Space For Doubt

The first Men in Black remains one of my all time favorite movies. It’s probably in the top 20. As any successful cash generator before and after, it of course spawned sequels. The third movie, cleverly called “Men in Black 3” introduces a few characters. One is an Archanan named Griffin whose special ability is to be able to perceive ALL outcomes of any scenario, but yet remains unknowing as to which actual result will stem from any specific event.

I saw this movie in 2012 and instantly knew that was how (in my view) God must operate if I was to remain convinced I truly had free will. After well over a decade I am still convinced of this. I believe God knows every possible outcome (probably near infinite outcomes) of any future choice one makes. However, He does not control or know beforehand (with 100% certainty) the choice that person makes. [Years after watching that Men In Black movie, I found this view is essentially Open Theism.]

To help illustrate my view, here is a simple thought experiment. Take and give someone a choice of grabbing one of three balls on a table. All are the same shape, weight, color, and texture. One device will explode immediately upon touch, killing the person. The second will release tear gas. The third will pop open and squirt water everywhere.

Despite not knowing which one the person will choose, you know every possible outcome of this experiment. You know they might die, they might get sick, or they might get wet. However you are not impinging on their free will with that knowledge.

Scripture is not univocal on a number of things. That includes absolute omniscience. There are a number of verses that seem to support a view of God not knowing the how the free will choice of a person will play out.

“If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. ⁹ If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.” – Exodus 4:8-9

This seems like God doesn’t know if Moses can convince the Egyptian rulers to believe him.

He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” – Genesis 22:12

God doesn’t seem to know if Abraham will pass the test. If God is all knowing, and this same God is so opposed to child sacrifices (as our text indicates), why would He test someone by telling them to do such a specifically heinous thing when He already knew the answer? That’s quite the character assassination of God to paint Him in that light.

“The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. ² And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. – Deuteronomy 8:1-2

God said he specifically tested the Israelites to KNOW what was in their hearts. How could He not know if He is fully Omniscient?

“If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. – Deuteronomy 13:1-3

God said he would send false prophets to test the people to know if they loved Him. After all the ranting in the bible about false prophets, you’d think again, this is a really weird flex to use a false prophet as a test.

They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. – Jeremiah 32:35

He apparently didn’t foresee the people of Israel and Judah sacrificing their children.

It’s hard to square these verses with an omniscient God. I realize one can apply some alternative interpretations here and try to explain how they don’t actually mean that God doesn’t know things. The issue I would argue is, that to fully have free will, a choice cannot be definitively known ahead of time. The text seems to be equally as coherent with this Open Theism reading as with a 100% as-most-think-of-it fully future knowing omniscient God.

If God knows exactly what is on our mind, I struggle with finding it necessary to pray. If anything, we need communication in the opposite direction. It’d be like if you could read your best friend’s mind. You don’t need them to say anything, but lacking that ability themselves, it would behoove you to actually verbally talk to them and provide the other side of the conversation.

If God knows definitively what will happen when you are faced with a dilemma, that would seem to mean your choice is already set in stone. If you were able to do something different, that would mean God’s omniscience was faulty. If your choice truly is fixed, philosophically this is the definition of a “lack of free will”. I understand many will to come back with “Well God is God. Who’s to say He’s bound by this philosophical framework?” That’s understandable, and I’m not ruling it out entirely.

Perhaps this question of God’s capacity for true omniscience is born out of a difficulty in believing a few things.
1. A true Omniscient God can actually be a good loving God with what we see in the world.
2. That anything I do actually matters. If I don’t have freewill, then what’s the point? I may as well be a Calvinist and believe in predestination, or just walk away from the faith as nothing matters.
3. That God would ever need to “test” people in the first place.

Number three really gets me. The SDA church is one of many denominations that believe so strongly in this “testing” business. And for those who say “He’s testing you for your benefit, not His!” I call bull****.

Each person knows their own heart. They know where their loyalties lie. People know fairly quickly if they are attracted to someone and want to date them. They know if they really do or do not want to go to that party they were invited to. They know that they absolutely do not want to “catch up sometime” with a former friend/classmate/coworker etc they bump into in a store.

My point is, these “tests” are a theological and philosophical mess of a situation to attribute to God. (despite what some bible verses might seem to teach) People know. God (supposedly) knows. It seems like it’s not the binary pass/fail test itself so much as the trauma associated with these tests, that is intended to force someone back into harmony with God. That too, is a pretty messed up view.

Think of your own children. Would you abandon them at a gas station and hide across the street to see if they tried to find you or not? Would you intentionally not pack them a lunch to see if they tried to steal a bag of chips from the cafeteria and not “trust you to provide?” Would you allow a stranger to kidnap them to see if they trusted you to rescue them? Would you allow them to play in a room with live bare electric wires laying everywhere, to see if they would follow your specific instructions to not get hurt?

That is all insane. Now let’s make it worse. Let’s say you ALREADY know the exact choice your child will make. Yet you do the test anyway, even in cases where they fail and suffer greatly.

The loving God I serve doesn’t behave like this. Open Theism seems to provide a more palatable solution here. It’s a fair reading of the texts, and seems to be more harmonious with reason and philosophy.

Thank you pagan media for providing me with the theological framework I needed to continue believing in a loving God. 😉

Peace