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The Lord Opened Her Heart

By Jeremy Myers
7 Comments

The Lord Opened Her Heart
Lydia by the River
Some believe this is the place near Philippi where Lydia believed the message Paul preached.

I occasionally post theology and Bible questions that get sent in by readers. Here is a question that was recently sent in about Acts 16 where it says that the Lord opened Lydia’s heart to heed the things spoken by Paul:

I was just wondering as someone who has moved away from Calvinism how you would handle this passage about Lydia:

On the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” So she persuaded us. . . . So they went out of the prison [Paul and Silas] and entered the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed. Acts 16:13-15, 40, NKJV

I’m really trying to get my mind outside of Calvinism. But this passage always troubles me particularly the part about God opening her heart. I know there’s another passage of scripture that refers to Satan blinding us lest we believe and be saved.

I have no idea how to understand these since it sounds like God must unblind the unbeliever thus causing them to automatically believe. Of course, if he wants all to come to the saving truth then why doesn’t he do this for everyone?

Any help with understanding this would be awesome.

Here is my attempt at an answer about what  this means.

The Lord Opened Her Heart

Great question. You have hit upon one of the key texts which many Calvinists use to defend the fourth point of TULIP: Irresistible Grace. The way this passage is often taught is that prior to God opening Lydia’s heart, she was closed to God and Jesus Christ, closed to salvation, closed to the gospel, and closed to the message of eternal life. It is often pointed out that there were many women along the banks of the river in Philippi that day, but only one believed—the one whose heart was opened by God.

[Read more…]

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Bible Study, Theology of Salvation

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6 Gospel Questions

By Jeremy Myers
1 Comment

6 Gospel Questions

I am doing a little research for one of the books I am writing (which I hope to put out later this year for FREE to people who subscribe to the newsletter).

Do you want to help? You can…

What is the Gospel?

Answer the Six Gospel Questions Below

I have asked the following six questions to various Bible study groups and discipleship classes over the years. If you are familiar with Evangelism Explosion, you may recognize a couple of the questions….

Note that I have never asked any of these questions to unbelievers, nor do I recommend anyone doing so. I do not think that asking these sorts of questions is a good way to do evangelism… I do, however, think that these sorts of questions are helpful to ask Christians as a way to gain insight into what sorts of ideas and truths people think are essential to the “gospel” and as a way to see what people think about how to gain or keep eternal life. So that is why I am asking them now.

I am not going to judge or condemn your answers…. in fact, your answers are anonymous. I am just curious what sorts of ways these questions get answered.

Oh, and one more disclaimer…. I know that the questions are loaded. They contain terms and ideas that carry lots of religious baggage, and lead you to answer the questions in a certain way. I am aware of this, but it is intentional. So answer the questions as best you can. I look forward to reading your answers.


[The survey is over…Thanks for participating, but the questions are still below. Feel free to weigh in on them in the comment section.]

Gospel Question 1

If you died today, do you know for sure you would go to heaven?

Gospel Question 2

If you died and stood before God and He asked you “Why should I let you into heaven?” What would you say?

Gospel Question 3

If you are certain that you would go to heaven if you died today, is there anything you could do or say in the future which might keep you from going to heaven? If so, what?

Gospel Question 4

Imagine that you walked outside today, and just as we step onto the sidewalk, you see a woman get run over by a car. You run up to her, and are able to tell that she has less than 30 seconds to live. As her life bleeds out of her there on the street, she looks up at you and says, “Tell me how to go to heaven when I die.”

What would you say?

Gospel Question 5

You are talking with a man about how to receive eternal life. You say whatever you think is necessary. He responds positively. Afterwards, he gets in his car. He is very excited about what you shared with him, and cannot wait to get home and tell his wife. He is so excited, he is not paying attention to the road very well. A dog runs out in front of his car. He swerves to miss the dog, and ends up careening of the side of the road, hitting a tree head-on. He dies instantly.

Does he go to heaven?

Gospel Question 6

Okay, now start over with the man getting in his car. He has just accepted your conditions and requirements for being justified and receiving eternal life. He is driving home and is very excited to tell his wife. And on his way home, he tunes all his radio stations to Christian music. Once he gets home, he tells his wife about Jesus, and she is pretty skeptical, but he doesn’t let this stop his love for God.

For several years he reads his Bible every day, prays, and attends church. He leads his neighbor and a few of his coworkers to Jesus in the same way that he was led to Jesus by you.

But one year, the man loses his job. He tries to find another one, but is not able. He falls into a depression. Pretty soon he is arguing with his wife all the time. He doesn’t feel loved and respected any more at home, so he goes out and has an affair. His wife finds out and divorces him. To numb the pain of losing his job and his wife, he turns to alcohol. After a while, alcohol cannot drown his problems either, and he turns to drugs. Somewhere along the way, he gets caught up in something he shouldn’t have, and ends up killing a man.

He is so shaken up about this, that he is not paying attention while driving home. A dog runs out in front of his car. He swerves to miss the dog, and ends up careening of the side of the road, hitting a tree head-on. He dies instantly.

