This is an important book! It deals with a topic that Roger Nicole has called “the cancer of evangelicalism.” Sadly, it has not invaded from the outside, but has grown-up from within the Christian community—from men who have had a solid evangelical reputation in theology. Hopefully, we do not have people teaching this in PCA churches, but it has spread throughout the evangelical community, and was one of the “hot” topics addressed at the Fall 2001 meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society. Professional clergy and theologians are probably more aware of it than the average person in the pew, but all Christians need to be aware of “open theism,” or “openness of God theology.” It strikes at the heart of biblical Christianity, though it claims to operate within a biblical framework.

Prior to No Other God, we recommended Bruce Ware’s God’s Less Glory (Crossway, 2000). It would be a good companion for Frame’s work but Frame’s is the book that needed to be written to deal with this dangerous teaching. In my judgment if anyone in our circles is qualified to write on this subject, it is John Frame, a biblical philosopher, theologian, and apologist with outstanding insight and ability to write clearly about difficult things.

Frame carefully defines openness theology, explains its origin, and then reflects how its proponents read and interpret the Bible. The Westminster Confession of Faith states, “… God knows whatsoever may or may not come to pass upon all supposed conditions…” (III:2, based on passages such as Act 15 and Ephesians 1). Open theism challenges that basic statement about God, about who He is and how He operates. It challenges our view of His sovereignty, foreknowledge, and providence.

Frame describes “openness theology” in the preface: that “God is not above time, that he does not control all nature and history, that he does not know the future exhaustively, that he sometimes makes mistakes and changes his plans, and therefore he is in some ways dependent on the world.” Reading that statement, which is a fair representation of what is being taught, you might say it sounds like the worst kind of liberal teaching, reflecting a complete ignorance or disbelief in the teachings of Scripture. When you read the names of those who teach open theism (like Clark Pinnock, Richard Rice, John Sanders, William Hasker, and David Basinger, authors of The Openness of God , IVP, 1994) you realize how serious it is.

In The Openness of God, as usually happens in any deviation from the biblical and historical norm, Pinnock poses two opposite concepts and opts for the later. He suggests that for God to be loving, caring, sympathetic, and sensitive to us, He has to be open, vulnerable, and susceptible to change. In fact the Openness authors lean heavily on verses in Scripture that, on the surface, suggest that God does change. They claim He has to change because He is not really the all-knowing God that we had thought Him to be.

Frame deals with the reality that open theism is actually a strike against Scripture. Open theism advocates do not oppose Scripture openly, but subtly, trying to convince us that their teaching is biblical, does justice to who God really is, and preserves human freedom. While I can be somewhat sympathetic with the dilemma of human freedom, which can be puzzling, I cannot agree with their conclusions.

This book is worth reading and studying. It should appeal to professionals and laity and would be a good text for a Sunday school class or a discussion group for adults or youth. Young people need to learn about this error and be taught the truth. Readers not only learn what is involved in the error of openness theology, but also have an opportunity to study, review, and refocus on God and His sovereignty. You will particularly enjoy the chapters “Does God Suffer?” and “Does God Know Everything in Advance?” Do not neglect this book.