John, do you reconcile these passages together in your mind, or do you just dismiss Romans 9:13 because you like reading John 3:16 better?
John wrote:
When I get back to my library, I will deal with this issue. I will not answer the question posed above, however, because it implies a shallowness on my part that I do not care to debate.
I am encouraged to find you expressing yourself more directly, but please try to understand that I speak frankly too. In other words, when I ask a question like I did before, there are no hidden motives or implications of "shallowness on your part." I mean what I say. I am sincerely asking you if you reconcile these passages, or just dismiss one over the other? The answer to this question does not require a library. I am asking you to explain a basic way that you approach Scripture.
My assumption is that no passage contradicts another. Apparent contradictions are paradoxes, that when examined closely, lead to greater understanding. If one passage says that God loves the whole world so much that he sacrificed his Son for them, and other passages say that God hates the wicked and will cast them into everlasting damnation, then these apparent contradictions need to be reconciled. One possibility is that at one time, God loved them and gave them the ultimate sacrifice, but then after his great gesture of love was spurned and trampled on, he became angry toward them and hated them, and will continue to hate them eternally.
Do you approach Scripture in the same way that I do, believing that no one passage contradicts another, or do you have a different model that you work from?
Peace be with you. David Miller.
---------- "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6) http://www.InnGlory.org
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