How do I avoid feeling like God is absent?
Question: I used to see God involved in everything and used to believe every event expressed God’s will. After ...
Isn’t God “changing his mind” an anthropomorphism?
Question: Traditionalists argue that passages that refer to God “changing his mind” are anthropomorphic, depicting God in human terms. ...
How does an Open Theist explain all the prophecies fulfilled in the life of Jesus?
Question: Throughout the Gospels it says that Jesus "fulfilled that which was written." Some of these prophecies are very ...
How can people who believe the open view trust a God who doesn’t control the future and doesn’t know for sure what will happen?
It’s true that according to the open view of the future things can happen in our lives which God didn’t ...
Doesn’t the open view demean God’s sovereignty?
The Open view demeans God’s sovereignty only if one assumes that “sovereignty” means “meticulous control.” By why ...
In light of Einstein’s conclusion that time is relative, how can you believe that God is not above time?
Relatively Theory basically stipulates that whether an event is viewed as being in the past, present or future depends on ...
How can you put your trust in a God who’s not in control of everything?
Question: I read your book Is God to Blame? and found it to be very compelling. It's rocking ...
How do you respond to Genesis 3:15?
The Lord promises that he will “put enmity between you [the serpent] and the woman, and between your offspring and ...
How do you respond to Genesis 15:13–15?
The Lord tells Abraham that his offspring “shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be ...
How do you respond to Genesis 16:12?
The Lord describes Ishmael as “...a wild ass of a man, with his hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against ...
How do you respond to Genesis 25:23?
The Lord told Rebekah, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided; the ...
How do you respond to Genesis 49:10?
"The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it ...
How do you respond to Numbers 23:19?
The Lord tells Balak through Balaam “God is not a human being, that he should lie, or a mortal, that ...
How do you respond to Deuteronomy 30:16–23?
The Lord tells Moses of his impending death and then prophesies that “this people will begin to prostitute themselves to ...
How do you respond to 1 Kings 13:2–3?
The Lord proclaims against the pagan alter of Jeroboam, “O altar, altar, thus says the Lord: ‘A son shall be ...
Doesn’t Psalm 139:16 refute the open view of the future?
One of the passages most frequently cited in attempts to refute the open view of the future is Psalm ...
How do you respond to Psalm 139:16?
“In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.” Psalm ...
How do you respond to Isaiah 44:28–45:1?
This passage is one of the most persuasive evidences of divine foreknowledge in the Bible. The verse proclaims the Lord ...
How do you respond to Isaiah 46:9–11?
The Lord says, “I am God, and there is none other; I am God, and there is no one like ...
How do you respond to Isaiah 48:3–5?
The Lord proclaims to his idolatrous people, “The former things I declared long ago, they went out from my mouth ...
How do you respond to Isaiah 53:9?
Speaking of the suffering servant Isaiah says, “[T]hey made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich...” As ...
How do you respond to Jeremiah 1:5
The Lord says to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born ...
How do you respond to Jeremiah 25:8–12?
The Lord says to the nations: “Because you have not obeyed my words” (vs. 8), "this whole land shall become ...
How do you respond to Jeremiah 29:10–11?
The Lord says to Israel, “Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill ...
How do you respond to Ezekiel 26:1–21?
There are a number of specific prophecies against various cities in the Old Testament which were fulfilled (though some were ...
How do you respond to Daniel 2:31–45?
Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s dream to the effect that he possesses a kingdom of “gold” (vs. 38). After this there shall ...
How do you respond to Zechariah 12:10?
“when they look on the one they have pierced, they shall mourn for him...” Hundreds of years before Christ was born ...
How do you respond to Malachi 3:6?
“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, have not perished.” Some cite this verse as ...
How do you respond to Matthew 16:21?
“From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering ...
How do you respond to Matthew 20:17–19?
“The Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to ...
How do you respond to Matthew 21:1–5?
Jesus commanded his disciples, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and ...
How do you respond to Matthew 24:1–44?
This is Jesus’ Mount of Olives discourse in which, according to many scholars, he prophesies concerning the conditions at the ...
How do you respond to Matthew 26:36?
At the last supper Jesus said to Peter, “Truly I tell you, this very night, before the cock crows, you ...
How do you respond to Mark 14:13–15?
In planning for the Passover meal, Jesus tells his disciples, “Go into the city and a man carrying a jar ...
What about the Gospel of John and Calvinism?
Question: The Gospel of John seems to teach that people believe because God draws them, rather than that God draws ...
How do you respond to John 13:18–19; 17:12?
“I am not speaking of you all; I know whom I have chosen. But it is to fulfill the scripture, ...
How do you respond to John 6:64, 70–71?
Jesus told his disciples, “‘But among you there are some who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the first ...
How do you respond to John 21:18–19?
Jesus says to Peter, “‘[W]hen you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you ...
How do you respond to Acts 2:23?
Peter preaches to the crowd on the day of Pentecost, “[T]his man [Jesus], handed over to you according to the ...
How do you respond to Acts 2:23 and 4:28?
Question: Acts 2:23 and 4:28 tell us that wicked people crucified Jesus just as God predestined them to do. If ...
How do you respond to Acts 4:27–28?
“[B]oth Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, ...
How do you respond to Acts 13:48?
“When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and praised the word of the Lord; and as many as had ...
How do you respond to Romans 8:29-30?
Question: Romans 8:29–30 says that everyone God foreknew he predestined. You deny both that God foreknows and predestines individual believers. ...
How do you respond to Romans 8:29?
“For whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he ...
How do you respond to Galatians 1:15–16?
“...when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased to ...
How do you respond to Galatians 3:8?
“And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘All ...
How do you respond to Ephesians 1:4-5?
Question: Ephesians 1 refers to believers as predestined before the foundation of the world. How do you reconcile this with ...
How do you respond to 2 Thessalonians 2:3–4?
“Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and ...
How do you respond to 1 Timothy 4:1–3?
“...in the later times some will renounce the faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through ...
How do you respond to 2 Timothy 1:9–10?
“...this grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, but it has now been revealed through ...
How do you respond to 1 Peter 1:1–2?
“To the exiles of the Dispersion in Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen and destined by ...
How do you respond to 1 Peter 1:20?
“[Christ] was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for our ...
How do you respond to the book of Revelation?
“The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place...” (1:1). Because many ...
Revelation 13:8 refers to “everyone whose names have not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life.” How does that square with open theism?
Three possibilities exist in terms of reconciling Revelation 13:8 with open theism. 1) First, the “from the foundation of the world” ...
Revelation 17:8 refers to people whose names haven’t been written in “the book of life from the creation of the world.” Doesn’t this conflict with open theism?
As in Revelation 13:8, the clause “from the foundation” (apo kataboleis) need not mean “from before the foundation” but ...