21
prayer becomes the hallmark of a genuine and mutually responsive relationship between God
and his children. Ware argues
The open view makes much of the dynamic nature of this [divine/human] relationship,
and yet if the truth were told, for every single prayer a believer would bring to the Lord,
God could respond every time with, "I know . . . Yes, I know . . . Yes, I know . . . Yes, I
know . . ."! But, of course, this is not at all how prayer is described in openness
discussions. We rather are led to believe that God waits to hear what we think, that he
learns what our thoughts are when we come to him, that he adjusts his plans only after
learning from us what our longings are, and so on. The truth is, however, this is not how
it works at all! God never learns what we think when we tell him in prayer. Because he
knows us perfectly, he knows every thought we ever have had, he knows all our feelings
and desires, and he can anticipate fully what we will be bringing to him in prayer.
46
The reality is that the kind of dynamic and mutually interactive, mutually instructing relationship
with God in prayer that is often promoted by open theists demands not only that God not have
exhaustive foreknowledge but also that his knowledge of the present and past be limited as well.
This is a far greater modification of classical understanding of divine omniscience than has
heretofore been advocated by open theists.
47
46
Ibid.
47
Ibid., 167. Ware asserts that the root problem here is the openness assumption that for
the divine/human relationship to be real and genuine, it must be very similar to a human
model of personal relationships. Ware on the other hand that we must rather let God be God
and let him define the parameters of the divine/human relationship in the unique and
distinctive way he designed it to function. On the inversion of the divine/human analogy, see
A. B. Caneday, "The Implausible God of Open Theism: A Response to Gregory A. Boyd's
God of the Possible," available from
http://www.edgren.org/discuss /long_review.html;