Question for any open theist reference point 1
here. God wishes for his (negative) prophecies to go unfulfilled. Do you then have assurance that the good ones will come to pass? And of course, you can't actually be sure, right?
Hi bwood!
The answer is that God is capable of bringing about that which He wants to bring about. (In other words, He is omnicompetent.)
You need to remember what Paul said in 1 Corinthians:
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.For we know in part and we prophesy in part.But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. - 1 Corinthians 13:1-10
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1Corinthians13:1-10&version=NKJV
How much more so does this apply to God, who IS love?
Prophecy isn't a telling of the future, it's simply a prediction of what will happen if things continue as they are. When the circumstances change, the prophecy, either good or bad, must necessarily fail, because the conditions for the prophecy to succeed were not met.