theologians and Open Theists. Process Theologians like to use these to downplay the Omnipotent and Omniscience of God. So hence forth, God is realized by how we act out the possibilities.
The great majority of this exigetical work. I mean about 99 percent was done in the Resolution on the Foreknowledge of God: Reasons & Rationale prepared For The Baptist General Conference in 2000 by John Piper and Justin Taylor found at
www.desiringgod.org/media/pdf/ booklets/bgc_foreknowledge_booklet.pdf
1. Hezekiah is added 15 years after he repents (Isaiah 38:1-5)
A few obesrvations...
1. One you have a condition in death which is to be brought to Hezekiah if he persists in his current state.
2. Hezekiah realizes a problem with his current state, and repents. So therefore an action takes place to remove Hezekiah from the state which brings death.
3. After Hezekiah's repentance from the trouble of his current state, God adds fifteen years to his life.
This text.
1. Does not say God changes his mind. What happens here a condition is set forth, Hezekiah seeks to change to condition by repentance, and the condition is changed. This is similar to what happens to Jonah in Jonah 3, when looking at the fate of the Ninevites. God sets forth what will happen in a current state, this convicts, and leads out of a current state. For instance, Romans 6:23-Says the wages of sin is death-This is the current state, but then the Gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus-Christ Jesus takes one out of the current state of sin brining death.
2. These texts process birds like to use deal with a conditional threat (ie I will fire him if he shows up 4 hours late to work, then he never shows up 4 hours late to work, I don't fire him. This is not an example of my changing my mind.
This logic applies to Jeremiah 18:7-8 when it speaks of God changing his plan. This text is quite simple though. What is true in verse 7-that God has to destroy a nation if it continues in its ways, doesn't make verse 8 untrue that God will not destroy a nation if it does not continue in its ways. For it is not illogical to say someone is saved by Grace at Baptism(This is true at the time), but then say if they become atheists later in life, they are not saved(This is true at that time). This is not God changing his mind.
What about when God repents as in 1 Samuel 15:11.
1. To say God repents is not the same as to say we repent, for God is without error. When we repent is it to acknowledge that God's nature is in contrast to ours. So for God to repent does this not mean the same thing that our nature is in contrast to God's. So when we repent, we say we are not like God, when God repents he says he is not like man. So in God's repentance it is stating a disapproval of man's nature, and how it is not like God.
This logic continues in Genesis 6:5-6 when God says he is sorry for what he made. Here God is acknowledging he is not like man. So God is stating the consquences here of sin which he foreknew, this is backed up by 2 Timothy 1:9.
When God says perhaps in Jeremiah 26:1-3.
1. To say perhaps suggests people may do this or do that, and that it might lead to this or that consquence. To speak in such a way is required when communicating this message to human beings. This goes back to the Hezekiah text, a condition exists, if people persist in that condition a calamity will ensue, but if they don't persist a calamity will not ensue. This is not an example of the future being open for God, or God changing his mind. The future is open from a human perspective, but not from a divine perspective.
What about God making a wrong predicition as in Jeremiah 3:6-7. Well in a text like this all it can say is normally Israel(Northern Kingdom would repent). But this time they did not. No one could argue that this was the first time the people in the Northern Kingdom engaged in sinful activity, but one could argue it was the first time they did not repent as they always had before.
Why did God test Abraham as in Genesis 22.
1. God had purposes for his own glory. We know that God had promised Abraham many descendants before this. Could God have not had a purpose in testing Abraham here so that Abraham would lead Israel for God's own glory. The Process view here is problematic since if God wanted Abraham to do this, and he did do it. Who is to say Abraham wasn't going to turn to sin five minutes later. The reason Orthodox Christianity holds that God did this isn't because God didn't foreknow, but because God wanted mold the leadership of Abraham. For God doesn't just foreknow, he is involved in history so that it may be done for God's own glory.
The final passage to look at is Exodus 4:7-9. Where it seems God didn't know how many signs needed to be performed for Moses to believe. One, God doesn't always reveal his will to us for a specific situation. Two, God reveals in Exodus 4:17-that the signs were all done for God's own purpose. Another reason is God's relational language such as in Genesis 18:21. The reasons God speaks like this is for communication purposes with human beings.
Conclusion: I think one needs to work through the texts the process people to throw out. By asserting that they never downplay the foreknowledge of God. There are different factors at play here dealing with Conditions being met, the meaning of God's repentance, and God's will and purpose.
But here are a few questions to ask the Process Theologians.
1. Can you affirm since you believe in Panetheism that God is in all things, also the doctrine of Orginal Sin. Since if God is in all things, they cannot be contrary to God in all nature, since God is in them?
2. Doesn't this view stand in complete contrast to the view of God presented in Article 1 of the AC, and throughout the confessions?
Process Theology is different from Open Theism in a couple ways.
1. Open Theism does not believe in the co-eternity of Man and God. God does not need Man to actualize God.
2. Open Theism does hold that God created the Earth out of nothing.
3. Open Theism believes in Satan, where as in Process Thought God is only trying to lure people to his ideal, to make himself more like God.
4. Open Theism does not deny the Omnipotence of God.
5. Open Theism is more focused on the actuality of the relationships between Man and God, when it comes to issues of faith. Process Theology is more focused on the actuality of God in its relationship with Man.
