B A Ware, Open Theism! A Few Comments

So, I drafted this in May sometime. I don't think I was finished with what I wanted to say, but I can't remember what else I wanted to say, so here is what I wrote back then.

I have just finished reading Bruce A. Ware's God's Lesser Glory: The Dimished God of Open Theism. Dr. Ware has done an excellent job of describing the Open Theist view, showing this view's inadequecies, and refuting the tenets of Open Theism (I'd say 'OT' but that would get mixed up with Old Testament).

In chapter 4 Ware converses with some of the most prominent Open Theist proof texts. Two of these proof texts include Jonah and the healing of Hezekiah (2 Kings 20). Ware does a great job of showing that the Open Theist understandings of these two narratives are unwarranted, fallicious, and just plain ridiculous.

Ware speaks about how Jonah's warning was God's means of giving Ninevah a chance to repent, and He did this knowing they would repent and God would forgive them.
With Hezekiah, Ware shows that God gave him the sickness and the opportunity as the means of giving Hezekiah 15 more years of life.
In neither case was God caught by surprise or did something occur that God had not planned.

Ware shows this very clearly, but something he did not get into was why God did these things.

Jonah prophesied 45 years before the destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel (767 BC and 722 BC). Yet before Jonah even came on the scene, God promised to destroy the Northern Kingdom through Hosea, Amos, and Joel. In Joel 2:20, the Lord makes clear that those who will come against Israel are "the northern army." In Hosea God makes reference to His bringing of Assyria to capture and rule of Israel (cf. 9:3 (where Egypt probably means captivity, as that is what Egypt was synonymous with in the Israelites minds), 10:6, 11:5 ("They will not return to the land of Egypt; But Assyria--he will be their king because they refused to return to Me"), 11:11). God could not accomplish this if Assyria were not in existence and powerful (the destruction of Ninevah, the Assyrian capital, surely would have made them incapable of attacking Israel).
So God sent Jonah to tell the Ninevites of their coming destruction so that they would repent. This was surely a slap in the face to the reluctant prophet and Israel, when the Ninevites repented. Perhaps Jonah was even familiar with the prophecies of Hosea, and so knew that his warning of Ninevah would end in the destruction of his own people, the Israelites (we cannot be sure). What is clear, however, is that Jonah hated the Ninevites (if nothing else they were a threat to Israel). Jonah knew that His warning was giving the Ninevites an opportunity to repent, and that God does not always give opportunities to repent (consider Edom, the Ninevites and Babylonians later on, etc). Jonah knew something was up (Jonah 4:1-4).

In the case of Hezekiah, in keeping him alive for 15 more years, Hezekiah ends up showing the Babylonians his treasure house (2 Kings 20:12-15). If Hezekiah had not lived, this would not have occurred. He showed the Babylonians everything, and for this Isaiah confronts the king and declares to him this: "Hear the word of the LORD. 'Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and all that your fathers have laid up in store to this day will be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,' says the LORD." So Hezekiah was used in bringing the Babylonians against Judah.

God's plans were established and carried out using the "free wills" of men. God knew this was all to happen, for it needed to occur to fulfill His plans. I guess that after such clear and precise planning by the Lord to carry out future plans, open theism doesn't seem like a very viable option.