This article is posted with permission from the publisher, the scholarly journal Bibliotheca Sacra. Please click on the attachment to view Robert B. Chisholm Jr., “ANATOMY OF AN ANTHROPOMORPHISM: DOES GOD DISCOVER FACTS?” Bibliotheca Sacra…
Omniscience
Robert E. Picirilli, An Arminian Response to Open Theism
Please click on the attachment to view Robert E. Picirilli’s response to open theism in his article entitled, “AN ARMINIAN RESPONSE TO JOHN SANDERS’S THE GOD WHO RISKS: A THEOLOGY OF PROVIDENCE“, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 44/3 (September 2001) 467–91.
Jack Cottrell – Understanding God: God and Time
An article by Arminian Theologian Jack Cottrell. Cottrell speculates about God’s relation to time, and the nature and extent of God’s foreknowledge. Is God timeless (outside of time)? Or does God experience time in some…
Richard Watson, On Omniscience
Please click on the attachment to view Richard Watson, On Omniscience, which is an excerpt from his Theological Institutes. This treatment of God’s omniscience contains an important discussion of the concepts of necessity, contingency, and…
Edgar, Thomas R. “THE MEANING OF PROGINWSKW (“FOREKNOWLEDGE”)”
Please click on the attachment to view Edgar, Thomas R. “THE MEANING OF PROGINWSKW (“FOREKNOWLEDGE”)” (published in Chafer Theological Seminary Journal 9 [Spring 2003] 43-80). Edgar. Foreknowledge
Jesus’ Foreknowledge and Causation
Jesus’ Foreknowledge and Causation
written by SEA member Roy Ingle
There are certain events in the ministry of the Lord Jesus that demonstrated that He foreknew them and this shows He was God. For instance, we read that Jesus knew that He would die on the cross (John 12:32) and details about His crucifixion (Mark 10:33-34). Jesus knew that Judas would betray Him (John 13:18-27) and that Peter would deny Him (Mark 14:29-31). He was able to read the thoughts of the Jews in Mark 2:8. Clearly, Jesus was God (John 1:1; Philippians 2:6).
Molinism, Calvinism, and I Corinthians
I just finished Dr. Olson’s book Against Calvinism (It is really difficult to find time to read when you have a one year old). In appendix 1, Dr. Olson goes over several attempts by Calvinists to protect God’s character despite their theology. One particular argument caught my eye: the use of middle knowledge.
Roger Olson explains:
Molinism… is the belief that God possesses “middle knowledge” — knowledge of what any creature would do freely in any possible set of circumstances. The creature may possess libertarian freedom — freedom not compatible with determinism and able to do other than it does — but God knows what he or she wold do with that ability in an conceivable situation. [Roger Olson, Against Calvinism, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2011), 184]
Arminius on the Understanding of God
written by SEA member Roy Ingle Arminius has often been used by open theists to try to teach that he held to a form of open theism. When we read his Works we realize that…
Does God Repent? – The Bible Answer Man Clarifies
The classic King James Version of the Bible says, “It repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart” (Genesis 6:6). Elsewhere, God says, “It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments” (1 Samuel 15:11). If God is perfect, how could he repent?
First, the Bible unequivocally teaches that God is perfectly good and thus incapable of doing evil (Psalm 5:4–5; James 1:13; 3 John 1:11). As such, God’s repentance must not be understood as entailing moral guilt. Indeed, the moral perfection of the Creator sets him apart from his sin–tainted creation (Leviticus 11:44–45; 19:2; 20:7; 1 Peter 1:15–16).
Arminianism, Calvinism, Open Theism & Universalism
Here are some thoughts of SEA members on the relationship between Arminianism, Calvinism, Open Theism, and Universalism. Sometimes Calvinists accuse Arminianism of being the stepping stone to Open Theism or Universalism, but is this accusation…
James Arminius On the One Will of God
There is a connection between the Understanding of God and His Will that is overlooked or neglected by those who hold to a two wills in God theory. In this post we will discover what Arminius believed about God’s Knowledge or Understanding, and its relation to the one Will of God, with its various distinctives.
THE UNDERSTANDING OF GOD
On Omnitemporality
One of the problems with attempting to discuss the issue of Foreknowledge as it relates to Free Will is that the term itself prejudices the discussion, bending it in a certain argumentative direction that the…
Why I am not an Open Theist
by Roger E. Olson Someone asked me why I am not an open theist. I respect open theists for their dedication to biblical exegesis and for their determination to emphasize the personal nature of God.…
Friday Files: Foreknowledge, Freedom, and the Future by Robert E. Picirilli
One of the basic questions that many Calvinists have for us is “how does God’s omniscience allow for the freedom of the human will?” Picirilli attempts to answer this question in this wonderful article. Robert…
Jacob Arminius: Disputant to Open Theism
Vincent of Lerins (early fifth century Christian writer in southern France) said that orthodoxy is “that which has been believed everywhere, always, by all.”1 What has been the orthodox view of the Church on the…
Open Theism: An Arminian Pentecostal Response
The following article by James H. Railey gives a brief critique of Open Theism and supports the traditional Arminian position that God foreknows all future events, including the free choices of His creatures.: Railey. Open…
God’s Foreknowledge – Peter, Judas and Christ
I recently read Greg Boyd’s explanation of Christ’s foretelling Judas’s betrayal and Peter’s denial. The basic issue is that in open theism, a free choice cannot be foreknown. Boyd states that at the time of…
Friday Files: Hunt – Why Simple Foreknowledge is Still Useful
In Dave Hunt’s article, Why Simple Foreknowledge is Still Useful, Hunt argues that God uses simple foreknowledge providentially. His primary case is a rock, paper scissors example: The lynchpin of my argument was a counterexample,…
Friday Files
Robert Chisholm’s article “ANATOMY OF AN ANTHROPOMORPHISM: DOES GOD DISCOVER FACTS?” explains OT texts like Genesis 18:20-21 and 22:12, which seem to indicate God does not know everything. Chisholm is not satisfied with saying they…
Eric Landstrom, I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End
With regard to the broad discussion of God, and time, and the theological issues the subject broaches upon, such as how is it that God foreknows, a common Calvinist objection claims that stating God foreknows…
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