Hear Will Duffy's Debate Opening Statement: "Is Open Theism Biblical?" This is the show from Wednesday, November 27th, 2019
SUMMARY:
This event from a few days ago provides an insight that many other debates cannot. Have you ever wondered about the average Calvinist, that is, the non-theologian, who dutifully believes what he's been told about God and the Bible? Will Duffy's debate here provides insight into thousands or perhaps millions of Calvinist believers who themselves have minimal familiarity even with their own belief system and only have a distorted caricature, based on what they've been told, of the view that the future cannot be settled but most be open, because God is free and inexhaustibly creative. Something that has come across in most of our debates though was present here also. You can hear the non-open theist say that if God had a truly free and functioning "will" that He could not be trustworthy. We've noticed that Calvinism undermines a believer's relationship with the Lord into one that trusts the God's supposed inabilities rather than His active love and commitment to righteousness. Incredulously, our opponents always ask, "How can you possibly trust God if God is free?" Will Duffy's answer paraphrased Scripture. "God demonstrated His love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." That is how we know that we can trust Him. Not because of any supposed attributes of impassibility, immutability, impecability (which are inabilities and the attributes of a stone idol) but we can trust Him because God has demonstrated His trustworthiness and faithfulness (which are not inabilities but positive attributes). Tune in next week for more of this revealing debate!
SUMMARY:
This event from a few days ago provides an insight that many other debates cannot. Have you ever wondered about the average Calvinist, that is, the non-theologian, who dutifully believes what he's been told about God and the Bible? Will Duffy's debate here provides insight into thousands or perhaps millions of Calvinist believers who themselves have minimal familiarity even with their own belief system and only have a distorted caricature, based on what they've been told, of the view that the future cannot be settled but most be open, because God is free and inexhaustibly creative. Something that has come across in most of our debates though was present here also. You can hear the non-open theist say that if God had a truly free and functioning "will" that He could not be trustworthy. We've noticed that Calvinism undermines a believer's relationship with the Lord into one that trusts the God's supposed inabilities rather than His active love and commitment to righteousness. Incredulously, our opponents always ask, "How can you possibly trust God if God is free?" Will Duffy's answer paraphrased Scripture. "God demonstrated His love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." That is how we know that we can trust Him. Not because of any supposed attributes of impassibility, immutability, impecability (which are inabilities and the attributes of a stone idol) but we can trust Him because God has demonstrated His trustworthiness and faithfulness (which are not inabilities but positive attributes). Tune in next week for more of this revealing debate!