How the Old Testament Proves Free Will

·1 hr 30 min·5 clips

Dr. Leighton Flowers reveals a fundraiser for a theologian's four-year-old daughter diagnosed with leukemia, asking listeners to help reach $100,000.

The episode opens with Dr. Leighton Flowers and returning guest Amber promoting a fundraiser for Dr. Joel Koretko's four-year-old daughter Asha, who has leukemia, encouraging listeners to donate. Flowers then introduces the main topic: how the Old Testament demonstrates libertarian free will. He first contrasts libertarian free will with Calvinist compatibilistic free will, which he argues is a 'non-free free will' compatible with determinism. Flowers critiques the Calvinist distinction between God's prescriptive and decretive wills, using an analogy of a duplicitous doctor to argue it makes God seem contradictory. Amber joins the discussion, stating that Calvinist concepts would be alien and confusing to the ancient Hebrew mind. She begins a narrative walkthrough of the Old Testament, starting with Exodus, interpreting the liberation from Egypt as God buying back Israel's agency from tyranny. She describes Leviticus as a 'user manual' for maintaining relationship with God and Numbers as a training period where God retrains Israel's will through provision. Amber passionately reinterprets Deuteronomy not as a law code but as a love letter where God pleads 'don't forget me' across 959 verses. She discusses Joshua as demonstrating God's 'phenomenal cosmic power' and cooperation with Israel in spiritual warfare, arguing this shows synergism. The analysis culminates in Judges, which Amber calls the 'itty-bitty living space' part of the story, showing a cycle where Israel freely chooses rebellion, suffers, cries out, and God responds with a judge. She argues this cycle proves free will because if all was determined, only the first chapter would be needed. Flowers and Amber discuss the burden of free-will responsibility versus the desire for determinism to avoid blame. They connect the Old Testament narrative to the parable of the Prodigal Son, emphasizing God waits for a cry before running to help. The episode closes with an update on the fundraiser and final appeals.

As heard by us

A focused reading of Deuteronomy as a book about love, memory, choice, and human responsibility.

Deuteronomy comes through here as an argument against seeing people as programmed machines. The host and Amber trace its warnings about forgetting God, the threat of exile, and its repeated calls to remember him as signs of real choice and responsibility.

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Why you'd press play

You want Deuteronomy read as a love letter, with free will heard in its repeated pleas to remember God.

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