Dr Paul Allen

Does God plan everything ahead of time? If so, does that mean humans lack free will, that we are like robots? Such topics lead to questions about salvation: Does God save only those he’s chosen in advance? And, if so, how is that fair? These are the kind of questions that pop up whenever we broach the doctrine of predestination. These questions are not just extra-biblical speculation. Christians mainly talk about the doctrine of predestination because they’ve encountered it in the Bible. The doctrine of predestination derives from several biblical passages, including Romans 8:28–30 Romans 9:9–23 and Ephesians 1:11Open in Logos Bible Software (if available): “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.”1 To answer our questions correctly, we must first understand some key terms. The different categories used to explain predestination and its related topics, as well as how other...

We all have watershed moments in life, critical turning points where, from that moment on, nothing will ever be the same. One such moment in my own life came when I rediscovered the word  elohim .  My friend handed me his Hebrew Bible , open to Psalm 82 . He said simply, “Here, read that . . . look at it closely.” The first verse hit me like a bolt of lightning: God [ elohim ] stands in the divine assembly; he administers judgment in the midst of the gods [ elohim ]. LET'S GO EXPLORE THE BIBLE I’ve indicated the Hebrew wording that caught my eye and put my heart in my throat. The word  elohim  occurs twice in this short verse.  Other than the covenant name, Yahweh , it’s the most common word in the Old Testament for God . The first use of the word in this verse worked fine. But since I knew my Hebrew grammar , I saw immediately that the second instance needed to be translated as plural. There it was, plain as day:  The G...