20
answer prayers based on incomplete information about the future and on input from beings who
are less knowledgeable, wise, and holy than himself, and in light of his own beliefs that are at
least potentially fallible can be considered to be the all-wise God of Scripture.
42
Ware highlights problems the open view of prayer has with two other divine
attributes as wellGod's omniscience and his love. As noted earlier, open theists do believe that
God knows exhaustively the past and present. This certainly includes our present and past
thoughts and feelings and actions. As Boyd says, "Our omniscient Creator knows us perfectly,
far better than we even know ourselves."
43
Specifically, Boyd asserts that God "knows the
thoughts and intentions of all individuals perfectly."
44
But this presents a problem for the open view of prayer. The fact is that
everything we tell God in prayer is something that exists in the present. While our petitions
might relate to future realities, our anxieties, fears, desires, hopes and dreams about them are
present realities. And therefore by definition, God knows them. The point is that there is
nothing we can tell God in prayer that he does not already know. This makes it hard to see how
prayer can make a genuine contribution to God's decision-making process, for our prayers
contribute absolutely no new information to God.
45
In addition, this makes it hard to see how
42
See the helpful assessment of the problems the open view of prayer has with the
wisdom of God in Ware, God's Lesser Glory, 167-172.
43
Boyd, God of the Possible, 35.
44
Ibid., 152. Presumably, Boyd means that God knows the present and past thoughts and
intentions of all individuals perfectly.
45
Ware, God's Lesser Glory, 166.