Open Theism and Youth Work

I believe that it’s really really important as Youth Workers to have some knowledge of Open Theism, or at least some of the tricky theologies associated with it.

Why? – Because as Youth Pastors, we’re probably the worst people in the world for dumbing stuff down! And when we dumb certain things down, we run the risk of saying the same things as Open Theists say and worse, we start teaching people to read their Bible’s like Open Theists do. This builds shaky foundations for our teenagers.

So what do Open Theists believe?
Norman Giesler probably put it best in the title of his book; ‘Making God In The Image Of Man.’  But here’s some more specifics:

– Love is God’s most important quality (as shown in the metaphor of a loving, responsive parent – not an all powerful king)
– God is open and flexible (He takes risks, learns, changes His mind, doesn’t know the future exhaustively, and we His people can exert influence over Him)
– God is in some way dependent on His creation (give and take relationship)
– Humans have libertarian free will (near autonomous free will – i.e. choices are completely undetermined)

How do Open Theists read the Bible?
– The beliefs above (I believe) are not derived from the text, but applied to it. For instance, they decide that ‘God is open’ then interpret passages through that lens. Put another way they read that choice into scripture. This dramatically changing verses which make God out to be all-powerful, or all-knowing.

Why is this important for youth workers?
Well the beliefs seem ‘nearly right‘ don’t they?

I mean, God certainly is love isn’t He? The Bible says so after all! Yes – but does the Bible say that love is more important to God than Grace, Mercy, Wisdom, Joy etc.?

God is revealed as a loving parent too isn’t He? Yes but He is seen as an all-powerful King & Lord far more. We shouldn’t prefer one and ignore the other – we certainly shouldn’t interpret the majority through the minority.

God is open to some degree isn’t He? Yes He hears and responds to our prayers, calls us to repent, and He forgives us – but does that mean He didn’t already know in His infinite power and might the outcomes and processes of our prayers, choices, sin etc.?

Humans are free aren’t they? Yes they are responsible for their actions and make true, active choices. Humans however, are still determined by sin, the world, other people,  time, space, motivations, personality, and most importantly by God Himself who has a plan for each of us, and a grand plan for creation.

Nearly Right
So the beliefs sound nearly right, but by getting them wrong huge holes are punched in the fabric of good theology. This in turn breaks down the foundations needed for faith-growing in developing believers.

We might be really clear in our heads and hearts what we believe, and we might have great theology too. We may think that we’ll never neglect the important clarity of the above beliefs so that we start sounding Open Theist.

Lets face it though, its easy sometimes to drop the one-liners; to just say to our teenagers ‘because God gave us free will‘  or  because God made a mistake‘   or   ‘God had a -plan B-‘  or  ‘because God is Love‘   or  ‘because you can’t understand that verse without knowing A, B, or C – but we’ll look at that another time.

There may be nothing wrong with these statements, but in isolation without exploration, and when repeated often enough without clarification they end up building foundations that simply will not do.

So what should we do?
It’s important when we’re teaching that we make every effort to keep tipping our hat to, and making room for some good foundation theology.

Foundation stuff isn’t necessarily just the Gospel, but is key information about God that is so solid it gives young people real boundaries and structure to build their relationship with God on. This will stay with them long after they’ve left our ministries. A well prepared foundation will last a thousand bad Bible studies in the future!

Here are some foundations to keep putting down.
– You gotta know Jesus! That He is God, lived sinlesly, died in your place, and rose from the dead kicking death’s ass.
– God is Big, Huge, In Charge, All-Knowing, All-Powerful, Unstoppable, and never makes mistakes.
– God is also Intimate, Close, All-Loving, Forgiving, Full of Mercy, Grace, and is really Patient.
– God has an unshakable plan for the world, and a really key place for us in His plan
– Only faith in Jesus can save us from sin and Hell. We can’t work our way there, no-one else can do it for us, and no other path gets there.
– We must repent, believe, an be baptized.

The best thing about these is not only do they fit together, but taught properly, they make us (and our teenagers) go wow! Seriously, what’s cooler? That God keeps making mistakes, listens to us fart about and changes his mind to make us feel warm and fuzzy, or that the infinite, huge, all-powerful creator of the universe who has a master plan for this world knows loves you intimately, and has made a specific role for you in His story.

Just a thought.

Further Reading
Its worth reading more on this. Not only will the following two books give you a Biblical critique of Open Theism, but will more importantly build good foundation stuff for you to teach about God, life, us, the world, and God’s plan.

– No Other God by John Frame
– God’s Lesser Glory by Bruce Ware

– & The book of Romans…. over, and over, and over again!

