A podcast listener named Scott in Abilene, Texas, writes in to ask this, Pastor John,

I've heard people use Jeremiah in 19 verses 4 to 5 as a refutation of the absolute sovereignty

of God over evil, particularly the line, nor did it come into my mind. I fully believe

in trusting God's supreme sovereignty, but I must admit that this took me back how does such

a text fit within the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, can a sovereign God ever be surprised?

Wow, this takes me back 15 years, maybe 20, when I was in the thick of the battle over open

theism. That's a pretty sophisticated argument from Jeremiah in 19, and it might be helpful

for me to sketch the battle lines here because the force of that argument against the sovereignty

of God won't be felt without some sense of what open theism is. Let me give a little sketch. Open

theism is a view, I think it's a wrong view, is a view that the future is open-ended even to God,

that is, God does not know, not only doesn't control all details of the future, but he doesn't

know them either, especially the acts of morally free agents, like humans. This view is seen by its

proponents as the only consistent view of Armenian theology. Remember, historically,

Armenianism has taught that God does not decisively control the future moral acts of people,

like whether they believe on Jesus or not. People really do have ultimate self-determination,

but God does, this is what Armenianism says, God does exhaustively know, no, he doesn't control it,

but he knows the future moral acts of people. Now, open theism says that can't be, because if God

is infallible and knows what we are going to choose before we choose it, then the choice must

happen or God would make a mistake, and so God's foreknowledge of an act makes the act certain or

necessary. Open theism solves that problem by saying God doesn't know the future of our morally

responsible acts, and they find arguments, besides that philosophical one, in the Bible,

in places like Jeremiah, 19, 4, and 5, so let me tell you how I, back in those days, responded

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