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Are there contradictions in the Bible?


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This seems like one. John 3:16 says God loves everyone with a saving love while other verses say He only loves the elect with a saving love. Which is it?

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John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

 

John states that whoever believes in Him doesn't perish, this is the elect, no contradiction.

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It is a fair question to ask, one that deserves an answer, but it is not easy to give a succinct and thorough one, those two goals are themselves, contradictory. So, I will attempt to meet in the middle, and provide you with things to consider and study further.

I would say that God loves everyone, but He does not love everyone in the same way or to the same degree. He loved sinners, His enemies, enough to send His Son to die for them. That is pretty radical and extreme love. He provided a place for people to live, sending rain on the just and unjust alike, that provision is also a form of love.

Clearly though, it is also true, that He does not rescue every sinner from damnation, He elects some, and not others. The Bible is clear, that this choice is not because those He chose, did anything to deserve it. Whatever the reasons for that choice, the reasons are His.

At the same time, we cannot ignore verses that sound quite different from a God who loves everyone. Paul quotes such a verse:

 9For this is the word of promise: “AT THIS TIME I WILL COME, AND SARAH SHALL HAVE A SON.”10And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac;11for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, 12it was said to her, “THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER.” 13Just as it is written, “JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.”

      14What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 15For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” 16So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.

The topic it a deep and involved one, hard to go into without long and thorough study.  If you want to get a good start on understanding that topic, I suggest reading the following:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/tgc-documents/carson/2000_difficult_doctrine_of_the_love_of_God.pdf 

D.A. Carson is a renowned Greek scholar and conservative Bible commentator.

. . . and no, there are no contradictions in the Bible, there are things that are difficult to reconcile, there are things at times that appear to be contradictory, but with deeper study, turn out not to be. 

However, there are things that will always appear to be contradictions, because the Bible is not written for everyone to understand, somethings are understood only through the Spirit of God, while these things are not able to be understood by what the Bible calls, the natural man.

1 Cor 2:14

 14But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

Matt 13:10

  10And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” 11Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.

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