The Attributes of God

A Critical Evaluation of the 'Open' View of God's Nature and Knowledge

By: Joseph M. Holden

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

One of the most important things you can do as a Christian is to know the attributes of God, since all the essential doctrines of the Faith flow from these important characteristics. We are magnifying who and what God is! As the church grapples with new and innovating ways to understand God’s nature, a flawed concept of God threatens to reduce not only the awe and majesty of the Almighty, but also the clear and crucial ontological (being) distinction between the Creator and creation, the eternal and temporal, and the infinite and finite. Open Theism (aka Free Will Theism, Neotheism, or Organicism) has offered a view of God that departs from the traditional belief held by the church and its great thinkers for the last 2000 years. With this in mind, Making God Great Again is dedicated to evaluating, clarifying, and elevating the concept of God in the church. For without a right idea of the Most High, our thoughts and worship of him become erroneous, idolatrous, and threatens our understanding of sound biblical doctrine. The poison (heresy) of which, namely, believing that God is different than he actually is, slowly corrodes the life of the church, eventually choking off its vital message of eternal life in Christ.

Critical Evaluation of Open Theism - how to interact with their writings and thoughts on God.

Though the subjects premise was difficult because it refuted a view of God that was modern and I hadn’t interacted much with its proponents. I felt the reader would become more familiar with them by the authors interaction and quotes. I liked that it interacted with a broad view of historical views of God’s attributes as well as the current issues of theological arguments to give thoughtful interactions with classical and new ideas. Being a scholastic work, it deserves credit for its potency as a pastor it was helpful though difficult to work through as most works on this level. I appreciated the conclusions and summary and especially enjoyed chapter 6 which reveals the dilemma in our current culture of thought and how one can work through these transitions and not fall into the traps of modernism.
I will need to work through some of the text to pull out some important quotes and spend some thought on the issues revealed where open theism bleeds into pulpits and pop pastoral commentary. Good work Dr. Holden!