If you want to know who the key advocates of Open Theism in the academic and pastoral world are at the mo then you probably want to check out: Clark Pinnock, Greg Boyd, and John Sanders.  The last two btw, have written some other brilliant, worthwhile stuff on other topics.

The Christology of Soul Survivor

Another year, another quality trip to Soul Survivor! We always go and we always love it, and this year was no exception. Brilliant people, great messages, passionate responses and more cheeseburgers than you could fling a ketchup sachet at.

All this said, the ol’ theology student in me still twinges a little bit during these trips. I used to be quite critical and unnecessarily found issues with lots of superfluous areas, but even after maturing deeper and understanding better, a niggle still remains.

It’s like there’s something missing, a foundational ‘something’ that should be holding the pieces together more coherently. This elusive piece shows up in the messages, the seminar choices, and really the whole structure. And I think I may, perhaps have finally put my finger on it.

Its Christology. Or rather lack thereof. See if you can see a pattern from the keynote messages:

  • The first main message of the week was all about responding to Jesus like Levi did.
  • The second was about being brave and expectant with the supernatural and not being afraid to have a go.
  • The third was focused around worry and anxiety, and how to live intimately in the moment with God.
  • The fourth message was about how Jesus loves the broken and wants to fulfill their lives.
  • Message number five was an exposition of tongues and how to pray with tongues.
  • Message six (my favourite) talked about the need to be wowed by God, experience woe at our brokenness, and then go into the world as an evangelist.
  • The final message was about going ‘all in’ for Jesus – giving him your whole life.

Did you notice it? They are all about us. Focused on us as followers and our lives and responses in light of Jesus. There was very little in the messages actually about the specifics of who Jesus is.

Unpacking The Problem

These were all good messages by and large, but they all came across individually and collectively like there was something missing. A perspective off, or a direction reversed. It’s almost like listening to a car enthusiast speaking about high performance sports cars, racing around a track without quite understanding the nature of gravity. You recognise the cars – and the passion for them, but you realise something is a little off in the explanation.

I carefully and gently suggest that what is ‘a little off’ is Christology; the understanding and expounding the person of Jesus Christ directly – and not just in relationship to our responses.

Soul Survivor constantly reminds us that Jesus loves us – and that we should love Him too. Twice during the week, Mike Pilavachi carefully and expertly explained the Gospel, clearly saying what Jesus has done for us. One of these times he did so – I think – because the speaker was calling people to follow Jesus without an explanation of what that actually means. Christology, however, is much more than understanding these Gospel formulas and the essential basics of Jesus’ character.

If Jesus doesn’t work in real life then Jesus doesn’t work. This means we need a real life, relatable Jesus with a full character arc, clear personal traits, and high definition colour individuality: A Jesus that draws the whole Bible together and is tangible and active in the present.

Christology needs us to have arrived at some measure of organic agreement on the who, what, when, where, why and how of Jesus – beyond the formulas and basics. Who is Jesus really, why did He do what He did, what does it look like today specifically, what does this following of Jesus actually look like beyond ‘tell people about Him, worship and adore’. Who is He, who is He, who is He?

When you walk with Him – how do you describe Him? Is it easier to talk about the specific tangible qualities of your wife, husband, mother, father, children or friend? Can you talk about Jesus that clearly and coherently?

A Subtle But Essential Distinction

You can probably tell if an organisation hasn’t got a clear and coherent understanding of Christology when most of the message focuses are placed on people responding to Him, rather than to Him directly.

Did you see the last solar eclipse, or did you watch people watching the solar eclipse? Which one of those two – if you were there – would you describe? Would you focus on the people standing still in the street, gazing up at it, and taking photos? Or would you talk about the eclipse, specifically and in detail?

There is a theological imperative to know the subtle differences between talking about the Jesus we relate to, and talking about the relationship with Jesus. Soul Survivor talked about and engaged with us as the participants – rather than a clearly presented Jesus.

Do We Recognise Your Jesus?

We looked at what it means for us to follow Jesus and to be loved by Him, but without really saying much about Him specifically. This meant that I didn’t always recognise the Jesus they spoke about, because they said very little actually about Him.

I challenge Soul Survivor – and seriously challenge myself – to put more than a bare-bones skeleton of who Jesus is to the young people who will listen.

I want to leave Soul Survivor knowing more of Jesus, not through just a ‘touch of the Holy Spirit’ or a constant reminder of His love (as valuable as these are). I want the messages, and the coherent shape of the entire festival to celebrate the specific qualities of who Jesus really is.

If we’re going to get something right, and have something to celebrate on the last night – then lets pour our energies, passions and efforts into this deeper understanding of the Jesus we relate to, not just the relationship mechanisms themselves.