Since Battle Royale X is 250 pages l-o-n-g, I thought I'd post a brief intro to the Attributes argument for open theism.
NOAH: the New Openness-Attributes Hermeneutic, that the qualitative, scriptural attributes of God being living, personal, relational, good, and loving take precedence over the quantitative, Greek and Roman philosophical attributes of the OMNIs and IMs.
JONAH: Jehovah’s Obvious Nativity Attributes Hermeneutic
After the Incarnation, Jesus (God the Son) was still worshipped (even as an infant), showing that even though He had lowered and humbled Himself and divested Himself of degrees of power and knowledge, He was still God the Son and worthy of worship. Whereas, if He had diminished His goodness by committing even the least sin, He would have died for His own sin, not for ours, and could not have saved us, for God’s goodness is qualitative, not quantitative, whereas the amount of knowledge that God the Son divested Himself of (as in the timing of the Second Coming) is quantitative. Thus, God’s qualitative attributes take precedence over the “how much” OMNI and IM, quantitative attributes.
Jesus Christ is the extraordinarily fabulous expression of God (of course, being God Himself), and the four Gospels excel in revealing God to us. If both Calvinists and Open Theists decided to work together, to take a new marker and highlight every verse in the four Gospels that we both agreed portrayed Jesus Christ as possessing any of the qualitative attributes of Living, Personal, Relational, Good, or Loving, we would literally run out of ink, highlighting most of the text of the four Gospels (with the yellow bleeding through the pages everywhere). On the other hand, if we decided to work together, and highlight every verse in the four Gospels that we both agreed portrayed Jesus as possessing the OMNIs & IMs, there would be not a single verse highlighted, with the Calvinists having a hard time identifying more than a handful of passages even for consideration. It’d be hard to argue Jesus had omniscience after He explicitly disavowed knowledge of the timing of the Second Coming (Mark 13:32). It’d be hard to show Him as Impassible (no emotion) after He wept for Lazarus (John 11:35), etc. It’d be hard to show Him as omnipresent when He who said “I have come down from heaven” (John 6:38) also said that in a little while, “you will not see Me… because I go to the Father” (John 16:16). It’d be hard to show Him as omnipotent after Jesus indicated that He could ask His Father for angels to deliver Him (Mat. 26:53) and that on Simon the Cyrenian, “they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus” (Luke 23:26). It’d be hard to show Him as Immutable after He became flesh (John 1:14), died for our sin.
The overwhelming presentation of the Gospels reveals that the qualitative attributes demonstrated by Jesus Christ (as living, personal, relational, good, and loving) presents to us the “express image” (Heb. 1:3) of God. So God the Son could divest Himself of vast knowledge, because the exact quantity of God’s knowledge is inconsequential, whereas He could never sin in the least and yet remain our Righteous God.
Here’s a brief excerpt from the Battle Royale X debate:
So now I will give you the hermeneutic that can be used to prove Openness. Noah showed that God could repent from being merciful when man continues in sin. Jonah showed, more gloriously, that God could repent by being merciful when man repents. And the Babe in Bethlehem showed us who God truly is, for wise men came to the stable, to “worship Him” (Mat. 2:2). Yet that Infant was God the Son, who had just undergone extraordinary change, in order to become our Savior. The hermeneutic to prove Openness is JONAH!
Jehovah’s Obvious Nativity Attributes Hermeneutic
Holding her cooing newborn, any mom can tell you her baby’s attributes, of being living, personal, relational, and loving. But the sin inherited by the baby through the father will eventually express itself, and lead to death. And Mary would recognize an additional attribute in her Baby, because she did not conceive by a sinful man but of God as a virgin, therefore she could add to those four attributes: absolute goodness! For the angel promised her:
“The Holy Spirit will… overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God!”
And then:
The Word became flesh…
and dwelt among us!
He is alive, active, and capable, and so He could experience this extraordinary change, for “He humbled Himself!” and He “was made a little lower than the angels!”
“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men!”
This verse, Luke 2:52, shows change also in the Father! As with any good father, the blessing His Son brought to Him was not static (as would be insisted by Plato and Augustine), but increased! For He must increase! For He is God!
So while Jesus explicitly disavowed omniscience (Mark 13:32), God’s love for man through the Incarnation disproves the controlling doctrine of general immutability. So to Mary, and believers 2,000 years later, the Babe in the manger possessed the obvious attributes of being living, personal, relational, good, and loving. And by the Nativity itself, careful Bible students, along with mom, will reject general immutability! So, the obvious attributes of Jehovah God that the Son brought with Him through the Incarnation are those that all Christians readily admit were present in the manger!
Just as the results of the Flood, obvious worldwide, remind us that God repents, so too NOAH helps us see God’s Openness throughout Scripture. And appropriately, JONAH explains to us the reason why God values human souls more than fulfilled prophecy: because relationship and love are more important than immutability, knowledge, and power.
And again:
NOAH: the New Openness-Attributes Hermeneutic, that the qualitative, scriptural attributes of God being living, personal, relational, good, and loving take precedence over the quantitative, Greek and Roman philosophical attributes of the OMNIs and IMs.
