Greg Boyd - Perhaps Even God Doesn't Know the Future?

Gregg one of the perennial questions that I'm just fascinated with is God's foreknowledge God is omniscient which means he knows everything which means he must know every true proposition or every true statement which includes the future uh-huh so the question is has God so settled the future that we are all just automatons how do what what is the thinking behind that oh well we traditionally at least in the West has been a couple options on that I mean on the one hand you have those who are in Augustinian or the Calvinist tradition who hold that yeah God settles the future and yet in such a way they always say that we're still morally responsible for what we do God settles the future by predestiny any for knows it because he predestined it so that's one option he causes it well he causes it but in such a way that we're still responsible for our own action and there's a big mystery there obviously and obviously that's not the view I hold to then there's another strand that comes more from the Armenian tradition from Arminius who was an opponent of kelvins and they hold that God doesn't predestined the future at least not all the future he just knows how it's all gonna pan out and therefore they stress that were free even though God for knows it and some with an S camp would say that God simply for knows what's going to happen he just sees it all there but it doesn't really give him any advantage in changing the future and then others especially those who come from Molina and it's called Mullen ISM they would argue that God and knows not only what's gonna happen but all the things that could happen and he chooses from among all the things that could happen that what she wants to happen so it he doesn't in a sense he predestined it but but he predestined on the basis of how he sees we would have acted in every conceivable situation yeah but I think you're distinguishing between could and would and the Mullen disposition is would what would free agents do if given any source all certain to God God knows exactly if you were born as a fair in 1346 BC in Egypt he knows exactly how you'd behave under every circuit and every circumstance and so he looks at all the possible Roberts there are out there in every possible world and chooses you know the Robert that he wants in combination with the Greg that he wants in combination with the world that he wants so he gets the best of all possible worlds given how free agents act in every conceivable universe and that that's a little demo so you've got the Calvinist view you've got this predestination new destination simple for now it just knows that the moment is for you where he knows all the the woods what counterfactuals and then you have another view and this is the view that I espouse it's called the open view of the future or sometimes it's called open theism and this view holds that God knows God is omniscient God knows all of reality exactly as it is pert with perfect accuracy but part of reality are possibilities so possibilities are real and God therefore knows possibilities as possibilities so the future to some degree at least is not just a matter of what will come to pass it's also to some degree a matter of what may and may not come to pass and to the extent that God's given humans and angelic beings freewill this view holds that the future to that degree is a matter of what may or may not come to pass it's not a matter of what will and will not come to pass so God is still omniscient in that he knows everything that is logically possible to know but it is not logically possible to know something that is not yet settled the view that I I espouse is called the open view of the future or sometimes it's just called open theism and in a nutshell the view says this that the future isn't out there as a settled reality for God to know at least not exhaustively so rather we agree that God is omniscient God knows all things God knows reality exactly as reality is with perfect accuracy but where this view is distinct is it holds that part of the furniture of reality if you will is are our possibilities that when God created this world because he created it with some free agents there the future is to some degree a matter of what will or will not come to pass but rather to some degree a matter of what may and may not come to pass and that's what's real and since the gods omniscient God knows the possibilities as possibilities and so the future to that degree is open it's open to of possibilities so whereas like Molin ism would say that God knows what you would do in every conceivable situation the open view would say no that that that's not part of the furniture of reality God knows what you may and may not do in any conceivable situation now this to me sounds entirely rational but why has this position become so argumentative controversial among your co theologians um well anytime you have a view that's not traditional it's gonna you know raise the ire like there's got to be a reason what is the fundamental driving reason that if I'm a traditional Christian theologian that I am really upset sure what you just said okay there's two fundamental reasons one is that they interpret scripture to teach that and now now we can have a Bible dispute on that I would argue that the view that the Bible actually teaches my view the other thing that really motivates you know energizes this issue I think is that there's a fundamental assumption that if God doesn't know the future as a settled reality exhaustively as a settled reality then God can't promise to bring good out of evil he you know things might happen to you that they take God by surprise and so there's this assumption that God loses a providential advantage if he doesn't for know the future as a settled reality now I think that that that may make being God more fun well yeah I guess he it takes away the adventuresome side of God and I think that's an important attribute of God the risk-taking adventurous God but on the other hand I think it's really a mistake to think that God can't come through on his promises to bring good out of evil simply but because he knows the future to some degree as a possibility you and I worry about the future to the extent that we are not certain what's going to happen to the extent that we have to think about possibilities as opposed to a certainty we have to spread our intelligence thin to cover the possibilities but see if God has unlimited intelligence which all parties in this discussion agree with then God could anticipate each and every one of a trillion trillion possibilities to the trillionth power each and every one as though it was the only possibility because God doesn't have to spread his intelligence thin to cover the possibilities so for our God of unlimited intelligence there's no functional difference between anticipating a possibility and anticipating a certainty and so I believe that that it's really a mistake on the part of some to get worried with the idea that God anticipates a partly open future they're really without knowing it they're limiting God and if you just have confidence in God's intelligence you don't need to worry about the fact that some of the future is open to him and and why does that concern people if the future is open that means God can't deliver his promises that's what they think yeah well universes like Romans 8:28 that says in all things God's working together for the better for those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose and what a lot of Christians think is this well look if if he doesn't for know the future as a subtle reality then then he can't follow through on that promise how does he know that he can bring good out of evil and what I would say is this that whatever happens God has been anticipating that very possibility from the foundation of the world as though it had to happen just like the tradition says it's just that God is so smart he doesn't need to for know it as a certainty in order to anticipate it as though it wasn't he knows all the possible he knows every possibility and does he statistically wait them to which is more logical or likely if part of the furniture reality are probabilities if probabilities are objectively true then an omniscient God would know what would know exactly what those probabilities are and they would be changing as time flows it becomes more and more probable that this will happen or that will happen and so God knows exactly how likely some is it would seem that that could make for a richer universe or richer fabric of reality you know I don't the idea the traditional view of as a frozen thing you know there's there's all facts are eternally settled that strikes me as as among other philosophical problems boring there's no creativity in that there's no adventure there's no risk you know where the Bible teaches that was that were made in the image of God and part of what makes life full for us is a sense of adventure and risk and that we genuinely contribute to reality we have say so we genuinely make a difference and it strikes me that if everything I will ever do in the future and that you will ever do in the future is eternally settled it the fact is he is out there from all eternity well then there's nothing that the flow of time really contributes it's just all settled and it's like God watching a movie for the 10 billions time there's no there's nothing of interest that happens I find the open view to be a lot more biblical a lot more true to our experience but also a lot more beautiful it makes our life really significant

Channel: Closer To Truth

Views: 17,677

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Keywords: Gregory Boyd, Closer To Truth, God, Religion, Theology, Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, Time, Physics

Id: wKRClBlPv24

Length: 9min 49sec (589 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 27 2016