Virtually all Christian groups and denominations around the world claim to believe and follow the Bible as their rule of faith and doctrine. However, a brief visit to a few random seminary or Bible college websites will reveal quite a variety of doctrinal positions, and often starkly opposing ones, which quite naturally make a person wonder what is going on here. Over the centuries, many theological disputes have arisen, sometimes violent, even starting wars between nations. Naturally, this has become one of the major pieces of ammunition that atheists have used to discredit Christianity. After all, if the Bible is really true, why can't Christians peacefully agree among themselves regarding its teachings? In fact, unbelievers love to use Bible passages to sharply point this out to us. For example, in John 17:20-23 below, Jesus' prayer to His Father reveals His effort to prevent this very problem from ever occurring. Unfortunately, this prayer has never been fully answered.

"I'm praying not only for them,
but also for those who will believe in Me
because of them and their witness about Me.
The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind,
just as you, Father, are in Me and I in you,
so they might be one heart and mind with Us.
Then the world might believe that You, in fact, sent Me.
The same glory you gave Me, I gave them,
So they'll be as unified and together as We are,
I in them and You in Me.
Then they'll be mature in this oneness,
and give the godless world evidence
that you've sent me and loved them
in the same way you've loved me." (The Message) 

    Jesus was obviously already well aware of His present disciples' tendencies toward pride, strife, competition and division, and was concerned about the negative impact this would have upon the way the world would view Christians later. Jesus was hoping and praying for the best though, as love always does. 

    So then, the question remains, if the Bible is true, why all the problems in the church throughout history? Why is the whole world screwed up for that matter? The answer is actually quite simple, and it is also clearly revealed in the Bible - we have an enemy! The Bible calls him by many names; Satan, devil, deceiver, dragon, father of lies, Beelzebub, Lucifer, and so on. He was formerly an archangel, but pride overtook him and he rebelled, taking along a third of the angels with him. Ever since Adam and Eve he's been telling lies about God, deceiving people, and then using those people to continue spreading his lies and confusion further. 

    In the Old Testament, for centuries the prophets repeatedly pointed out Israel's strayings and failure to follow the Lord's ways. Despite stern warnings from the Lord, the Israelites were continually being lured away by false prophets and the idolatrous teachings and religious practices of the nations surrounding them. Even from the very first days after the Lord rescued them from slavery in Egypt, the Jews with few exceptions just couldn't bring themselves to loyally place their whole faith in Him. They would always doubt that He had their best interests in His heart, and constantly complained about how and where He was leading them. 

    During the time of Jesus's teaching ministry, the Jewish religious leaders and teachers were totally infested with doctrines of demons. So much so, that Jesus flatly told them that they were of their father, the devil, and that they turned their converts into twice the sons of hell that they were. (John 8:44, Matt 23:15) They ultimately showed clearly who they were serving when they had Jesus arrested, tortured, and nailed to that cross. Amazingly, though, Jesus forgave them, and also went on to say before He died that they didn't know what they were doing. In other words, they were so deceived by Satan that they actually believed they were ridding Israel of some evil, not the true Son of God, their Messiah. 

    After Christ's resurrection, this pattern of Satan continued. He used unwitting people to oppose and attack God's newborn church. The first believers in Christ were fiercely persecuted and scattered throughout the known world. Saul of Tarsus, a severe opponent of the Christians, who later converted and became the apostle Paul, claimed later that he was ignorant of what he was doing. (1 Tim 1:13) What Jesus prophesied in John 16: 2-3 was indeed coming to pass...

"They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he
offers God service, and these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me." (NKJV) 

    Revelation 12 describes how furious Satan was about Christ's coming and the birth of His church and His new growing kingdom. Consequently the dragon declared war against the church, for he knows his time is short. The devil knows he is powerless to hurt God in any way directly, so his only recourse to stop the kingdom of God from spreading is to attack God's people in many different ways. This is something he is obviously very good at up to this present day. Besides the use of overt external persecution that he employs against Christians all around the world, his most effective means of stopping a vibrant kingdom of God from manifesting is through the use of more subtle means... deceit, division, truth-twisting and confusion. This is where those doctrines of demons come into play. 

