Then, a dictionary:
How can you call yourself a Christian when you deny a major attribute of God’s character? In essence OT calls Him a liar and denies His absolute sovereignty.
Because there’s no theological requirement regarding one’s opinion of any aspect of God’s character. One of the most blitheringly stupid things Christians do is to create dogma out of thin air in order to claim that those who don’t share their specific theological opinions are somehow not Christians. One can believe in a six-day Creation or a six-quintillion year Creation and be a Christian. One can be a Calvinist or an Open Theorist and be a Christian. One can even be – cough – a Green Bay Packers fan. What one’s personal opinions on most specific theological matters are is of little more relevance than what NFL team supports, so long as one believes with one’s heart and confesses with one’s tongue that Jesus Christ is Lord, hence the bit about seeing through a glass darkly and all.
OT doesn’t call God a liar – as Eli knows or he wouldn’t need to preface his statement with the weasel words “in essence” – and he needs to look up “sovereignty” to understand what it means. Sovereignty is authority, it is not action or planning. The notion of “God’s Perfect Plan” is literally childish, it’s far better suited for Sunday School songs than following Jesus Christ.
In any event, the Biblical metric for judgment is the fruit of one’s actions, not the human authority’s approval of one’s dogma. The most telling aspect of the debate between Greg Boyd and one of his foremost critics was the appallingly bad behavior of that critic, for which he subsequently apologized. Greg’s not perfect, I vehemently disagree with him on a few issues on which I believe he is using his heart rather than his head. But Open Theory is not one of them, and with very few exceptions, I’ve found the contrary case to not only be unconvincing, but downright embarrassing.
Hint: if your argument involves making obviously inaccurate assertions and appeals to human authority, it isn’t going to cut it. The Responsible Puppet – whose very name betrays his position on OT – knows that, which is why we will be getting into this issue next month, once I’m done with TIA.