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Suffering – What is the reason?

Proverbs 20:30 Blows and wounds cleanse away evil, and beatings purge the inmost being. EZE 14:23 “Then they will comfort you when you see their conduct and actions, for you will know that I have not done in vain whatever I did to it,” declares the Lord God. (NASB, UNASB, YLT) Now this is the […]

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Topics of Concern

Unpardonable sin?

What does it mean to sin against the Holy Spirit? Here are some verses which may be pertinent: EX 23:20-21 “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. […]

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Topics of Concern

Women in ministry?

1CO 14:33 As in all the congregations of the saints, women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. But what law is Paul referring to? There is no Mosaic law forbidding women to speak in the assembly, actually the opposite seems […]

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Open Theism

Invincible chess master?

“It takes a truly wise and creative God to guarantee victory without having to control every detail of history. By contrast, to simply control others so that you always get your way is a sure sign of insecurity and weakness.” “Though she cannot be certain of how her opponent will move, for her opponent is […]

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Open Theism

Missing the mark

If God had a good purpose he did not fulfill, then did he “miss the mark”? In the sense of the Greek word “hamartanw”: “Literally miss the mark, be in error; figuratively, of offending against God, man, religious or moral law sin, do wrong, transgress” (Friberg Dictionary) “Even the Septuagint, although the Hebrew ‘chatah’ also means primarily to […]

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Open Theism

Jeremiah 18 – Does this make all judgment prophcies conditional?

“At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it; if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it.” (Jer. 18:7-8) First of all, “planned” could mean “devised”, […]

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Open Theism

I thought that…

Jeremiah 3:7  I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me but she did not, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it.Jeremiah 3:19-20  I thought you would call me ‘Father’ and not turn away from following me. But like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you have been unfaithful […]

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Open Theism

Love must be free?

Must love be free, at conversion, to be really love? But love comes from God (1 Jn. 4:7): 1 John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us… And “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Not because we chose to! Yes, people are responsible to […]

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Open Theism

Does God ever really change his mind?

Numbers 23:19  God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? And the reason is given here that God will not change his mind, because “God is not a man,” it […]

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Open Theism

Does God know future free choices?

Will God know all about choices in heaven? Even within the Trinity? Or at least about major choices? For it would not be much good to only have incidental choices be free, and not major ones, for example, when God makes “all things new,” as in the new creation. How can this be free, if […]