NeoTheism
The State of Prophecy
Deuteronomy 18:22
when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord,
if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which
the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you
shall not be afraid of him.
NKJV
The prophecies of the Bible are not conditional. Open Theology is off the mark.
But, if Open Theology were true, then, for example,
The tests for false prophets (Deut 18:22) cannot be accurate, for one would never really know if there were false prophecies. God might have just guessed wrong!
God cannot guarantee the victory of good over evil. Revelation 20-22 predicts the conquest of Satan. But, if this conquest is a moral question that involves free will, then God will not interfere (Point Three above) and Satan might win - or, at least, continue the battle well beyond when God desires!
God's unconditional promises (Gen 15:12-17, for example) will no longer be unconditional, for God might have guessed wrong! Neotheists avoid the problems of unconditional promises by converting them to conditional events. For example, David is unconditionally promised that God will forever love Solomon (2 Sam 7:15-16). The neotheists take the language of 1 Kings 2:14 as a removal of the unconditional nature of this promise. Compare the two passages:
2 Samuel 7:15-16 (NIV)
15
But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from
Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom
will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.
1 Kings 2:1-4 (NIV)
When
the time drew near for David to die, he gave a charge to Solomon his
son. 2 I am about to go the way of all the earth, he said. So be
strong, show yourself a man, 3 and observe what the Lord your God requires:
Walk in his ways, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and requirements,
as written in the Law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all you do
and wherever you go, 4 and that the Lord may keep his promise to me:
"If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully
before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have
a man on the throne of Israel.
In both passages, the immediate context is a reference to Solomon, but God looks beyond Solomon to Jesus as the final fulfillment of the promise. There is nothing inconsistent between the two and God has not converted an unconditional promise into a conditional one. In addition, God's “love” was never withdrawn from Solomon.