-Bob Enyart
NOAH: the New Openness-Attributes Hermeneutic, that the qualitative, scriptural attributes of God being living, personal, relational, good, and loving take precedence over the quantitative, Greek and Roman philosophical attributes of the OMNIs and IMs.
JONAH: Jehovah’s Obvious Nativity Attributes Hermeneutic
After the Incarnation, Jesus (God the Son) was still worshipped (even as an infant), showing that even though He had lowered and humbled Himself and divested Himself of degrees of power and knowledge, He was still God the Son and worthy of worship. Whereas, if He had diminished His goodness by committing even the least sin, He would have died for His own sin, not for ours, and could not have saved us, for God’s goodness is qualitative, not quantitative, whereas the amount of knowledge that God the Son divested Himself of (as in the timing of the Second Coming) is quantitative. Thus, God’s qualitative attributes take precedence over the “how much” OMNI and IM, quantitative attributes.
Jesus Christ is the extraordinarily fabulous expression of God (of course, being God Himself), and the four Gospels excel in revealing God to us. If both Calvinists and Open Theists decided to work together, to take a new marker and highlight every verse in the four Gospels that we both agreed portrayed Jesus Christ as possessing any of the qualitative attributes of Living, Personal, Relational, Good, or Loving, we would literally run out of ink, highlighting most of the text of the four Gospels (with the yellow bleeding through the pages everywhere). On the other hand, if we decided to work together, and highlight every verse in the four Gospels that we both agreed portrayed Jesus as possessing the OMNIs & IMs, there would be not a single verse highlighted, with the Calvinists having a hard time identifying more than a handful of passages even for consideration. It’d be hard to argue Jesus had omniscience after He explicitly disavowed knowledge of the timing of the Second Coming (Mark 13:32). It’d be hard to show Him as Impassible (no emotion) after He wept for Lazarus (John 11:35), etc. It’d be hard to show Him as omnipresent when He who said “I have come down from heaven” (John 6:38) also said that in a little while, “you will not see Me… because I go to the Father” (John 16:16). It’d be hard to show Him as omnipotent after Jesus indicated that He could ask His Father for angels to deliver Him (Mat. 26:53) and that on Simon the Cyrenian, “they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus” (Luke 23:26). It’d be hard to show Him as Immutable after He became flesh (John 1:14), died for our sin.
The overwhelming presentation of the Gospels reveals that the qualitative attributes demonstrated by Jesus Christ (as living, personal, relational, good, and loving) presents to us the “express image” (Heb. 1:3) of God. So God the Son could divest Himself of vast knowledge, because the exact quantity of God’s knowledge is inconsequential, whereas He could never sin in the least and yet remain our Righteous God.
Here’s a brief excerpt from the Battle Royale X debate:
So now I will give you the hermeneutic that can be used to prove Openness. Noah showed that God could repent from being merciful when man continues in sin. Jonah showed, more gloriously, that God could repent by being merciful when man repents. And the Babe in Bethlehem showed us who God truly is, for wise men came to the stable, to “worship Him” (Mat. 2:2). Yet that Infant was God the Son, who had just undergone extraordinary change, in order to become our Savior. The hermeneutic to prove Openness is JONAH!
Jehovah’s Obvious Nativity Attributes Hermeneutic
Holding her cooing newborn, any mom can tell you her baby’s attributes, of being living, personal, relational, and loving. But the sin inherited by the baby through the father will eventually express itself, and lead to death. And Mary would recognize an additional attribute in her Baby, because she did not conceive by a sinful man but of God as a virgin, therefore she could add to those four attributes: absolute goodness! For the angel promised her:
“The Holy Spirit will… overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God!”
And then:
The Word became flesh…
and dwelt among us!
He is alive, active, and capable, and so He could experience this extraordinary change, for “He humbled Himself!” and He “was made a little lower than the angels!”
“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men!”
This verse, Luke 2:52, shows change also in the Father! As with any good father, the blessing His Son brought to Him was not static (as would be insisted by Plato and Augustine), but increased! For He must increase! For He is God!
So while Jesus explicitly disavowed omniscience (Mark 13:32), God’s love for man through the Incarnation disproves the controlling doctrine of general immutability. So to Mary, and believers 2,000 years later, the Babe in the manger possessed the obvious attributes of being living, personal, relational, good, and loving. And by the Nativity itself, careful Bible students, along with mom, will reject general immutability! So, the obvious attributes of Jehovah God that the Son brought with Him through the Incarnation are those that all Christians readily admit were present in the manger!
Just as the results of the Flood, obvious worldwide, remind us that God repents, so too NOAH helps us see God’s Openness throughout Scripture. And appropriately, JONAH explains to us the reason why God values human souls more than fulfilled prophecy: because relationship and love are more important than immutability, knowledge, and power.
And again:
NOAH: the New Openness-Attributes Hermeneutic, that the qualitative, scriptural attributes of God being living, personal, relational, good, and loving take precedence over the quantitative, Greek and Roman philosophical attributes of the OMNIs and IMs.
-Bob Enyart