    Imagine with me for a moment what it must have been like for Satan and his demonic forces to see what was happening to their worldly kingdom. After all, the Devil was effectively the ruling god of this world (2 Cor 4:4) for thousands of years, and now he was seeing it all begin to slip away from him. First the Son of God appeared on the scene, casting out demons, healing all manner of infirmities, raising the dead, and delivering people from their sins. Then came His surprise resurrection on the third day after his murder, which must have blown the Devil's mind, and finally the last straw was the birth of Christ's church, made up of the very same people who used to be his own ignorant slaves and servants. The church was spreading the Good News like a wildfire and thousands were joining God's kingdom weekly. Desperate times called for cunning strategies to slow down or possibly even halt God's progress. Satan might be a fool for starting this futile war against God, but he's certainly not going to go down without a fight, and he is intent on taking as many people to hell with him as is possible. 

    The best way for Satan to mess up God's plans is to use God's very own people to wage war against each other. If he could find ways to ruin our unity, our oneness, our love for one another, then our effectiveness against the gates of hell would be severely compromised. If only he could get and keep us confused, lacking understanding, suspicious of one another, ignorant of God's Word, God's nature, and God's character, then he could possibly buy himself thousands of more years before God finally does away with him. What if he could actually infiltrate the church and take over most of the teaching and leadership positions like he did in ancient Israel? Imagine the carnage and destruction he could do! What would the world think of God's church then? Hmmm. 

    I think you can now understand a little bit of why the church around the world seems so impotent and dead for the most part. Additionally, whenever new, fresh congregations or movements of God spring up, Satan skillfully brings his forces in to deceive, tempt, confuse, accuse, wear them down, discredit them, and ultimately put their fire out. The New Testament is full of warnings against these things, yet we barely pay them any attention because we don't believe it can happen to us, to "our" church. Let's take a look at some of these warnings from the Gospels and Epistles...

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves."
(Jesus, Matt 7:15 NLT)

"And many false prophets will appear and will deceive many people." (Jesus, Matt 24:11 NLT)

"For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform great signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones." (Jesus, Matt 24:24 NLT)

"What sorrow awaits you who are praised by the crowds, for their ancestors also praised false prophets." (Jesus, Luke 6:26 NLT)

“So guard yourselves and God’s people. Feed and shepherd God’s flock—his church, purchased with his own blood—over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as elders. I know that false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock. Even some men from your own group will rise up and distort the truth in order to draw a following." (Paul, Acts 20:28-30 NLT)

"These people are false apostles. They are deceitful workers who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ. But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light." (Paul, 2 Cor 11:13-14 NLT)

"...because of some so-called Christians - false ones, really - who were secretly brought in. They sneaked in to spy on us and take away the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. They wanted to enslave us..." (Paul, Gal 2:4 NLT)

"Those false teachers are so eager to win your favor, but their intentions are not good. They are trying to shut you off from me so that you will pay attention only to them." (Paul, Gal 4:17 NLT)

"You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth? It certainly isn’t God, for he is the one who called you to freedom. This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough!" (Paul, Gal 5:7-9 NLT)

"When I left for Macedonia, I urged you to stay there in Ephesus and stop those whose teaching is contrary to the truth. Don’t let them waste their time in endless discussion of myths and spiritual pedigrees. These things only lead to meaningless speculations, which don’t help people live a life of faith in God." (Paul, 1 Tim 1:3-4 NLT)

"Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons. These people are hypocrites and liars, and their consciences are dead." (Paul, 1 Tim 4:1-3 NLT)

