What Does Romans 9 Actually Teach?

Dr. Craig expounds on the biblical teaching of "freedom of the will" in his Defenders series on the Doctrine of Man, part 27. This is only a small excerpt of the larger teaching.

For the entirety of the discussion and Q&A time watch here:

We welcome your comments in the Reasonable Faith forums:

[TheThirdApology]

Dr. Craig I'm 20 years old and my friends and I love you. You inspired me to start this apologetics channel. God bless!

[nickirzoe]

I’m literally crying as I hear this because I struggled with romans chapter 9 ! I’m forever grateful for Christ!❤

[cubbie]

This has always been the scariest passage of scripture to me because of how we sometimes misinterpret it. Thank you Dr. Craig for such a clear explanation!

[philosophyporch]

I'm supposed to be pondering over Romans 9, and all I can think is "Man, Craig's eyes can't actually be that blue."

[jasonayres]

This passage was preached on just last Sunday in our local church. *This* video has cleared up a lot of confusion.
(Sunday morning, as it is every night, my wife was writhing in pain from her physical disability. Several hours later in church, the preacher was quoting, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy. I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."
He is an irregular preacher at our church, and I wished that I had skipped church that day.)
Kind regards from Australia.

[havardteron]

'For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.'
Ephesians 2:8‭-‬9 NIV

[crystgh]

This is exactly what many people are scared of. God doesn’t care about your ethnicity, he cares about your heart and love for Him through Jesus Christ. Thank you Dr.! 😃

[owenmd]

One of the best, simplest and most direct explanation i’ve ever heard. God bless you.

[onesavedvoice]

Right, that’s the correct understanding of Rom 9. Very well done with impressive brevity in less than 10 minutes. Correlating Rom 9 with the earlier passage in Rom 3 was very helpful and should be convincing.

[kbcrazylaker]

First time hearing this view and already sounds so much more plausible than anything Calvinists have ever said.

[skai]

I’m not going to lie. I was freaking out about this Chapter. Thank you so much for helping me understand better!

[Chasearo]

Thank you for this! This made me incredibly worried because of how I misunderstood the passage. Thank you for explaining it much more clearly. God bless! Praise the Lord! ❤

[ChristopherDolby]

Another truth bomb from the most amazing Christian apologist of our time..!! Love it!! 👊😇💀🔥🔥🔥🔥

[agenttex]

"So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy."
Romans 9:16

[henriquelucastristan]

If you are a calvinist, dont be mad at Dr. Craig. He was determined to record this for the ultimate glory of God.

[raytrei]

Thanks for this video now I can clearly see the picture of this chapter. Please keep posting teachings like this which is easy to understand. God bless!

[TheSoulMechanics]

Thank you Dr. Craig. It's nice that you now allow comments in your videos.

A debate with you and Dr. James White regarding Romans 9 will be epic.

[allofchristforalloflife]

I would love to see James White or Jeff Durbin and William Craig debate the following things.
1. Exegetical Apologitics
2. Biblical anthropology
3. Romans 9
4. Predestination
It would take four meetings.

[rajandsamuel]

Excellent Exposition from Dr.WLC!!!! ♥️🔥 And that's what we expect!

[crazycatman]

I was so conflicted thinking I was unelected…forgot about context. Thank you Pastor. Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords.