Bob Enyart is a Dispensationalist and an open theist. Recently Bob interviewed Gary Demar and was debated by our own Gene Cook, Jr. Open theist believe the God described in the Bible is the most powerful, most knowing, most loving, and most unchanging in his nature, but not omni-everything.
Open-theist believe the concepts of omnipresence and immutability do not stem from the Bible. They believe that in scripture, God changed his mind and plans, voluntarily limited Himself in power, was surprised by events on Earth, was hurt, and paid attention to the pleas of men and angels. According to this view, God’s foreknowledge is exhaustive. Notice Enyart’s open theism rears its ugly head in the quote below as he defends his dispensationalism:
Who was Cut Off in Romans 11? The Apostle Paul explains in Romans 11:15-30 that Israel was cut off for unbelief, and yet, that God is able to graft them back in again, and He will, when the fullness of the Gentiles (the Body of Christ) comes in! Demar says that Romans 11 teaches the fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise that salvation would come to the Gentiles, however what he misses is that God’s hope was to bring salvation to the Gentiles through national Israel! However, since they rejected their Messiah, God brought salvation to the Gentiles in spite of Israel, for the Gentiles “have now obtained mercy through their [Israel's] disobedience,” and “their [Israel's] being cast away is the reconciling of the world!”
Bob’s dispensational interpretation of Matthew 24 is used to support his open theism. Bob believes dispensationalism requires open theism to make sense as a system of theology… why else would God keep changing His focus from Gentiles to Israel to Gentiles to finally Israel again. He also tries to prove that open theism best supports the dispensational view that Jesus was wrong in his Matthew 24:34 prediction and Jesus’ “lack of knowledge” in Matthew 24:36.
Now I know that dispensationalists are not all open theist or vise versa. But I thought it was important to put this heretical view into the record of erroneous teachings to watch out for in our generation.
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Jason Robertson is a husband and a father and a pastor. He is dedicated to leading and equipping his the Church with God’s word and biblical theology for life ministry, using a combination of pastoral, church planting and evangelism experience. He holds a Master of Divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is experienced in church planting, evangelism, missions, and the training of pastors and Bible teachers.
Jason has been preaching the gospel since 1985, serving the first ten years of ministry as a Southern Baptist itinerant evangelist out of Milldale Baptist Church in Zachary, LA which ordained him in 1993. He has preached in hundreds of churches in over 30 States and 4 countries. He planted churches in Siberia, Russia in the summers of 1993 and 1994. He founded Murrieta Valley Church in California, which he planted in cooperation with the SBC NAMB in 2001. He also teaches ministry students at California Baptist University.
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Who knows, maybe Enyart is onto something here. This just may be the beginning of a new mophing of dispensationalism beginning from its historic roots, to its change to progressivism in order to attempt to salvage some credibility, and now onto “openness” that finally begins to expose yet another layer of its underpinning philosophic foolishness. I guess we’ll just have to see how it continues to unravel and further expose its folly.
“morphing” not “mophing”
Do I not detect a hint of GBA here? Boy! You guys really go after the big fish in the pond!
Enyart is an interesting study in special pleading. I watched him debate on Open Theism a few years ago. His opponent was Reformed. Enyart kept insisting that the Reformed doctrine of providence is rooted in Greek philosophy. When challenged to document that assertion, he was unable to do so (IMO, because there is no existing monograph that has ever successfully done this, because you have to trace it all the way to Philo and then up through all the links in the chain to the High Orthodox era proving, from direct quotes, direct genetic dependence). The really interesting thing is that when the derivation of his own Open Theism and libertarianism is pointed out (a direct line from Socinianism back to Greek philosophy is VERY easy to trace) he’ll give himself a free pass.
“But I thought it was important to put this heretical view into the record of erroneous teachings to watch out for in our generation.”
I wonder how the dispies interpret “our generation” in your statement…you couldn’t possibly mean for our current generation in the present to watch out for these erroneous teachings could you? It is obvious that the generation you are referring to are in a future dispensation.
Sorry, had to do it.
Open Theists rely upon John 13.38 to back up their claims:
Jesus said to Peter, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly I say to you that I honestly don’t know. I suppose it is possible.”
Enyart has an interesting definiation of the “body of Christ”, as founded by Paul’s preaching after his conversion.
I’ve had some run-ins with some Bob Enyart disciples over at theologyonline.com Most of them are open-theists and belittle those who believe in reformed theology. It can be pretty frustrating at times trying to have a conversation over there.