Does he still go to heaven? Why or why not?


Feel free to weigh in below on what you think of these gospel related questions, though if you are going to answer them, please do that using the form above.

Also, if you want to learn about some of the responses, make sure you have subscribed to the free email newsletter so that when the ebook comes out later this year, you get a FREE copy.


God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Good News for Believers, Theology of Salvation

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Saved: The Most Misunderstood Word in the Bible

By Jeremy Myers
109 Comments

Saved: The Most Misunderstood Word in the Bible

Are you saved?The most misunderstood word in the Bible is also one of the biblical words we use the most. What word is that?

The word “saved.”

And not just the word saved, but the other words in the same word family, such as save, salvation, and savior.

How often have we heard pastors and teachers tell us of our need to “get saved”? How often do evangelists ask people if they have “been saved”? How often do people argue about whether or not we can lose our salvation, and how to know for sure if we are really saved or not?

This is common terminology, right? It is heard in countless sermons, read in countless books, and used in countless evangelism methods.

The problem is that the word doesn’t usually mean what we think it means.

Getting Saved is Not About Going to Heaven

Most often, when Christians use the word “saved” we think about the following concepts:

  • getting forgiveness of sins
  • escaping hell
  • going to heaven when we die
  • receiving eternal life

Furthermore, we think that people “get saved” by doing some (or all) of the following:

  • ask Jesus into our hearts
  • confess our sin
  • repent of our sin
  • get baptized
  • believe in Jesus
  • trust Jesus
  • believe that Jesus is God,
  • believe that Jesus died on the cross, and rose again from the dead
  • believe that we are sinners and that Jesus died for our sin on the cross
  • etc, etc, etc.

But did you know that the word “saved” (and the other related words like save and salvation) are rarely used to express any of the concepts above? The closest we get is Acts 16:31, Romans 10:9-10, 1 Corinthians 15:2, and Ephesians 2:5-9, and I am not convinced that even in these passages, the word “saved” means getting forgiveness of sins so we can escape hell, get eternal life, and go to heaven when we die. Taking a detailed look at each of these texts is beyond the scope of this blog post, so let me just summarize what the word saved means in the Bible.

[Read more…]

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Bible Study, Theology of Salvation

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Sin is Not Imputed Where There is No Law

By Jeremy Myers
210 Comments

Sin is Not Imputed Where There is No Law

Paul sin is not imputedHave you ever wondered what Paul meant when he said that “sin is not imputed where there is no law”? (Rom 5:13). You are not alone. A reader recently emailed in this Bible and theology question:

What’s your interpretation of Romans 5:13?”

The question is short and sweet and to the point! People occasionally send me Bible questions or Theology questions, and I usually try to respond via email, and post my answer here on the blog for anybody else who might have a similar question.

Here is how I responded to this question about Romans 5:13.

What does Romans 5:13 mean?

By way of disclaimer, I have not done an in-depth study of Romans or of this verse in particular. Eventually (10 or 20 years from now), I will write a commentary on Romans, but there are numerous commentaries I need to write first, before I have the courage to tackle Romans.

Until then, here is my current view.

In the surrounding context (Rom 3:23; 6:23) Paul is explaining to his readers that the reason death reigns over all people is because all people have sinned. In other words, the consequence of breaking God’s law is death.

But there is a minor problem with Paul’s argument. Everybody knows that Adam broke God’s command to not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, so that explains why Adam died. And everybody knows that after God gave His Law to Moses on Mount Sinai, every single person on earth has broken the Law of God in one way or another (Rom 3:9-23).

But what about the time between Adam and Moses? God had not given any commands to those people. There was no written or spoken Law of God for them to break. Therefore, they couldn’t have broken any of God’s Laws because for them, there was no law. 

And yet they still died. Why?

[Read more…]

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Bible and Theology Questions, Bible Study, Theology of Salvation, Theology of Sin

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Do We Only Hope we Have Eternal Life?

By Jeremy Myers
4 Comments

Do We Only Hope we Have Eternal Life?

hope of eternal lifeEvery so often, I answer Bible Questions and Theology questions that people send in by email. I not only answer them by email, but also try to post the answers on my blog, since I am sure that others might have similar questions.

Question about the Hope of Eternal Life

Here is a theology question that a reader sent in last week:

I am a new convert to the truth in God’s word of eternal security, therefore I was once a “conditional” securist but I no longer believe in this false doctrine. However something has been bothering me and I am having trouble understanding it, I have searched your website for the answer and was unsuccessful.

In the book of John in many places it is recorded as Jesus having told us we “have” eternal life now in the present, however elsewhere it the scriptures it seems to say we have the hope of eternal life but we don’t actually posses it.

This has confused me, does the Bible mean we have eternal life now, we just enter into it when we die? Or does it teach that we don’t yet have eternal life, but we will obtain eternal life in the future? The latter one sounds to me like conditional security (which I know we both do not believe in). However I am having trouble with this.

Could you perhaps help me to understand this?

Answer about the Hope of Eternal Life

Here is my answer:

[Read more…]

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: Theology of Salvation

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