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17
foretold may not happen."
61
Second, many prophecies are "predictions based on foresight drawn
from existing trends and tendencies"
62
which do not require God to have foreknowledge of
future contingents in order to give us predictions. As Hasker reminds us, "even with our grossly
inadequate knowledge of such trends and tendencies, we invest enormous amounts of energy
trying to make forecasts in this way; evidently God with his perfect knowledge could do it much
better."
63
An example of such a prophecy is God's prediction to Moses about the hardness of
Pharaoh's heart. Richard Rice suggests that "the ruler's character may have been so rigid that it
was entirely predictable. God understood him will enough to know exactly what his reaction to
certain situations would be."
64
Third, many prophecies include things that are foreknown
because it is God's purpose or intention to bring them about irrespective of human decision.
After all, God is God, and if he intends to accomplish a certain task, he does not have to foresee
it before he can know about it; he can simply declare it so, and it will be accomplished. Thus, as
Richard Rice explains, "if God's will is the only condition required for something to happen, if
human cooperation is not involved, then God can unilaterally guarantee its fulfillment, and he
can announce it ahead of time... God can predict his own actions."
65
Most of the events of
redemptive history ­ the prediction of the incarnation, the cross, and the second coming ­ are all
placed in this last category.
66

Now, of course, the major question in this explanation is whether the above strategy will
work, given the parameters of the doctrine of inerrancy. Let us look at each of the steps of this
strategy in turn and ask whether it actually delivers what it promises.

50-53; Rice, God's Foreknowledge and Man's Free Will, 75-81; Sanders, The God Who Risks, 129-137.
61
Ibid., 194.
62
Ibid.
63
Ibid., 194-95.
64
Rice, "Biblical Support," in Openness, 51. Clark Pinnock adds the further point that many of these prophetic
forecasts based on present situations are also quite imprecise, so imprecise that many of these prophecies go
unfulfilled. Does this then mean that the prophecies were wrong? No, Pinnock states. "God is free in the manner of
fulfilling prophecy and is not bound to a script, even his own. The world is a project and God works on it creatively;
he is free to strike out in new directions. We cannot pin the free God down" (Most Moved Mover, 51).
65
Ibid.
66
In regard to the cross, open theists argue that God did not foresee it; instead "he declared that it was going to
happen, because he fully intended to bring it about" (Hasker, God, Time, Knowledge, 195). However, open theists
do not all agree on the timing of this intention. Greg Boyd, for example, argues that "it was certain that Jesus would
be crucified, but it was not certain from eternity that Pilot, Herod, or Caiaphas would play the roles they played in
the crucifixion" (God of the Possible, 45). John Sanders, on the other hand, does not even view the cross as planned
from the creation of the world. For him, it only comes about as late as Gethsemane, as Jesus wrestles with the will
of his Father and comes to the conclusion that he must now go to the cross (see God Who Risks, 98-104).