For centuries, Christians have debated, even fought, one another over whether the Bible teaches human free will where we are responsible for all our thoughts, words, and actions, and divine predetermination where God is responsible for all our thoughts, words, and actions. There is no need for debate or fighting. The Bible teaches both. In Beyond the Cosmos, I list over 1,500 Bible verses that teach human free will, over 1,500 Bible verses that teach divine predetermination, and several verses that teach both in the same sentence. One example is Joel 2:32, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved …whom the Lord calls."

Social Media Question of the Week: What's your response to evidence of internal ship structures in the Durupinar Formation? Is it proof the Durupinar Formation is the remains of Noah’s ark? My Answer: What was announced a few weeks ago was that scientists using ground-penetrating radar, electrical resistivity tomography, and core drilling had discovered decks, rooms, organic content, and artifacts beneath the Durupinar Formation that establish that Durupinar must be the remains of Noah’s ark. However, other scientists disputed these claims by pointing out that the radar, tomography, and drilling revealed soil, clay, and boulders rather than solid man-made wooden or stone structures. That is, what lies below the Durupinar Formation are natural sediment layers. The Durupinar Formation is an example of a geological incline. They are especially common in alpine mountain regions. I have personally seen several during my mountain hiking vacations. Many of them look like the hull of a ship. I remember one I saw in British Columbia that from one angle appeared to better match the dimensions of Noah’s ark than the Durupinar Formation. Therefore, I stand by my statements over the past two decades that the Durupinar Formation is a natural geological structure. We know that the Durupinar Formation cannot in any way be related to Noah’s ark because it is in the wrong location. The Durupinar Formation sits 29 kilometers south of the summit of Mount Ararat at an elevation of 2,000 meters (6,560 feet). Genesis 8:4 states that Noah’s ark came to rest on the mountains/hills of Ararat. (The Hebrew word for mountain, har, can also mean a hill.) Geographically, the mountains/hills or Ararat covers an area of about 260,000 square kilometers (100,000 square miles). Genesis 8 also implies that a strong wind pushed the ark against the currents of flood waters flowing out into the oceans up against the mountains/hills of Ararat. Such a wind could push Noah’s ark to land on the hills of Ararat at elevations of one or two hundred meters, but certainly not at an elevation of 2,000 meters. With the ark landing on the lower hills of Ararat, I believe its remains will never be found. As I explained in Noah’s Flood Revisited, the gopher wood Noah used to construct the ark would have been much too valuable not to be exploited. Post-flood people would have torn apart the ark to repurpose its wood for their construction projects. Post-flood conflicts resulted in those projects being burnt to the ground. Thus, the faint hope for discovering evidence of Noah’s ark would be analysis of the ashes of the burnt remains of ancient cities and structures near the foothills of the Mountains of Ararat. For the latest on “artifacts” related to Noah’s ark, check out this Babylon Bee video: youtube.com/watch?v=7jSOwum2…

Too much of a focus on human free will can make us legalistic. Too much of a focus on divine predetermination can make us licentious. By accepting the Bible teaches human free will & divine predetermination simultaneously operate & thus both divine predetermination & human free will are true doctrines, with the help of the Holy Spirit we can walk the tightrope between legalism & licentiousness.