{"id":79,"date":"2016-05-25T14:37:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-25T14:37:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2016-08-07T21:47:56","modified_gmt":"2016-08-07T21:47:56","slug":"clear-paradox-and-certain-mystery-understanding-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/clear-paradox-and-certain-mystery-understanding-the-bible\/","title":{"rendered":"Clear Paradox and Certain Mystery. Understanding the Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“But one must not think ill of the paradox, for the paradox is the passion of thought, and the thinker without the paradox is like the lover without passion: a mediocre fellow. But the ultimate potentiation of every passion is always to will its own downfall, and so it is also the ultimate passion of the understanding to will the collision, although in one way or another the collision must become its downfall. This, then, is the ultimate paradox of thought: to want to discover something that thought itself cannot think.” S\u00f8ren Kierkegaard<\/div>\n
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       I want to help you better understand the Bible. Toward that end, we must walk and swim the path of paradox. To be a student of the Word, we must learn to love that which is mysterious. I do not mean to say the Bible is unclear, rather i want you to see that the Bible is clearly mysterious. <\/div>\n
       If I only had a dollar for every conversation that went like this:<\/div>\n
Person A: “The Bible teaches this so clearly. Just look at these verses.”<\/div>\n
Person B: “Well you have your verses, but I have mine. The Bible does not teach that. Look at my verses and see what the Bible really teaches.” <\/div>\n
       Have you been there? Why are conversations like that so common? I believe it is because of sin. We are not okay with a clear Biblical paradox. Consider these paradoxical truths. We simply cannot understand how<\/i> humans could make real choices if God is sovereign. We cannot understand how<\/i> God is loving while hell is so hot. We cannot understand how<\/i> God could be three persons, each person being fully God, and yet there only being one God. We cannot understand how<\/i> Jesus could be fully God and fully man. We cannot understand how <\/i>the Christian is both and Saint and Sinner. We can’t understand how<\/i> God would ordain hardship or sickness for us, still be loving, then command us to ask Him to remove it. We cannot understand how<\/i> God could ask us to pray prayers of faith and prayers of submission. <\/div>\n
       Think with me. Notice how the lack of clarity is not in the paradox. What is unclear is the “How”. God is sovereign and<\/i> humans are responsible. God is loving, and<\/i> hell is real. God is<\/i> Trinity. Jesus is fully God and<\/i> fully man. Christians are saints and <\/i>sinners. God does give us thorn’s in the flesh and<\/i> then asks us to pray for its removal. The Bible teaches us to pray prayers of faith and<\/i> prayers of submission. <\/div>\n
       So how are we to respond? We cannot throw out what the Bible clearly teaches in favor of our <\/i>verses. Here is the better way. Believe Isaiah 55: 8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”<\/div>\n
      This is profoundly helpful. Thank You God! As you study your Bible, God the Holy Spirit will launch you into the beauty of clear mysteries and objective paradoxes. The path toward Biblical Theology is not through a gathering of your verses at the expense of others. Let us say “yes” and “yes” to all the Bible teaches. Let us walk and swim on the clearly mysterious path toward a better understanding of the Bible.    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“But one must not think ill of the paradox, for the paradox is the passion of thought, and the thinker without the paradox is like the lover without passion: a mediocre fellow. But the ultimate potentiation of every passion is always to will its own downfall, and so it is also the ultimate passion of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-79","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}