Copyright\u00a0 by Shea Oakley<\/p>\n
All rights reserved<\/p>\n
\u201cThe various elements of truth stand in perpetual antithesis sometimes requiring us to believe apparent opposites while we wait for the moment when we shall know as we are known. Then truth which now appears to be in conflict with itself will arise in shining unity and it will be seen that the conflict has not been in the truth but in our sin-damaged minds.\u201d<\/p>\n
-A.W. Tozer<\/p>\n
I have long had a ready answer when some skeptic claimed that the Bible was full of contradictions. I would simply ask the person to name one for me. I do not think I have ever had anyone then quote chapter and verse to prove his or her point. 90% of the time these individuals are simply repeating what they had heard somewhere else about these alleged contradictions. In each case they were not biblically literate enough to give an example of one.<\/p>\n
That said; the thoughtful student of Scripture cannot help but discern passages that at the very least seem<\/em> to contradict one another. The classic examples are verses that seem to support \u201cFive-Point Calvinist\u201d type pre-destination vs. others that point towards God\u2019s universal love and desire for the redemption of every human being that has ever walked the earth, but there are many more. Is God\u2019s ultimate nature stern and punishing or is it compassionate and forgiving? Is salvation something you can forfeit or is it \u201conce saved always saved?\u201d How can God allow, and even use sin, when He is declared not to be the Author of sin by the Bible?<\/p>\n The truth does sometimes seem \u201cto be in conflict with itself\u201d and a sensitive Christian soul can become disturbingly perplexed when pondering something about his or her God that does not seem to add up rationally.<\/p>\n One way theologians have long addressed these conundrums is by employing the concept of paradox. Webster\u2019s Dictionary defines paradox as \u201ca statement or sentiment that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet perhaps true in fact.\u201d When wrestling with troubling conflicts between Scripture verses that seem to cancel each other out; the explanation provided by this definition can help us to look beyond our conventional understanding of reality to find satisfaction in what is, admittedly, an appeal to mystery. Paradox is not easily explained by conventional human logic but it remains probably the best answer we have to what at first glance appears to be a contradiction that might shake our faith in the inerrancy of the Bible.<\/p>\n Actually it stands to reason that The One who created the universe would have to transcend that very reason. If human thought could explain every aspect of God\u2019s nature He would not be God. Deity exists beyond the grasp of finite creatures, especially fallen finite creatures. In fact the impenetrability of God is part of what helps us to know that He truly is God, and not just a human construct designed to explain how we came to be.<\/p>\n For the sensitive and thinking Christian who longs to understand there remains the prospect of Heaven, a place in which we will come face to face with our Lord and truly know His truth in a way we never could when our residency here played such a role in our \u201cseeing through a glass darkly.\u201d There we might hope to see the unity of truth Tozer speaks of. There that which seemed so untenable to us will become ours to know at last.<\/p>\n And then everything will make perfect sense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Copyright\u00a0 by Shea Oakley All rights reserved \u201cThe various elements of truth stand in perpetual antithesis sometimes requiring us to believe apparent opposites while we wait for the moment when we shall know as we are known. Then truth which now appears to be in conflict with itself will arise in shining unity and it… <\/p>\n