God and Omniscience

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Matthew 28:20 Good News Translation

²⁰ and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age.”

 

A colleague of mine, Richard Rice, wrote the book entitled The Openness of God: The Relationship of Divine Foreknowledge and Human Free Will. It was published by the Seventh-day Adventist press Review and Herald in 1980. It generated a fair amount of controversy in the Adventist Church. He argued that if God knew the future perfectly, then humans do not possess free will. If humans do not possess free will, then they should not be held accountable for being sinners. And therefore, Christ’s death was not necessary. The fact that Christ died for our sins is a strong argument that God cannot know the future perfectly. Rice called his theory “open theism”.

The openness of God has been taught at the Adventist Universities such as Loma Linda University and La Sierra University ever since the 1950s. This was before Rice was out of high school, so he did not originate the idea, but he certainly gave it a logical status with his book.

Rice presented his openness theism very persuasively in a senior class for physics, math, and computer majors that I co-taught with Ed Karlow about 30 years ago. Adventism was founded on prophetic interpretation of the books of Daniel and Revelation. Adventism grew out of a movement that set a date for Christ’s return on October 22, 1844.  Christ did not return on that date, nor has He returned as I write this blog. How do I know He hasn’t returned—because when He returns, the Bible says in Revelation 1:7, every eye will see Him, even those “who pierced Him.” I specifically asked Dr. Rice what his openness theism did for God knowing the date when an event would happen in the future. He stated categorically that God cannot know specific dates for future events. That was undoubtedly the reason for the controversy Rice’s book raised within Adventism. 

Personally, I have trouble with the argument that foreknowledge is equivalent to predestination. However, I have not spent the time studying the logical reason carefully enough to convince myself of the validity or lack of validity of Rice’s basic premise. I accept at face value, as does Rice, that when God promised that He would be with His followers “always even to the end of the age,” He was definitely including me in this promise. If He is with me, then He will also save me. This promise is also made to you; therefore, God will save you if you let Him, no matter who you are or what you’ve done.

Thank You, Lord, that You have saved us, if only we allow You!

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[1] https://www.dominicanajournal.org/predestination-grace-and-free-will/

Driving Through a Tropical Storm

 

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Psalm 37:5 American Standard Version—margin

⁵ Roll thy way upon Jehovah;
Trust also in him, and he will bring it to pass.

 

Three weeks ago, Nancy[2] phoned us distraught. “Hospice told me that Linda will die today!” We were threading our way through the mountains and canyons of southeastern Utah. She had caught us in a spot where we actually had phone coverage. We all knew that this day was coming. Nancy’s little sister had not been eating or drinking for over a week. She wasn’t responding to anybody.

“We’re so sorry,” I said. “Please let us know when you plan a memorial service. We’ll be there,” I promised. Later the date was set for September 10.

As the date approached, I kept an eye on a Pacific hurricane called Kay. Unlike almost all of the Pacific hurricanes that tend to pass safely out to sea in the Pacific Ocean, Kay had turned and started going north. On Friday, September 9, Kay had slowed down enough to become a tropical storm but still carried strong winds and lots of rain. Since Nancy’s home is in Yuma Arizona, about 250 miles from us, we left home about noon on Friday. By this time the storm was starting to splatter our car as we drove east on I-10. It was enough to slow traffic leaving for the weekend, and for about an hour we endured the stop and go.

As we turned south to go along the coast of the Salton Sea, the sky became downright menacing. We had rolled our way upon the LORD when we started. We trusted that He would protect us we entered a terrific downpour. Suddenly my phone barked into life. “This is an alert. This region is in a severe storm area. It is in danger of flooding. You should not be driving unless you are evacuating or fleeing the flood. Take cover immediately.”  Then about five or ten miles down the road. We got another such amber alert. And later another, and another.

The rain was not as bad as when we drove through tropical storm Elsa, but it was a lot worse than we normally see in southern California. We pulled off at a truck stop about half way down the massive Coachella Valley. We had to ford a swiftly flowing river of muddy water to get into the stop. We rested about a half-an-hour there and ate a cinnamon roll. Then cautiously we drove back through this tan river and onto the highway.

We reassured ourselves in the knowledge that we were in the Lord’s hands, and we drove on carefully. So far Kay was no match to tropical storm Elsa, that we had driven through in northern Florida on July 7, 2021. The trip took us a little over 5 hours. Nancy was extremely relieved to see us. She had three friends coming from the San Diego area. They had phoned and said that Kay had washed out a stretch along I-8, and a boulder had run into a car driving along there, so they had turned around and gone back home.

Thank You, Lord, that we can trust You when the going gets dicey.

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[1] https://watchers.news/2022/09/09/tropical-storm-kay-considerable-flooding-possible-in-the-southwest-u-s/  Yuma Arizona is just a little southeast of the “o” in “San Diego” on the satellite image that was taken on the same day, September 9, 2022. We were driving through Coachella Valley to get there.

[2] As per request names have been changed, but the events are true.