God's
Lesser Glory: The Diminished God of Open Theism
By Bruce A. Ware
Crossway Books, Wheaton, IL: 2000.
230 Pages, Paperback.
Reviewed by C. Matthew McMahon
If
you are a theological student in today's culture, reading academic
and cutting-edge theological works, then you will have no doubt
entered into the arena of what is termed "Open Theism."
This theological perspective describes a God of "diminished
glory" (if there were such a things as a "diminished
glorious" God). This theological system is an offshoot
of Arminianism, but continues to answer, more logically, the fuller
system of thought that Arminianism is afraid to think about.
The Arminian system exists at a "pleasant" spot on the
theological road. Though it traverses to a given point,
it really does not take the stroll all the way into the logical
consequences of Open Theism (whereit should be).
Open Theism admittedly teaches the following:
1) God does not know in advance the future actions of his moral
creatures. 2) God cannot control the future free actions
of his moral creatures. 3) Tragic events occur which God
has no control. 4) When such tragedies occur, God should
not be blamed because he was not able to prevent them from occurring,
and he certainly did not will or cause them to occur. 5)
When such tragic events occur, God feels the pain of those who
endure its suffering. 6) God is love, and he may be trusted
to do his best to offer guidance that is intended to serve the
well-being of others. 7) At times, God realizes that the
guidance he gave may have inadvertently and unexpectedly led to
unwarranted hardship and suffering. 8) At times, God may
repent of his own past actions, realizing that his own choices
have not worked out well and may have led to unexpected hardship.
9) Some suffering is gratuitous and pointless, i.e., some suffering
has not positive or redeeming quality to it at all, so that not
even God is able to bring any good from it. 10) Regardless
of whether our suffering was gratuitous, or whether God may have
contributed inadvertently to our suffering, God always stands
ready to help rebuild our lives and offers further grace, strength,
direction, and counsel. (Ware, pages 60-61)
When we read that the mythological Zeus
has been resurrected by "Open" theologians (or more
correctly: false teachers) of our day, an answer from those who
still believe the Bible should be heard. Bruce Ware has
done a fine job in critiquing this heinous system of thought.
Can you imagine that people still believe in Greek mythology?
The god Open Theists have created is a god who can be surprised,
does not know the future, cannot really help since his omniscience
is denied, and a host of other ideas which create huge theological
and practical problems. This character that theologians
have fabricated is the material Walt Disney World uses to create
cartoons.
I was introduced to this book during my
visit to Southern Seminary. While I was browsing through
the bookstore (something I always do when I have a chance) I bumped
into Dr. Albert Mohler and began speaking with him. I asked
him if he were to choose one book (besides Herman Bavinck's) on
the doctrine of God, what would he choose? He directed me
to Ware's book. No doubt he was pushing the seminary's faculty
of which Ware is residing as teacher. I still decided to
buy it in light of the contemporary debate surrounding its discussion.
In basic and easy to follow manner Ware does in fact lay out some
of the more difficult ideas concerning the Doctrine of God.
It is not as in-depth as Bavinck's "Doctrine of God",
but will please any contemporary reader even in light of the debate
which Ware was involved in again the Open Theism of Clark Pinnock,
Gregory Boyd, Richard Rice, John Sanders, William Hasker, and
David Basinger.
Ware's book is well done in that it takes
Open Theism's 10 points and emasculates the competition one step
at a time. He does so in a loving, but straight forward
fashion. Open Theism's claims are dealt with by Ware using
Scriptural foundation and classic orthodoxy which has withstood
the test of time for centuries. It is not that Ware has
come up with new doctrine, but rather, he has reformulated old
doctrine to meet the challenge of the unorthodoxy and damnable
heresy that Open Theism purports. I would highly recommend
it.
Some Quotes:
"Although the critique of Open Theism
presented in subsequent chapters will be much more specific, let
me suggest here that our overall conception of God and our broad
understanding of living the Christian life are both deeply affected
by the openness view."
"The Challenge from Open Theism to
other Arminians is simple: Comprehensive divine foreknowledge
and libertarian freedom are mutually exclusive notions.
You cannot have both together. So as you value libertarian
freedom (as classical Arminianism clearly does), then you must
be willing to give up your commitment to comprehensive divine
foreknowledge."
"Proponents of open theism are, in
one sense, committed Arminians. That is, they affirm such
cardinal Arminian doctrines as 1) The universal and impartial
love of God for all humanity and his true desire they all be saved,
2) God's creation of humans with what they often call "genuine"
or "significant" freedom of will (i.e., libertarian
freedom); and 3) the necessity of such genuine freedom for true
worship of God, love for God, and human moral accountability."
In the power of His grace,
C. Matthew McMahon
Visit C. Matthew McMahon's web site, A Puritan's Mind, at: http://www.apuritansmind.com
as well as his new web site, Take It and Read It, at: http://www.TakeAndRead.net
email C. Matthew McMahon at: APMIND@APuritansMind.com
Return to the
Protestant Apologetics and Theology page