Open Theism
Reasons God Does Not Control Everything
Category: General
Tags: Change, God, Open Theism, time
First, the belief that God is all-powerful does not mean that God exercises all power. It only means that God is the ultimate source of all power. Fallen people may value the ability to control…
Confronting Divine Determinism
Category: General
Tags: Calvinism, Determinism, Free Will, Love, Open Theism, Predestination, Responding to Calvinism, Woodland Hills Church
Part of the fallen human condition inclines us to shirk our moral responsibility and accept that everything is predetermined, whether by God, the gods, fate, or blind chance. Various forms of determinism have been prevalent…
Predestination Part 2: Seeing Destiny Rightly
Category: General
Tags: Calvinism, Destiny, Free Will, Jesus, Open Theism, Predestination
Topics: Providence, Predestination and Free Will
For Part 1, click here. In Ephesians Paul teaches that God “chose us in [Christ] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight” (Eph 1:4). In Christ, Paul continues,…
Predestination: What Does It Mean?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Calvinism, Destiny, Determinism, Free Will, Is God to Blame?, Open Theism, Predestination
Topics: Free Will and the Future, Providence, Predestination and Free Will
When some people hear the biblical teaching that God “chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world” (Eph 1:4) and that “he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Christ,” (Eph 1:5) they…
Sermon Clip: Does Romans 9 predestine you to Hell?
Category: Sermons and Video Clips
Tags: Cruciform Theology, Determinism, Free Will, Greg Boyd, Open Theism, Predestination, Responding to Calvinism
Did God predestine you to Hell? Can he even do that? In this short sermon clip, Greg Boyd talks about his own struggles when trying to understand Romans 9 which on the surface seems to…
Open Theism: A Basic Introduction
Category: General
Tags: Foreknowledge, Open Theism, Satan and the Problem of Evil, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Open Theism
On Monday and Tuesday, Greg explained Molinism and contrasted it against the open view of the future. (Click here for part 1). Because many see the open view as a limited view of God, it’s…
Molinism and Open Theism – Part II
Category: Q&A
Tags: Determinism, Molinism, Open Theism, The Great Omission
Topics: Open Theism What it is and is not, Providence, Predestination and Free Will
In the previous post on this topic I briefly outlined Molinism and then discussed “the grounding objection.” In this post I’ll first discuss another fundamental objection to Molinism and then discuss how it is overcome…
Molinism and Open Theism – Part I
Category: Q&A
Tags: Calvinism, Choice, Determinism, Free Will, God, Molinism, Open Theism
Topics: Open Theism What it is and is not, Providence, Predestination and Free Will
I’ve been asked for the umpteenth time on Twitter lately about the difference between “Molinism” and “Open Theism,” and for some reason, today seemed like a good day to begin addressing this question. I’ll do this…
The Future of Theology
Category: General
Tags: Kenosis, Open Theism, Roger Olson, Theology, Trinity
Chris Moore via Compfight Roger Olson recently published a blog arguing that there really are no new ideas out there in the realm of theology. Everything has pretty much been thought of or proposed. That…
If God Can’t Control, How Can I Trust Him?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Open Theism, Prayer, Problem of Evil
Topics: Open Theism, Providence, Predestination and Free Will
Question: If God can’t always answer our prayers for healing, for example (and I completely understand why—free will etc), then HOW can he promise to bring good out of the bad things that happen? Surely…
Lighten Up: The Down Side of Free Will
Category: General, Lighten Up
Tags: Free Will, Humor, Lighten Up, Open Theism
Some Questions a Year After Her Child’s Death
Category: General
Tags: Blueprint Worldview, Calvinism, God's Will, Grief, Henry, Jessica Kelley, Open Theism, Prayer, The Jesus Event, Theodicy, Warfare Worldview
Jessica Kelley wrote a post for The Jesus Event that we wanted to share with you. You might remember that last year we were getting to know Jessica as she lost her four year old son Henry just…
Lighten Up: Good Question
Category: General, Lighten Up
Tags: Calvinism, Free Will, Humor, Lighten Up, Open Theism
A Calvinist and an Arminian walk into a bar…
Category: General
Tags: Arminianism, Calvinism, God's Love, God's Sovereignty, Open Theism, Roger Olson
Toby Bradbury via Compfight Roger Olson posted A Conversation between a Calvinist and an Arminian about God’s Sovereignty that we thought was dead on. In fact, we kind of wonder if Roger is bugging some of the conversations…
Sermon: God Needs Prayer
Category: General
Tags: Open Theism, Prayer, Sermons, Warfare Worldview
In this sermon clip, Greg Boyd discusses some of the challenges we face when praying. The full sermon wrestles with questions like: If God is all-powerful, does he need our prayers to change this world?…
Lighten Up: Underestimated
Category: General, Lighten Up
Tags: Debate, Frank Viola, Friendly Disagreements, Humor, Lighten Up, Open Theism
Frank Viola is at it again. He seems pretty confident that when he and I debate the Open Future this fall that he’ll smear me. That’s his prediction, anyway. The think is, I’ve been underestimated…
Lighten Up: I’m Not Worried Frank
Category: General, Lighten Up
Tags: Debate, Frank Viola, Friendly Disagreements, Humor, Lighten Up, Open Theism
http://youtu.be/kQFKtI6gn9Y?t=1m19s Well, my dear friend Frank Viola has been spouting off again about how my “logic will be shredded, excoriated, and turned into confetti before a watching world” when we host our debate on Open…
Category: General
Tags: Debate, Frank Viola, Fun, Open Theism
Umberto Salvagnin via Compfight Oh oh. It’s getting ugly up in here. Frank Viola is suggesting that Greg needs to fix a nice tall glass of shut-up juice. He and Greg have decided to have a…
Lighten Up: Oh my… I am so very very scared…
Category: General, Lighten Up
Tags: Debate, Frank Viola, Humor, Lighten Up, Monty Python, Open Theism
Well, my dear friend Frankie V. once again has a bad case of verbal diarrhea (explains his breath lately), running off about how he’s going to smack me down in our “all-out, no holds barred,…
Open2013 Reflections
Category: General
Tags: Free Will, Greg Boyd, John Sanders, Open Future, Open Theism, ReKnew, T.C. Moore, Theodicy, Theology, Tom Belt, Tom Oord
Both participants and leaders share about what was happening at Open2013 and some of their thoughts on Open Theism. Listen in and hear from Greg Boyd, John Sanders, Tom Oord, T. C. Moore, Jessica Kelley…