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Boehmcg
Registered Member

Date Joined Dec 2011
Total Posts : 1

Posted 12/27/2011 2:37 AM (GMT -6)

How do open theists usually explain Acts 17:26?

Tom
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 10353

Posted 12/27/2011 9:59 AM (GMT -6)

I think they'd say they can agree that God has been generally providential in deciding what the map looks like--where people would live, the general boundaries, etc. But remember, the modern nation-state is a very recent invention. All Paul's words need imply is the development and dispersion of humanity within 'natural' boundaries (people groups with their cultural heritage and languages). Through the years these forces have been a far more powerful determiner of where people live and how they organize than wars and armies. So all Paul would mean is that God is the author of these natural tendencies.

Tom

"The aesthetic value the world has for God is in expressing, not constituting, the aesthetic value God eternally finds within Godself." Greg Boyd

Bob Hunter
Registered Member

Date Joined Dec 2011
Total Posts : 4

Posted 12/29/2011 2:46 AM (GMT -6)

In God of the Possible (pages 43-44), Gregory Boyd says that the passage refers to God's "structural outline of God's plan for world history" but goes on to claim that although these parameters condition the scope of human freedom they don't eliminate it just as our genes and environment condition but don't eliminate our individual freedom. A discussion of the passage is currently taking place at Facebook's Open View Theists (http://www.facebook.com/groups/27794582544/).

Bob

J.N.Darby
Registered Member

Date Joined Feb 2005
Total Posts : 124

Posted 1/2/2012 2:10 AM (GMT -6)

Boehmcg: Some people misunderstand open theism as God being completely hands off and powerless in the events of the world. But the idea is that He is entirely interactive with a world where He allows human and spirits to act with volition within the terms He has delineated. So perhaps, for example, while the Lord has influenced and steered the course of history to bring about, say, the USA and Canada, the Lord is all right with letting Joe decide whether he's going to remain in Toronto, or take that job offer in New York City, as that decision is open and viable within the context of the closed boundaries of how God is directing the world.

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