Monthly Archives: October 2014

God intended it for good – genesis 50:20

Posted on October 30, 2014 by christopher fisher

When Calvinists want to use a verse that shows God decreeing or predestining evil for His good purposes, they often turn to Genesis 50:20. This is peculiar because Classical theologians for the most part reject the descriptions of God found … Continue reading →

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walter brueggemann on God’s unpredictability

Posted on October 24, 2014 by christopher fisher

From Walter Brueggemann’s Theology of the Old Testament: The tension, oddness, incongruity, contradiction, and lack of settlement are to be understood, not in terms of literature or history, but as the central data of the character of Yahweh. This suggests … Continue reading →

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walter brueggemann on genesis 18

Posted on October 24, 2014 by christopher fisher

From Walter Brueggemann’s Theology of the Old Testament: Thus in Gen 18:16–19:29, Yahweh the judge is ready to act massively and decisively against Sodom and Gomorrah in response to their grave affront: How great is the outcry against Sodom and … Continue reading →

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perry disputes acts 2 dispensationalism

Posted on October 20, 2014 by christopher fisher

Acts 2 Dispensationalism is the view that a new ministry began in Acts 2 (following Jesus’ death). This new ministry included the gentiles, who were not included before that time. Acts 2 Dispensationalism is not taken seriously by Biblical scholarship. … Continue reading →

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theological aversion to being made in the image of God

Posted on October 20, 2014 by christopher fisher

The starting chapters of the Bible always seem to make the classical theologians very uncomfortable. Not only is the text very incriminating to timelessness and omniscience (after all God creates and then observes in a repeating pattern), but it also … Continue reading →

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God yields instantly

Posted on October 19, 2014 by christopher fisher

In Ezekiel 4, God is enlisting Ezekiel into proclaiming His message of destruction to Jerusalem. God begins telling Ezekiel the horrifying things that Ezekiel will have to do to proclaim this message. At a certain point God informs Ezekiel to … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Calvinism, Open Theism, Theology | 1 Comment

the development of predestination in augustine

Posted on October 18, 2014 by christopher fisher

From Augustine, Manichaeism and the Good by Kam-lun E. Lee (dissertation for the Saint Paul University, 1996): Augustine’s development of the idea of predestination reveals the Manichaean concept of the Good [the Summum Bonum] at work in three ways: on … Continue reading →

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nt wright on romans 8

Posted on October 12, 2014 by christopher fisher

From Surprised by Hope: This brings us to Romans 8, where we find a further image deeply embedded within the created order itself: that of new birth. This passage has routinely been marginalized for centuries by exegetes and theologians who … Continue reading →

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understanding romans 9

Posted on October 11, 2014 by christopher fisher

In Romans 8, Paul makes an impassioned appeal that God saves those who live spiritually. To Paul, it is not the law that saves, but faith. Paul’s Roman audience (the Jews) would despise this (Paul was persecuted throughout the world … Continue reading →

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God and predictability

Posted on October 11, 2014 by christopher fisher

A standard Calvinist criticism about God’s prophecy as it relates to Open Theism is that there are too many free will agents for God to be able to accurately predict the future. This criticism fails on multiple levels. The first … Continue reading →

Posted in Calvinism, critical thinking, God, Omniscience, Open Theism, Statistics, Theology | 14 Comments