Christianity and Paradox

What is paradox? Paradox is something which is above human understanding. It is not in conflict with human understand but above it.

It stands in contrast to contradiction which is clearly wrong. Paradox stands in a realm where we cannot grasp the truth of paradox but we cannot see that paradox is wrong.

The Christian faith often stands in this realm. Ideas are often above our understanding and we meet realities which are difficult to comprehend.

You see when man meets God he finds a person and being who is different not just in quantity but also quality from himself. God is above the human ability to understand.

In the person of God we meet many paradoxes. He is one God in three persons. He sets the weak in a higher place than the strong. To be first one must be the servant of all.

I could go on but you see God upsets the natural order of things at all times. He always confronts the order of life in this world.

You see any church that fits comfortably into this world had not really grasped the bible. That does not mean any church which is in opposition to the world grasps the bible necessarily as the opposition may not be biblical.

But always the Christian God stands to critique the ways of man. A church with no critique of mankind has not understood the bible.

God's ways our not ours and he has a message to shake up the way man does things. The bible has many messages which shake up the way men prefer to do things.

Not all messages are equally relevant to each day and age, but some message more relevant to certain times and places. But all messages are relevant to mankind.

The modern man is not as unique and advanced as he likes to think. That he thinks he is unique and advanced simply shows he has no perspective on himself and history and he is in need of a lesson from God.

How Our Wisdom Compares in Relationship to God

How should we compare our wisdom in relationship to God.  Well if we compared the smallest part of an atom to the universe and said our wisdom is like that minuscule particle and God’s wisdom is like the universe we would be heretical.  God’s wisdom is too incredibly superior than ours for that analogy to hold water.  So in the face of hurricane Katerina many people would barely dare to speak of or question God’s sovereignty.  God would reply to them like this, like he did to his servant Job, who had insisted on his own righteousness at the expense of God’s justice.  A response by John Piper defending God’s sovereignty can be found at http://www.desiringgod.org/library/fresh_words/2005/090205.html
The bible verse below is long, but well worth reading.

Job 38

1Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said,
2"Who is this that darkens counsel
By words without knowledge?
3"Now gird up your loins like a man,
And I will ask you, and you instruct Me!
4"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding,
5Who set its measurements? Since you know.
Or who stretched the line on it?
6"On what were its bases sunk?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
7When the morning stars sang together
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8"Or who enclosed the sea with doors
When, bursting forth, it went out from the womb;
9When I made a cloud its garment
And thick darkness its swaddling band,
10And I placed boundaries on it
And set a bolt and doors,
11And I said, 'Thus far you shall come, but no farther
And here shall your proud waves stop'?
12"Have you ever in your life commanded the morning,
And caused the dawn to know its place,
13That it might take hold of the ends of the earth,
And (the wicked be shaken out of it?
14"It is changed like clay under the seal;
And they stand forth like a garment.
15"From the wicked their light is withheld,
And the uplifted arm is broken.
16"Have you entered into the springs of the sea
Or walked in the recesses of the deep?
17"Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
Or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
18"Have you understood the expanse of the earth?
Tell Me, if you know all this.
19"Where is the way to the dwelling of light?
And darkness, where is its place,
20That you may take it to its territory
And that you may discern the paths to its home?
21"You know, for you were born then,
And the number of your days is great!
22"Have you entered the storehouses of the snow,
Or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,
23Which I have reserved for the time of distress,
For the day of war and battle?
24"Where is the way that the light is divided,
Or the east wind scattered on the earth?
25"Who has cleft a channel for the flood,
Or a way for the thunderbolt,
26To bring rain on a land without people,
On a desert without a man in it,
27To satisfy the waste and desolate land
And to make the seeds of grass to sprout?
28"Has the rain a father?
Or who has begotten the drops of dew?
29"From whose womb has come the ice?
And the frost of heaven, who has given it birth?
30"Water becomes hard like stone,
And the surface of the deep is imprisoned.
31"Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades,
Or loose the cords of Orion?
32"Can you lead forth a constellation in its season,
And guide the Bear with her satellites?
33"Do you know the ordinances of the heavens,
Or fix their rule over the earth?
34"Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
So that an abundance of water will cover you? 35"Can you send forth lightnings that they may go
And say to you, 'Here we are'?
36"Who has put wisdom in the innermost being
Or given (understanding to the mind?
37"Who can count the clouds by wisdom,
Or tip the water jars of the heavens,
38When the dust hardens into a mass
And the clods stick together?
39"Can you hunt the prey for the lion,
Or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
40When they crouch in their dens
And lie in wait in their lair?
41"Who prepares for the raven its nourishment
When its young cry to God
And wander about without food?

Job 39

1"Do you know the time themountain goats give birth?
Do you observe the calving of the deer?
2"Can you count the months they fulfill,
Or do you know the time they give birth?