Chosen V

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Chosen V

Sept. 2

Well for those who have been paying attention you may have noticed that we have a paradox.  Well, I should say more correctly that it is a antinomous situation.  What is an antinomy? It a term used in logic or a legal context. It is an apparent contradiction between two statements, both obtained by correct reasoning.  So here it is, on the one hand the Bible clearly says God chose us to be saved before the creation of the world.  Not that because He knows the future and so then He knows who would be saved. No, God picked us from all other people to be saved.  Yet on the other hand the Bible also clearly says that Jesus died for everyone and that each person is responsible for his actions and decisions.  That God calls all sinners to repent and that “whoever  believes” will be saved.  God’s sovereign choosing and man’s responsibility in choosing seem to be opposite and irreconcilable truths.  And from our limited human perspective these truths are opposite and antinomous. So how do we reconcile them?  We can’t, like many other thing about God we must believe.  I don’t understand how God created everything from nothing, which we know is impossible. Nothing plus nothing equals nothing. Yet God said Nothing plus God equals everything. The problem is not with God but with us.  We are prideful and arrogant believing that we can understand God.  And if we can not then we must change what God has said to fit our understanding. This changing is the origins of all false and heretical beliefs.  A mystery drives men crazy.  Why do you think people love mystery novels? They want to try and figure it out. Instead let us take God at His word, believing both truths completely.  We will leave the mystery to God’s understanding.  These two truths live in harmony side by side in the Scripture and so we should let them live side by side in our lives.

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT