God and His creation: why God waits to see what you will do

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This is a companion to my conversation with Dr. Alan Rhoda, "God and His Creation: An EPIC Talk with Dr. Alan Rhoda." It is for the person who was handed "God is in control" as comfort and found that it made everything worse, and for the person who followed the logic of what they were taught all the way down and could not live with the God at the bottom of it. If you have ever asked where God was, or whether you are even allowed to think He wanted something other than what happened, this guide is for you. The theology is the reward, and I think it is a beautiful one.

Here is how to use it. Watch the video first if you can; it runs about ninety-five minutes and it is denser than most of what I put out, so pause as often as you need. Then open your Bible next to this guide. Read "The teaching" straight through, because it carries the whole argument on its own, in the order Alan and I walked it. Then work "The passages" slowly with a pen, checking every quotation against your own Bible. Save "Questions to sit with" for last and answer them on paper.

A word about the two voices in this guide. Alan is a philosopher (he took his doctorate at Fordham and later held a fellowship at Notre Dame's Center for Philosophy of Religion), and his short book "Open Theism," published by Cambridge University Press in 2024, is the single resource I recommend most for anyone whose brain runs on the logic frequency. Where the teaching below is his, I say so and credit him. Where it is mine, I own it. Where we differ, and there are a few places, I tell you plainly.

One more thing before we start, and I mean it. Being right about God's relationship to the future does not save anyone. Faith in Jesus does. I have friends all over the map on this who love the Lord and love people, and none of us should break with a brother or sister over it. So hold this study with an open hand: let the text convince you if it convinces you, and stay generous toward everyone who reads it differently.

It matters because one belief about God, tucked away in one corner, changes what you believe everywhere else, whether you have noticed or not. If God scripted every event, then He scripted the worst day of your life, and your prayers are theater. If God chose to hand real say-so to His creatures, then your prayers move Him, your choices matter, and the God who wept over Jerusalem is exactly who He appears to be. Same Bible, two very different ways to live.