^{A section of Wednesday’s reading in Luke about Jesus weeping over Jerusalem upon His final entry into the city happens to have a parallel verse in Matthew Chapter 23.}

^{First here are two of the verses in Luke from today’s reading:}

“And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, ⁴² saying, ‘Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.’” Luke 19:41-42

Here is part of the Matthew account:

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” Matthew 23:37

What I find interesting in reading both is the fact each indicates that God wanted to save the people of Jerusalem and it was they who resisted him. These verses have long vexed those who believe in the absolute predetermination of the fate of human souls by God. For those who hold to this theological doctrine the idea that Jesus wanted the inhabitants of the City of David to repent, and they would not, is one of those verses that do not line up with their sometimes airtight systematic theology.

Certainly God is, by divine nature, sovereign, and has both the right and the power to truly predestinate the final state of human souls. The problem is some verses in scripture seem to back up the idea that He does this and some do not. So is it possible God makes an intentional decision to limit His sovereignty in order to allow at least a degree of free will?

For instance, unless we believe in the notion of the so called “fortunate fall” (the idea that God predestined the fall of humankind in order to show his glory in redeeming us), we at the least know that Adam and Eve actually had the internal ability to choose to obey or disobey their Creator. Again this is a problem for those in the pre-destinationalist camp.

But even beyond this “in-house” debate among Christians there is another reason why verses that appear either for or against pre-destination are an issue: non-Christians claim they are clear evidence of out and out contradictions in the Bible, a reason to entirely reject its reliability and, thus, our entire Faith.

One way Christian thinkers have addressed this conundrum is by employing the concept of paradox. Webster’s Dictionary defines paradox as “a statement or sentiment that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet perhaps true in fact.” 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 logic but it remains probably the best answer we have to what at first glance appear to be contradictions that might shake our faith in the inerrancy of the Bible.

I must confess to being, to coin a phrase, a “Paradoxalist”. I do not hold to absolute certainty on either side of the free will/pre-destination debate because I clearly see verses that seem to support both views, and I am not going to presume to know exactly how all of this works on this side of Heaven. I am one of those people who do believe in mystery in the Word of God, mystery that defies any attempt at creating a completely systematic theology. I believe there are things we cannot now understand in all their totality because, as Paul said, “Now we see as through a glass darkly.”

Actually, I think the idea I’m trying to put across here is perhaps best described by probably the greatest theologian to yet come out of our denomination’s history, A.W. Tozer, and it is with a quote of his that I will end this piece:

“The 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.” –The Knowledge of the Holy