"For there are many rebellious people who engage in useless talk and deceive others. This is especially true of those who insist on circumcision for salvation. They must be silenced, because they are turning whole families away from the truth by their false teaching. And they do it only for money." (Paul, Titus 1:10-11 NLT)

"But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves. Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered. In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money." (Peter, 2 Peter 2:1-3a NLT)

"These false teachers are like unthinking animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed. They scoff at things they do not understand, and like animals, they will be destroyed. Their destruction is their reward for the harm they have done. They love to indulge in evil pleasures in broad daylight. They are a disgrace and a stain among you. They delight in deception even as they eat with you in your fellowship meals. They commit adultery with their eyes, and their desire for sin is never satisfied. They lure unstable people into sin, and they are well trained in greed. They live under God’s curse. They have wandered off the right road and followed the footsteps of Balaam son of Beor, who loved to earn money by doing wrong. But Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey rebuked him with a human voice. These people are as useless as dried-up springs or as mist blown away by the wind. They are doomed to blackest darkness. They brag about themselves with empty, foolish boasting. With an appeal to twisted sexual desires, they lure back into sin those who have barely escaped from a lifestyle of deception. They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you. And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before." (Peter, 2 Pet 2:12-20)

"Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world." (John 1 John 4:1 NLT)

"I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ." (Jude, Jude 1:4 NLT)

“But I also have a message for the rest of you in Thyatira who have not followed this false teaching ‘deeper truths’ as they call them—depths of Satan, actually. I will ask nothing more of you except that you hold tightly to what you have until I come." (Jesus, Rev 2:24-25 NLT) 

    Well, I realize I made you look at a whole lot of verses here, but I wanted you to see that doctrines of demons are a very real problem that continue to adversely affect Christendom today. I am hoping that in light of this, you might carefully reconsider whatever it is you believe about the attributes and nature of God, in other words, your particular theology. For you see, although you may actually be a Christian on your way to heaven because you recognized your need for a Saviour and opened your heart to receive Him at one time, if you are subsequently taught and believe things about God that not true, they will eventually have a definite, negative impact upon your faith, especially in how you relate to God and to others in the body of Christ, reducing your effectiveness in God's kingdom. 

    Obviously, this blog is concerned mainly with a theology that has come to be known popularly as Open Theism. As you know, this is an alternative to the two main other theological positions taught in churches today, Calvinism and Armenianism. I, along with many other believers, (not a majority by any means yet), have come to the conclusion that the Open View of God more accurately fits what we read about God throughout the Scriptures, and seems to be much more satisfying to one's understanding by avoiding the incoherent paradoxes one faces when trying to comprehend those other theological systems. They just don't make sense, frankly, and make the living out of the Christian life in a practical way very difficult at times. 

    Prayer, for example, becomes a problem for both Calvinists and Arminians, but for different reasons. Since a Calvinist is taught that God has already predestined and foreordained everything that has ever happened, is happening, and will happen for all eternity, then prayer is practically a futile exercise. Let's say your dad is in the hospital for lung cancer and you feel the natural desire to pray to God to heal him, or at least to guide the physicians to help him recover, either through surgery, drugs, transplant, or whatever. Then, as you are about to pray, you remember all the teachings your pastor gave at church, how God, before the world began, had already predetermined everything your father would ever think, say, and do, obviously even including this horrible cancer and how and when your dad is going to die. You were also taught that God's will is perfect and that He never changes His mind...never. Suddenly you realize that praying is actually an empty exercise, a waste of time...after all, what will be will be. Oh well, back to watching the football game. 

    The Arminian has a different theology, however, and rejects the "God is in absolute control of everything" belief of the Calvinist. He actually, to his credit, believes he has a free will, and that he can choose how to live, where to go, what to do, etc., without being controlled and moved around like God's puppet or robot. It seems prayer should make more sense and be easier for him, but alas, he also has a problem. He has been taught and believes that the future exists and that God has exhaustive foreknowledge of everything in it, and moreover that God always had this knowledge, even before He created the universe. So, let's now imagine it is the Arminian guy who has his dad in the hospital with the lung cancer. As he begins to pray, He suddenly remembers what he's been taught about God's omniscience and realizes God already knows exactly what is going to happen to his dad and that God consequently can't change what He's already seen, or else He never really saw it in the first place. Thinking about this makes him crazy, so, it's back to watching the football game for him as well. Prayer is logically useless, both for the Calvinist and Arminian, because they've been taught God can't change the future. 

