Reply to Ivon Denosovich,
So, are you saying that omniscience is incompatible with freewill? As in, "If God knows I'll do X then I have to do it: therefore, I can't not do it".
First, Ivon, pay no attention to what Calvinists say about Van, as they are all "closed theists" and therefore seek to attribute false doctrine to me. I agree with some points of Calvinism and with some points of Arminianism, and with some points of Open Theism, but I fundamentally disagree with many points of all three. I do not beat around the bush, ask me a question and I will give you a clear, biblically based answer, with references to the supporting scripture.
And now to answer your question. Yes, Calvinism states (according to Boettner) that exhaustive knowledge of the future presupposes the future is exhaustively predestined. Rather than accept this, some Calvinists hide their "closed theism" with arcane verbiage such as compatilism. This says we choose what we desire and since, because of the fall, we will always desire sinful stuff, we "choose" to sin. But note we are not free to choose to seek God through faith in Christ, so we can only choose one outcome, death, based on our fallen condition. However scripture says God sets before us life or death, not death only, and begs us to choose life. Therefore the "compatilism theory" of behavior is unbiblical, making Calvinism unbiblical.
Turning back to "open theism" and some of the false statements that have been made, lets assume that if God desires to make something occur in the future, it will occur in the future. God does as He pleases, nothing is impossible with God, and God is all-powerful, meaning nothing can thwart Him. So whatever God has decided, predetermined, declared, planned, etc God will bring about, will cause to happen. So whatever part or all of the future that God has predetermined, predestined, He knows and will bring about. So the issue is not that God knows His prophecies, they do not challenge open theism at all. The issue is has God chosen not to know the future exhaustively. And the biblical answer is yes, God has chosen not to know the future exhaustively. There are many passages that make this point, let me give you a few: (1) God puts our forgiven sins out of "sight" he remembers them no more forever. Closed theists say the dozen or so verses that say this do not mean what they say. I take God at His word. (2) When Abraham was about to kill Isaac, God said stop, "now I know" which indicates God did not know beforehand what Abraham would do. (4) Now God can and often does search our hearts and knows what we will do, so this is an exception but it shows God can choose not to search hearts and know what we will choose to do if a circumstances arises. On the other hand, He can, and often does. That is how Jesus could say that if the folks in another town had seen His miracles, they would have repented. But all the biblical examples of searching the hearts of men refers to men who are alive with attitudes and attributes. Jesus tells Peter how Peter will die. This tells us Jesus knew Peter's heart and knew if the circumstances were brought about where Peter could sacrifice himself for his Lord, Peter would do it! (5) But on the other hand Jesus who Peter said was "all knowing" did not know the time of His return. Again, Closed theists say Jesus really knew. I take God at His world.
Every-time God offers a conditional covenant, scripture teaches God provides an opportunity for us to choose the outcome. If we do this, God will do that, but if we do something else, God will do something else. If we repent, God will relent. Thus, the opportunity to choose more than one outcome is offered by God over and over in scripture. Closed theists say all this is an illusion, the outcome was foreordained. I take God at His word.
So parts of Open theism are biblical, but certainly other parts, i.e God is surprised, are not biblical. The same can be said for Calvinism and Arminianism.
