Genesis 3:9 says: Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” When the garden appeared to be the perfect manifestation of stability, Adam and Eve were easily deceived by the serpent. The Kingdom of God in all its grandeur would come upon Adam’s descendants and righteousness would rule the garden, and eventually the world outside the garden forever. But all crumbled when God’s icons failed and fell. Upon failure, Adam hid as a child hiding from a parent under the visible table. Yet, God the Creator of all things and sustainer of all things seemed to struggle with Adam’s location. He uttered, “Where are you man?” Is God limited in His visibility or is there something else to this enigma?
Open Theists have always delighted on this and many other passages that appear to limit God’s knowledge of the future. They argue, “since God does not know the whereabouts of Adam, then He can’t have perfect knowledge.” But does this argument prove too much? I believe it does. Genesis 3:9 does not present God wondering about the presence of Adam in the future, but the presence of Adam in the present. The divine question is: ” Where are you NOW?”, not where will you hide later? Open Theists cannot have it both ways. They will have to deny God’s knowledge of the future and knowledge of the present in order to be consistent. Furthermore, if this is the case, what hinders Open Theists from denying God’s ability to remember past events?
Open Theism, which is a re-hashing of an old Socinian heresy, fails to understand the purposes of God. God descends and communicates with man so that divinity can communicate with humanity. Yahweh’s question was an ethical one and Adam knew it. It would be futile for God to appear suddenly and make angelic lights shine from heaven revealing Adam. Moses’ readers knew that God was making a greater point with His question: “Adam, your sin has found you out!” The voice of God must have infringed upon that which had not been infringed before: Adam’s conscious; the words of God must have echoed in the garden like a loud roar. Adam, man, imago Dei, has exprienced sin and God’s burning question proves it.