* Shocking Debate Aftermath: This 2-minute video documents the shocking aftermath involving R.C. Sproul Jr. and James White:
* Broadcasting James White's Open Theism Debate: With all the ways that BEL is distributing this debate, including over at opentheism.org, we are praying that more than 100,000 people will be edified by this historic event!
* October 2017 YouTube Screenshot: Note, the various YouTube videos of this debate and the podcasts and web downloads, etc., have multiplied the 100+ in-person audience to now over 50,000 people who have seen this debate!
* James White Says God Could Not Have Delivered Jesus from Calvary: Bob Enyart asked James White whether or not his Calvinist doctrine accepted the Lord's assertion that, "Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?" Rather, by his Calvinist doctrine (and for that matter, by the Arminian settled future), James answered that the Father could only have delivered Jesus in that way if He had eternally decreed it. The debate organizer, Will Duffy, demonstrates how far this position goes:
What's more, by the Calvinist and Arminian doctrine of the settled future, unless it had been predetermined and/or foreknown, God cannot do an almost endless number of even the simplest of tasks. For by their philosophical belief system, God could not even lift a pebble, if such a task had not been foreknown. So if He did not foreknow/predetermine Himself to lift a pebble, then God, as they conceive Him to be, literally does not have the ability to do so. Consider though the God of open theism. Jesus said in Matthew 3:9, "God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones." Yet by the settled future doctrine, this would be false in the same way that James White denies the Lord's assertion in the Garden of Gethsemane. -Will Duffy
Some open theist debate opponents (like Will Duffy's opponent Jaltus) even have a hard time admitting that God ever had freedom, even the freedom to decree otherwise, even before the foundation of the Earth. Yet other opponents, including many Arminians, and Calvinists like James White, admit that God did have actual freedom before the foundation of the Earth, the freedom to predetermine, one way or the other. So we ask, for what would God have traded away His own freedom? As it says atop the OpenTheism.org website, "We can trust God with free will." Surely also, God could trust Himself with free will. No?
* Other BEL Radio Programs in this Series:
- James White vs Bob Enyart on Open Theism on BEL
- James White vs Bob Enyart: The Rebuttals
- James White vs Bob Enyart: Cross Examinations (this program)
- More of Bob's debates at kgov.com/debates!
* The Full Debate: You can watch (or listen) to the full debate right here:
* Today's Resource: Check out the format and perspective that's most helpful to your desire to evaluate these issues. At our KGOV Store: we have presentations on DVD called Chosen: It's Not What You Think, on Open Theism, on Predestination & Free Will and a moderated P&FW Debate! Also, you can get the P&FW seminar in an audio format on a single MP3 CD). You can also call 1-800-8Enyart (836-9278) to order or to talk with us about which of our DVDs, books, or CD audio teachings may interest you!
For more information, see:
- Bob's classic Open Theism Debate with D. James Kennedy's professor of New Testament Dr. Samuel Lamerson.
- Our heavily Bible-based article, Is God In Or Outside of Time.
- A brief and fast-moving written Q&A between Will, a former BEL producer, and "Jaltus" in an Open Theism Debate with Will & Jaltus.
- Bob Enyart's debates with Dr. Larry Bray: The president of The North American Reformed Seminary (TNARS), Dr. Bray, twice debates Bob Enyart, the pastor of Denver Bible Church. The topics are: Is Calvinism Biblical? and Is the Future Settled or Open? (The host for these events, reformed believer David New, removed both of these debates from his site. We've rescued the first and put it back online, and Lord-willing we'll recover the second one.