Free Republic

Middle Knowledge: Foreknowledge and Foreordination. Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." John 4:10 (NIV) Object to Person The most common way for humans to acquire knowledge is to study external objects. The objects that surround us in the universe are the sources of this type of knowledge. In fact, this is the normal way we learn and acquire knowledge. Humans are not born with a storehouse of knowledge, so we have to acquire...

Are You Open to Open Theism? Marvin PadgettMarch 2003This article addresses an issue that will hopefully sound familiar to the readers of Equip for Ministry. Equip has presented other articles and book reviews on the topic of “open theism.” There is definitely confusion caused by this issue, which though it has old roots, has surfaced in new ways. I was originally asked to speak last summer on this topic at a weekend L’Abri conference in Rochester, MN. The article refers to a teaching about God that strikes at the heart of who God is and what He does or does...

Open or Closed Case? Controversial theologian John Sanders on way out at Huntington. By Stan Guthrie | posted 12/22/2004 While John Sanders and the Board of Trustees at Huntington College in Indiana disagree on whether God exhaustively knows the future, they agree that his days as a theology professor at the evangelical school are running out. The issue, according to both Sanders and G. Blair Dowden, the college's president, is not Sanders' belief in open theology, but his notoriety in advocating the doctrine. Both acknowledged that others on the faculty hold the same open theology views. "You can be an...

Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger - Bryan Callen Jesus Christ - David Herman Wise Man #1 - Phil LaMarr On the screen we see a clear night sky filled with stars, one in particular being very large and bright. TV Announcer: Unto this world, a child is born. Camera pans down onto a small village. We see that the date is December 25, 0000. There is a strange kind of lighting is zapping around in between two small buildings. Suddenly the light forms a large silver sphere. A naked man hunching over appears and the sphere disappears. The man stands, and we...

Chapter 13 The Providence of GodWe believe that the same God, after He had created all things, did not forsake them or give them up to fortune or chance, but that He rules and governs them according to His holy will, so that nothing happens in this world without His appointment; nevertheless, God neither is the Author of nor can be charged with the sins which are committed. For His power and goodness are so great and incomprehensible that he orders and executes His work in the most excellent and just manner, even then when devils and wicked men act...

Beware the easy answers By BILL TAMMEUS The Kansas City Star Some people have looked through the eyes of religious faith at the joyful story of the nine rescued coal miners near Somerset, Pa., and have drawn quick and easy conclusions. Some have even connected the mine recovery story with the fact that the self-sacrificing heroes on one of the airplanes hijacked on Sept. 11 crashed the plane only 10 miles from that coal mine. I don't object to seeing the world through theological lenses. Indeed, that practice usually gives me clarity. What I object to is a tendency to...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--The debate over open theism has intensified in recent months, and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Bruce Ware has emerged as one of its more vocal opponents. Ware and his position on open theism are the subject of much discussion in the latest journal published by the conservative Evangelical Theological Society, a group of theologians who affirm biblical inerrancy. The journal is basically a spillover from debate at last November's ETS meeting, when Ware presented a paper with spirited arguments against open theism -- the belief that the future is "open" in that God does not and cannot...