Dear Dr Craig, this one is probably going to make your skin crawl.

I spoke to somebody who has recently completed theological and pastoral training, has studied

philosophers such as Alvin Plantinga, and has come to the view that there is no such thing as

modal logic. Everything that happens happens necessarily, so there's no point talking about

possible worlds. His reason? God's sovereignty. Because God is

necessarily good, he would never have chosen other than what he's chosen to do. And since everything

comes forth from God's decree, that means it's impossible for anything different ever to have

happened. God would never have chosen a different world. His choice is locked.

I've tried challenging him on this, asking questions like, so does that mean that the rapist

could not possibly have chosen not to commit their acts? And trying to point out the fallacy

of assuming that necessarily, because God knows X will happen,

then necessarily X will happen. But all of that is to no avail. As far as this fellow, now a pastor

is concerned. Things only happen because God has decreed it to happen, and God would never have

chosen differently,

so there's no point in modal logic, because everything necessarily happens. Is it okay just to let that

go as an idiosyncrasy? Blessings, Peter, from the United Kingdom. My fear, Peter, is that this

pastor is actually in a very precarious situation

in which he could lose his faith if he begins to reflect seriously on the ramifications of his

position. Therefore, I'm not sure that it would be a good idea to try to refute his views

lest you drive him to apostasy. But dine neglect might be the more charitable approach. So what's

wrong with his position? In the first place, there is no good reason to adopt his view that everything happens necessarily.

Why should we think, contrary to our modal intuitions, that there are no contingent truths?

...