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When confronted with gross heresy, it can be difficult to keep one’s focus. Heresies rarely travel alone. Which is more appalling, to deny God’s supreme control over all things or to deny His unchanging blessedness, to deny that He knows the future or to deny that He has made it certain? With open theism, you get all this and more. But perhaps what causes me to shudder the most about this particular body of heretics is its sheer openness, its brazenness.
We have other modern heretics. Just a few years ago, a weight-loss guru made a big splash in the evangelical world, until the low down on her Trinitarian views came out—she denied the Trinity. Then we have the Hymeneans, men of our times who have read the times reasonably well in their understanding of the importance of the events of a.d. 70 but have fallen off the other side of the horse and deny a true, future resurrection.
Those who deny that God knows the future likewise deny that they are not evangelicals. Those who affirm that God is just a slob like one of us likewise affirm that such surely should be seen at least as a viable option. These heretics smile, say nice things about Jesus, enjoy the warm fellowship around the faculty lounge, and want to be liked and respected as we all do. They do not polish their hooves at night or sharpen their horns. They’re just people, people who have denied the faith.
The good news is that He who knows the future knows all things. He who ordains whatsoever comes to pass has ordained even this, that there should be those who deny that He ordains whatsoever comes to pass. While these men have constructed a paper god, the true God is as unchanged as He was yesterday and as He will be tomorrow. Even these men, masquerading as ministers of the Gospel, live their lives coram Deo, before the presence of the God they deny. He is not shocked by their folly. He is unmoved by their sincerity. He is not surprised by their gall.
The future is certain. And in it God will bring judgment against all those who preach a different gospel, because they proclaim a lame god. Our prayer is that He will, with His strong right arm, give these who are outside the faith new life, new hearts, and an old theology.