    Consequently, another problem that crops up in a practical way, is that both of those views of God tend to give a Christian a fatalistic point of view.  If a person believes his future is already foreknown or set in stone from eternity past, a resignation and false peace about this can set in, resulting often in a lack of responsibility toward everyone and everything, thinking everything is the way it's supposed to be anyway, so it doesn't really matter what daily decisions they make.  After all, what's the point of seeking God's will for your life if everything that's previously happened and is going to happen in the future is already God's will?  Any failures to succeed at doing anything for God are soothed with either this phrase, "I guess it wasn't meant to be",  or, " I guess God closed the door."  Can you see how the Devil can use this philosophy to make even a vibrant person eventually passive and apathetic?  It happens all the time.

    Open Theism, however, avoids these problems. We believe we have a free will and can choose our life's direction, and that God does not absolutely control and micromanage the universe. He does oversee and manage His creation, however, but more in a guiding, influential way.  He enjoys the daily interaction with us and helps us out when needed.  He of course also has His own plans and purposes, much of which He has already revealed to us in the Scriptures, and we are invited via his Holy Spirit to participate with Him as co-laborers, but not slaves.  

    We don't believe the future actually exists, and that therefore God cannot know it in an absolute sense. He cannot see what isn't there.  God's name is simply the "I AM". He always was, and will always be. He dwells in the eternally existent present, hence the "I AM". He is almighty, everywhere present, and all-knowing, but He only knows the knowable. He has exhaustive, perfect knowledge of the past and present. He is aware of everyone's thoughts, actions, and plans. He is all-wise. He is merciful, compassionate, forgiving, infinitely resourceful, able to deal with any situation that ever arises. He knows every possibility and probabability, and will never leave us nor forsake us. He loves us with an everlasting love. He is able to make macro or micro adjustments to anything as He sees fit, according to His plans and wisdom, but for the most part He allows us the freedom to make all of our life choices, and enjoys interacting with us through our prayers and willing availability to be led by His Holy Spirit. 

    Going back to that hospital scenario, an open theist has no problem praying for his dad. In fact, he has no problem praying for anyone or anything. He knows the future is open to infinite possiblities, it's not a fixed, a done deal. The future is a vast, blank playing field, our lives are an adventure, and God's is walking alongside us, experiencing all our ups and downs, joys and sorrows, in real time, moment by moment.  Best of all God is free to whatever He needs or desires to do, without being constrained or bound by what we call "the future".

    If I was the Devil, you can bet I would feed the church doctrines that would kill their prayer life and make them think their whole life and future is already a done deal. I would want them to think all the horrible things I do to them are actually God's will for their lives. I would want them to feel helpless in their circumstances, that whatever happens to them was "meant to be." I would love for them to think God is responsible for everything I do. Now, if I can think of doing just those few things to mess up God's people, you can be sure Satan has every type of deception imaginable going on. 

    In conclusion, always be on the lookout for doctrines of demons, teachings in the church that would rob you of your freedom in Christ, steal your hope, and ruin the joy of your salvation. Read and study God's Word for yourself. Don't believe everything you hear or read, even from people you love and respect, and especially question nobodies like me. Don't be sentimentally or emotionally attached to your beliefs. Your life is too important. Carefully compare teachings and doctrines to the whole Word of God, not just one paragraph or a verse here or there. Always read the context, and check different translations, and remember to pray without ceasing, believing it makes a difference, because it really does!           May God bless you all!

-nOFuTuRe