Both are centered on the ideas of
1. A Di-Polar relationship of God to the world in that he knows all in the present, but does not know all in the future. Because of this they hold to the idea that God is both changing and unchanging.
2. The future for God is based on a series of possiblities that can be acted upon. So life is a series of determining experiences, instead of a foreknown existence.
3. Both like to focus on Bible verses which speak of God changing his mind.
4. Both draw on metaphysics and philosophy in explaining God. Metaphysics in explaining the idea that experiences that relate to other expriences that set forth events in place.
I want to focus on part 1 on two things. One texts which speak of God changing his mind used by both Process Theologians and Open Theists. Process Theologians like to use these to downplay the Omnipotent and Omniscience of God. So hence forth, God is realized by how we act out the possibilities.
The great majority of this exigetical work. I mean about 99 percent was done in the Resolution on the Foreknowledge of God: Reasons & Rationale prepared For The Baptist General Conference in 2000 by John Piper and Justin Taylor found at
www.desiringgod.org/media/pdf/ booklets/bgc_foreknowledge_booklet.pdf
1. Hezekiah is added 15 years after he repents (Isaiah 38:1-5)
A few obesrvations...
1. One you have a condition in death which is to be brought to Hezekiah if he persists in his current state.
2. Hezekiah realizes a problem with his current state, and repents. So therefore an action takes place to remove Hezekiah from the state which brings death.
3. After Hezekiah's repentance from the trouble of his current state, God adds fifteen years to his life.
This text.
1. Does not say God changes his mind. What happens here a condition is set forth, Hezekiah seeks to change to condition by repentance, and the condition is changed. This is similar to what happens to Jonah in Jonah 3, when looking at the fate of the Ninevites. God sets forth what will happen in a current state, this convicts, and leads out of a current state. For instance, Romans 6:23-Says the wages of sin is death-This is the current state, but then the Gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus-Christ Jesus takes one out of the current state of sin brining death.
2. These texts process birds like to use deal with a conditional threat (ie I will fire him if he shows up 4 hours late to work, then he never shows up 4 hours late to work, I don't fire him. This is not an example of my changing my mind.
This logic applies to Jeremiah 18:7-8 when it speaks of God changing his plan. This text is quite simple though. What is true in verse 7-that God has to destroy a nation if it continues in its ways, doesn't make verse 8 untrue that God will not destroy a nation if it does not continue in its ways. For it is not illogical to say someone is saved by Grace at Baptism(This is true at the time), but then say if they become atheists later in life, they are not saved(This is true at that time). This is not God changing his mind.
What about when God repents as in 1 Samuel 15:11.
1. To say God repents is not the same as to say we repent, for God is without error. When we repent is it to acknowledge that God's nature is in contrast to ours. So for God to repent does this not mean the same thing that our nature is in contrast to God's. So when we repent, we say we are not like God, when God repents he says he is not like man. So in God's repentance it is stating a disapproval of man's nature, and how it is not like God.
This logic continues in Genesis 6:5-6 when God says he is sorry for what he made. Here God is acknowledging he is not like man. So God is stating the consquences here of sin which he foreknew, this is backed up by 2 Timothy 1:9.
When God says perhaps in Jeremiah 26:1-3.
1. To say perhaps suggests people may do this or do that, and that it might lead to this or that consquence. To speak in such a way is required when communicating this message to human beings. This goes back to the Hezekiah text, a condition exists, if people persist in that condition a calamity will ensue, but if they don't persist a calamity will not ensue. This is not an example of the future being open for God, or God changing his mind. The future is open from a human perspective, but not from a divine perspective.
What about God making a wrong predicition as in Jeremiah 3:6-7. Well in a text like this all it can say is normally Israel(Northern Kingdom would repent). But this time they did not. No one could argue that this was the first time the people in the Northern Kingdom engaged in sinful activity, but one could argue it was the first time they did not repent as they always had before.
Why did God test Abraham as in Genesis 22.
1. God had purposes for his own glory. We know that God had promised Abraham many descendants before this. Could God have not had a purpose in testing Abraham here so that Abraham would lead Israel for God's own glory. The Process view here is problematic since if God wanted Abraham to do this, and he did do it. Who is to say Abraham wasn't going to turn to sin five minutes later. The reason Orthodox Christianity holds that God did this isn't because God didn't foreknow, but because God wanted mold the leadership of Abraham. For God doesn't just foreknow, he is involved in history so that it may be done for God's own glory.
The final passage to look at is Exodus 4:7-9. Where it seems God didn't know how many signs needed to be performed for Moses to believe. One, God doesn't always reveal his will to us for a specific situation. Two, God reveals in Exodus 4:17-that the signs were all done for God's own purpose. Another reason is God's relational language such as in Genesis 18:21. The reasons God speaks like this is for communication purposes with human beings.
Conclusion: I think one needs to work through the texts the process people to throw out. By asserting that they never downplay the foreknowledge of God. There are different factors at play here dealing with Conditions being met, the meaning of God's repentance, and God's will and purpose.
But here are a few questions to ask the Process Theologians.
1. Can you affirm since you believe in Panetheism that God is in all things, also the doctrine of Orginal Sin. Since if God is in all things, they cannot be contrary to God in all nature, since God is in them?
2. Doesn't this view stand in complete contrast to the view of God presented in Article 1 of the AC, and throughout the confessions?
posted by Stew at 7:19 PM
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