We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

What is the significance of Isaiah 5:3–7?
The Lord describes Israel as his vineyard. Referring to himself, he says that the owner of the vineyard loved his vineyard and did all he could to care for it. “[H]e expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes” (vs. 2). Then the Lord asks, “What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?” Because it unexpectedly failed to yield grapes, the Lord says “I will remove its hedge and it shall be devoured” (vs. 5).
According to the classical view of foreknowledge, the Lord could not express the conviction that he “expected” the vineyard to produce grapes, because he would have known from all eternity that it would not. If we rather trust that the Lord speaks with integrity, we must conclude that he genuinely thought something would take place which did not take place. This precludes accepting the notion that God foreknew everything that was going to transpire. God can’t sincerely “expect” what he foreknows will not happen. (See Jer. 3:6–7, 19–20).
Category: Q&A
Tags: Open Theism, Q&A
Topics: Open Theism
Verse: Isaiah 5
Related Reading

How do you respond to Romans 11:36?
“For from him [God] and through him and to him are all things.” Calvinists sometimes cite this doxology as evidence that Paul believed that every single event in world history was from, through and for God. In light of the fact that the verses leading up to this doxology address God’s genuine frustration with Israel’s…

Reflecting on Open2013
T. C. Moore has posted some of his reflections from the Open Theism conference. T. C. was one of several people who pulled this conference together and he did a great job. He’s also incredibly smart and very active in the open view community. Also, he’s a young church planter in Boston and I’m sure he’s…

Can Science Inform Our Theology?
Over the last century, we have witnessed a revolution in various areas of science that relate to how we see the world and even God. For example, the Platonic notion that time and change are less real than timeless stability is being abandoned in light of the fact that physicists work from the assumption that…

Does God Change His Mind?
Classical theologians usually argue that texts that attribute change to God describe how he appears to us; they do not depict God as he really is. It looks like God changed his mind, but he really didn’t. Unfortunately for the classical interpretation, there are many texts that do not say, or remotely imply, that it…

Podcast: Where Does Omniscience Fit In Within Open Theism?
Greg pontificates on what God knows. http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0280.mp3

When Did Jesus Bind the Strongman?
Question: In Luke 11:21-22 Jesus said: “When a strong man, with all his weapons ready, guards his own house, all his belongings are safe. But when a stronger man attacks him and defeats him, he carries away all the weapons the owner was depending on and divides up what he stole.” My question is, when…