I find open theism strange,
That's nice, but it's not a valid argument against Open Theism.
At best it's your personal opinion.
At worst it's an appeal to ridicule fallacy or an appeal to emotion fallacy.
If you're offering your feeling that Open Theism is "strange" as evidence against it, then you're appealing to emotion rather than actually refuting anything.
And how would you know that your reaction isn't simply the result of having been conditioned to regard anything contrary to your present theology as "strange"?
Your reaction to an argument tells us nothing about whether the argument is true.
like the word of faith movement with selective literalism
Again, the comparison proves nothing.
If you're invoking the Word of Faith movement's bad reputation in order to discredit Open Theism, that's guilt by association.
If instead you're claiming that Open Theists commit the same hermeneutical error, then demonstrate the error.
Simply attaching the label "selective literalism" to our interpretation doesn't establish that we're interpreting anything incorrectly.
And attributing to us interpretations that we have explicitly rejected is a straw man.
does the open theist dogma twist these following verses
Short answer: no.
Do we read them differently than you do?
Clearly.
But the fact that our interpretation differs from yours doesn't establish that ours is therefore wrong.
And you haven't established that your interpretation is correct simply by asserting it.
The hermeneutical principle I've been arguing for is quite simple:
Read the verse for what it says, in the context in which it says it, and allow it to mean what it says unless the context gives us a reason not to.
in open theism , how does God keep from knowing what he doesn't want to know ?
By simply not seeking out the knowledge.
You're still assuming that information somehow forces itself into God's mind merely because He is capable of obtaining it.
Why?
God's ability to know something does not mean that He is compelled to exercise that ability.
God can investigate something without being compelled to investigate everything.
He can direct His attention toward something without being compelled to direct His attention toward everything.
He can obtain information when He chooses to obtain it.
That's exactly the distinction we've already made between God's
capacity to know and His
exercise of that capacity.
Your question assumes that distinction is impossible, but it doesn't give an argument for why it is impossible.
No. God is not "guessing."
When God predicts what will happen, He does so based upon what He actually knows about the present circumstances, the people involved, their character, their intentions, and every other relevant fact available to Him.
And sometimes God isn't merely predicting what will happen.
Sometimes He is declaring what
He intends to make happen.
Those are two different things.
Where a prophecy concerns what people or nations will do under existing circumstances, Scripture itself teaches that a change in those circumstances can change the announced outcome.
Jeremiah 18:7-10 explicitly says so.
maybe they will repent says the open theist, it's prophecy?
Why do you say that as though Scripture never presents exactly that sort of situation?
In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live. ’ ”
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah 38:1&version=NKJV
Hezekiah prayed.
And God responded:
“Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will add to your days fifteen years.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah 38:5&version=NKJV
So, did Hezekiah die when God originally said he would?
No.
Was God wrong?
Of course not.
The circumstances changed, and God changed what He was going to do.
Ahab provides another individual example.
God announced judgment against Ahab, but when Ahab humbled himself, God said:
“See how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the calamity in his days. In the days of his son I will bring the calamity on his house. ”
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1 Kings 21:29&version=NKJV
And, of course, there's Nineveh.
And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jonah 3:4&version=NKJV
Nineveh repented.
And:
Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jonah 3:10&version=NKJV
So the possibility that people might repent and thereby change the announced outcome is not something Open Theists invented.
It's in the Bible.
in open theism mans freewill trumps prophecy.
Yes, generally speaking.
Generally speaking, man's free choices can affect the outcome of a prophecy concerning what men themselves will freely do.
Prophecy is not prewritten history.
Biblical prophecy often fails, in the sense that the announced event does not occur. That does not mean God was wrong. It means the prophecy was conditional, and the relevant circumstances changed.
Jeremiah 18:7-10 states the principle directly:
If God announces judgment against a nation and that nation turns from its evil, God will relent from the judgment He said He would bring.
Likewise, if God announces blessing and that nation turns to evil, He will relent from the good He said He would do.
That's not man's will "trumping" God's will.
That's God Himself declaring that He responds to what men choose to do.
And where God has actually determined that a particular event
will happen, He is perfectly capable of bringing it about.
A conditional prophecy and a divine determination are not the same thing.
In other words, prophecy is not necessarily a promise or prewritten history.
Conditional prophecies are not guaranteed to happen if the relevant circumstances change.
Prophecies concerning something God has determined to bring about are another matter.
----
As for the rest of your post, we've already addressed these arguments at length in the "Honest struggles on God's omniscience" thread.
Rather than repeat the entire discussion here, I'll refer you back to the arguments you've already been given:
- "Selective literalism," Adam's "Where are you?", and your Word of Faith comparison
Post #278, especially Arguments 6, 9, and 23.
Post #283.
- God knowing particular facts, such as the hairs on someone's head, therefore supposedly knowing everything exhaustively
Post #278, especially Arguments 6, 8, and 23.
Post #299, especially Argument 24.
- Matthew 12:36 and every idle word being accounted for
Post #295.
Post #299, especially Argument 28.
- Revelation, prophecy, "they did not repent," and your claim that Open Theism reduces prophecy to lucky guesses
Post #278, especially Arguments 14-17.
See also Post #295.
- Revelation 22:19 and the suggestion that disagreeing with your interpretation amounts to taking away from Revelation
Post #278, especially Arguments 9 and 14-16.
Post #283.
If you think one of those answers is wrong, then address the answer.
Simply repeating the same argument, attaching another verse to it, or moving it into another thread doesn't make it a new argument.
