Chart of four views on providence
| Theological Determinism | Traditional Freewill Theism | Open Theism | Process Theism | |
| Metaphor | Judge and king | Savior and lover | Savior and lover | Friend and lover |
| Creation | Creation ex nihilo. | ← Same | ← Same | Creation out of chaos. |
| God-world relationship | Asymmetrical and voluntary. Only God is a necessary being. | ← Same | ← Same | Symmetrical and necessary. |
| Divine nature | Immutability, impassibility, simplicity. No change of any kind. | Divine nature is unchangeable but God changes in relations with us. | ← Same | ← Same |
| Sovereignty | Meticulous providence.: fully determinate control of every detail. Divine will is never thwarted | General sovereignty: not determinate control of every detail. Divine will can be thwarted for some things. | ← Same | No determinate control (no coercion). Divine aims can be thwarted |
| Risk taking | God never takes risks of any kind. | God takes risks for his will can be rejected. | ← Same | ← Same |
| Human freedom | Compatibilism: we are free to act on our strongest desire but our desires are determined. | Libertarian: we could have done otherwise than we did. | ← Same | ← Same |
| Evil | All evil is planned by God for a specific purpose. | Evil is permitted in order to make possible relations of love with creatures but is not specifically planed. | ← Same | God does not want evil but cannot prevent it. |
| Divine plans | Blueprint for our lives (marriage, illness) is always fulfilled. | Some affirm a blueprint. We cooperate with God to bring about the future | ← Same except for denial of a blueprint. | ← Same? |
| Petionary prayer | Prayers never influence God. Divine decisions never depend on us. | Prayers may influence God. Some divine decisions depend on what we do. | ← Same | ? |
| Election | Unconditional, irresistible grace, monergism. | Conditional, enabling grace, synergism. Some add corporate elect. | ← Same but emphasize corporate election. | ? |
| God & time | Atemporal/timeless. God experiences all time at once = eternal now | Some affirm atemporality and others temporality. | Everlasting. God is temporal (at least since creation). | God has always been temporal. |
| The future | It is completely definite from God’s perspective. Stasis or dynamic theories of time. | ← Same | It is both definite and indefinite for God. Dynamic theory of time. | ← Same except God cannot unilaterally make a thing definite |
| Knowledge of the future | Exhaustive definite foreknowledge (EDF). God foreknows because God foreordains. | EDF via simple foreknowledge, not foreordination. | DO: God knows all the possibilities and probabilities and whatever is determined. | ← Same |
| Trinity, incarnation, resurrection | Traditional orthodoxy | ← Same | ← Same | Tend to reject or seriously modify. |
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