The Logical Hexagon Made Simple
Category: Essays, General
Tags: Free Will, Open Future, Open Theism, Philosophy
Topics: Defending the Open View, Free Will and the Future, Providence, Predestination and Free Will
by: Greg Boyd The Hexagaon in a Nutshell For those of you who don’t have the twenty to thirty minutes it will probably take to read this essay but who nevertheless would like to have…
Boyd’s Bad Ass Tattoo
Category: General
Tags: Free Will, Open Future, Open Theism
Topics: Free Will and the Future, Open Theism
by: Greg Boyd In the process of working through a philosophical issue surrounding the openness of the future around twenty years ago, I and two friends (Alan Rhoda and Tom Belt) ended up creating the…
How People Misunderstand Open Theism
Category: General
Tags: Calvinism, Divine Foreknowledge, Free Will, freedom, Future, Open Future, Open Theism
Topics: Free Will and the Future, Open Theism What it is and is not
Open theism holds that, because agents are free, the future includes possibilities (what agents may and may not choose to do). Since God’s knowledge is perfect, open theists hold that God knows the future partly as a realm of…
What is the biblical basis for “free will”?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Free Will, Q&A
Topics: Free Will and the Future
Question: Much of your theology depends on a supposed ability humans have to thwart God’s will by our free choices. But what is the biblical basis for your conclusion that people have “freedom”—at least “freedom”…
A Metaphysical Defense of Free Will
Category: General
Tags: Determinism, Free Will, Metaphysics
Topics: Free Will and the Future
Warning: As the title of this post may have already suggested, this post is a bit heady – and a bit long. I’m going to get into some rather tall metaphysical grass as I go…
Does God Exist Outside of Time?
Category: General
Tags: Jeremy Jernigan, Open Future, Open Theism, Possibility, time
Topics: Free Will and the Future
Our friend Jeremy Jernigan wrote something recently that we wanted to share with you today. Jeremy is the author of Redeeming Pleasure and Teaching Pastor at Central Christian Church in Arizona. He blogs regularly at…
Why You Have Free Will
Category: General
Tags: Choice, Free Will, Open Theism
Topics: Free Will and the Future
God’s decision to create a cosmos that was capable of love and that was, therefore, populated with free agents (see previous post) was also a decision to create and govern a world he could not…
Love and Free Will
Category: General
Tags: Free Will, Love, Open Theism
Topics: Free Will and the Future
God could have easily created a world in which nothing evil could ever happen. But this world would not have been capable of love. God could have preprogrammed agents to say loving things and to…
The God Who Over-Knows The Future
Category: General
Tags: God's Sovereignty, Open Theism, Possibility, Providence
Topics: Free Will and the Future
God perfectly knows from all time what will be, what would be, and what may be. He sovereignly sets parameters for all three categories. His knowledge of what might occur leaves him no less prepared…
Does Prayer Really Change Things?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Change, God, Open Theism, Prayer
Topics: Free Will and the Future, Hearing God, Prayer
Many people operate out of a blueprint model where God is viewed as absolutely unchanging, and all that occurs in the world is the unfolding of an eternal divine plan. If this is the case,…
To What Extent is the Future Open to Real Possibilities?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Choice, Free Will, Future, Judgment, Open Theism
Topics: Free Will and the Future
We frequently get questions about the extent to which the future is composed of actual possibilities rather than settled or determined. Here’s what Greg has to say in response to these questions: 1. We can…
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…
Why Do Some Prayers Go Unanswered?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Is God to Blame?, Prayer
Topics: Free Will and the Future, Hearing God, Prayer, Providence, Predestination and Free Will
All of us have prayed for things and have been left wondering why God did not answer. Clearly, our prayers don’t all bring about what we ask for. It has been popular to say that…
Free Will: How free will presupposes a great deal of determinism
Category: Q&A
Tags: Calvinism, Determinism, Free Will, Open Theism
Topics: Free Will and the Future, Providence, Predestination and Free Will
This particular video was recorded last week when the forecast called for a high of -4F. Greg makes light of the freezing conditions before he settles into the topic of how a mostly determined world…
Free Will: What is a free agent?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Calvinism, Determinism, Free Will, Open Theism, Philosophy
Topics: Free Will and the Future
What does it really mean to be a free agent? In this reflection, Greg offers some thoughts on free agents and how it can be that they are not exhaustively determined.
Free Will: The origin of evil
Category: Q&A
Tags: Calvinism, Determinism, Evil, Free Will, Open Theism, Problem of Evil
Topics: Free Will and the Future, Providence, Predestination and Free Will
In this continuing series on free will, Greg discusses how evil can only be accounted for if we acknowledge free will. This is especially true if you believe that God is good.
Free Will: What does Quantum Theory suggest?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Calvinism, Determinism, Free Will, Open Theism, Quantum Physics
Topics: Free Will and the Future, Providence, Predestination and Free Will
Bet you didn’t think we’d be going here. Greg discusses how quantum theory supports the idea of free will.
Free Will: An Aesthetic Model
Category: Q&A
Tags: Calvinism, Determinism, Free Will, Open Theism, Philosophy, Satan and the Problem of Evil
Topics: Free Will and the Future, Providence, Predestination and Free Will
Greg continues his thoughts on free will by offering an aesthetic model for free will. This one gets pretty philosophical, but it’s worth toughing it out.
Free Will: Is it a coherent concept?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Calvinism, Determinism, Free Will, Open Theism, Philosophy
Topics: Free Will and the Future, Providence, Predestination and Free Will
Greg is going to be spending the next several blogs talking about the idea of free will. In this first reflection, he discusses whether it is coherent to speak of a decision that is not…
What is the difference between “libertarian” and “compatibilistic” freedom?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Free Will, Predestination, Q&A, Responding to Calvinism
Topics: Free Will and the Future, Providence, Predestination and Free Will
Question: I often hear philosophers and theologians talk about “libertarian” and “compatibilistic” freedom. What do these terms mean? Answer: A person who holds to “libertarian” freedom believes that an agent (human or angelic) is truly free and morally…