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In a response from Sanders issued by the ETS executive committee along with its recommendations, the Huntington College theologian reiterated his views on prophecy, saying they are not a challenge to inerrancy. "I affirm inerrancy, that what the Scripture teaches is correct, but this must not be confused with a dispute about what it teaches," he said. "We disagree about whether Scripture affirms that all prophecies are certain/definite or whether some are definite and others are indefinite. The majority's explanation assumes that to say prophecies about the future are true is the same thing as saying they are certain to occur. This is a linguistic and metaphysical assumption that I reject."

Pinnock clarifies
The chief complaint against Pinnock, who retired from McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario, mainly focused on a footnote on "unfulfilled" prophecies, especially its assertion that " "contrary to Paul, the second coming was not just around the corner (1 Thes. 4:17)." Pinnock said that his language in that note "Unintentionally and unfortunately … strays beyond what I was getting at, and is thus objectionable. … I do not believe that God's prophets ever err. They always tell the truth when all is said and done."

While Sanders's conversation with the committee convinced some members that he did not truly believe in Scripture's inerrancy, Pinnock's explanations in a later meeting the same day had the opposite effect, the committee said, convincing them that he agrees with the society's standards of doctrine. A rewriting of his footnote, along with an explanation of the changes, satisfied even Nicole.

The committee's recommendations all but guarantee that Pinnock will not be excluded from membership at the November 19 meeting. Last year, the vote to challenge his membership at all passed by a narrow 171 to 137 margin—which, ironically, was 11 votes wider than the 166 to 143 decision to challenge Sanders's membership. In a post card to Howard after reading the recommendations, Nicole wrote, "I expect that the annual meeting will not dismiss Pinnock, but that there may be an adverse 2/3 vote for Sanders. I am sure that both of these men will henceforth be more careful about what they write!"

All sides of the debate emphasize that the November vote is not a referendum on the truth of open theism or whether it is an acceptable theology for evangelicals. In 2001, ETS members overwhelmingly passed a resolution criticizing the doctrine. The statement, "We believe the Bible clearly teaches that God has complete, accurate, and infallible knowledge of all events past, present, and future, including all future decisions and actions of free moral agents," passed by a 70 percent margin, with 11 percent of members abstaining.

Ted Olsen is online managing editor of Christianity Today.

Copyright © 2003 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

The ETS web site has an area devoted to the executive committee's recommendations, along with many other documents about the challenge to the two theologians' membership.

Christianity Today earlier featured "Does God Know Your Next Move?" in which Christopher A. Hall and John Sanders debated openness theology. That discussion was been expanded into a book, Does God Have a Future?: A Debate on Divine Providence, which was recently reviewed in CT.

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October (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47