Context: The Ultimate Trump Card

I was talking with my good friend Jim the other day after church and he said something quite humorous and very insightful. Since he didn't post it, I thought I would steal that thought from him and use it on my blog.

In our conversation we were discussing a bizarre post I read on another blog. Even more bizarre than the post itself was an open theist who responded to it. I replied (I think graciously :-) ) to this comment with many biblical texts which fly in the face of a 'god' who doesn't know the future.

In particular I challenged him to examine Is 45-48 where God (YHWH) is presented as the true, real, and living God over-against all false gods because he can declare what will come to pass (he has declared it from the beginning!). The argument, then, is that in order to be truly God, he must know the future!

Our friendly open theist's response: 'You've taken all those verses out of context!'

Blast! That darned context trump card! He got me... well, I guess there goes the argument for classical theism.

Jim's insight: People don't even know what 'out of context' means anymore. They've just heard it bantered around so much that they figure it can disprove (trump) any statement of the Bible that leads to a conclusion different than the one they want to draw.

Unbelievable. Get a hermeneutic, would you?!