QUOTE : One final example of the Lord treating the future as a “maybe” must suffice. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus “threw himself on the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me’” (Matt. 26:39, emphasis added). If anything was predestined and foreknown from the creation of the world it was that the Son of God was going to be killed (Acts 2:23; 4:28; Rev. 13:8 NIV). Indeed, Jesus himself had been teaching this very truth to his disciples (Matt. 12:40; 16:21; John 2:19). Yet here we find Jesus making one last attempt to change his Father’s plan, “if it is possible.” Does this prayer not reveal Jesus’ conviction that there was at least a theoretical possibility that another course of action could be taken at the last moment? Of course, in this instance it was not possible. There were other times in Scripture when God was unwilling to change his mind (cf. Num. 23:19; 1 Sam. 15:29; Ezek. 24:14; Zech. 8:14). Yet this doesn’t negate the fact that Jesus’ prayer presupposes that divine plans and possible future events are in principle alterable. And this means that the future is partly open, even if in this instance Jesus’ own fate was not. Other