Antinomy

I have had the discussion many times with fellow Christians: “God controls our lives and everything we do!” “No, He doesn’t!” Personally, I believe that God is in control but He is not controlling. I believe this because of the scriptures I have read and the opinion that God does not orchestrate the evil that man imposes upon others. However, testing all scripture (not only the ones that back up my beliefs), I find I am in a dilemma. There are scriptures that state God does plan all our steps. With that in mind I studied the scriptures on both sides of this question and below is what I discovered.  

Scriptures that support the God does control our steps

Proverbs 16:9 “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” 

Proverbs 20:24“A man’s steps are from the Lord; how then can man understand his way?” 

Proverbs 16:33 “The lot is cast into the lap, but it’s every decision is from the Lord.” 

Proverbs 19:21“Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” 

Jeremiah 10:23“I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.”

James 4:13-15 “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say” — ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’”

Lamentations 3:37 “Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?” 

Isaiah 46:10 “I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.” 

Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

Matthew 6:8 “Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

Colossians 1:17 ^“And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

And there are other scriptures to add to this list bringing me to realize God does control our steps and actions!

And there are other scriptures to add to this list bringing me to realize God does control our steps and actions! On the other hand, scripture states that we have free will and are responsible for our own actions. 

Scriptures the support that we have free will

Originally it seems God delegated control to mankind. In Genesis 1:26 God says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that crêpes upon the earth.”

The following scriptures show we have the ability to decide (a way of control): 

James 1:13, Matthew 20:26-28, Galatians 5:13,Romans 8:5, 1 Cor. 10:13, John 1:12-13,  Revelation 3:20 , Romans 6; 12-13, Romans 10:9-10,  Galatians 5:13. 

There are stories in scripture where God wishes to accomplish things but they are not accomplished. In Matthew 23:37-38, Jesus seems to be unable gather Israel because they were unwilling. In 2 Peter 3:8-10, We are told that God does not wish that anyone of us should perish (but that all of us should come to repentance), yet we know that many people in our world will never accept Jesus, never come to repentance, and simply will not be saved. In Genesis 2:16-17 God desires man to be obedient but he is not; “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” 

And possibly the most important scripture that shows people make decisions is John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.”

In the above scriptures I found that there is ample evidence for the belief that God does not plan our every step. In essence He wants all of us to come to faith in Jesus, to reflect His moral precepts, and for all of us to love one another. But He also knows that none of this is truly possible unless each and every one of us is allowed to have the ‘freedom’ to love, obey and follow (see Mark 3:34-35, 1 John 2:17, Ephesians 6:5-6, Romans 12:2, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, 1 Thessalonians 4:3-7 and 1 Peter 2:15-17.) 

God’s sovereignty does not diminish human accountability. He is not responsible for everything that happens. I believe there are two kinds of ‘will of God’ passages in the scripture. Some describe God’s sovereignty and some describe God’s moral character and desire for our lives. It is certainly within God’s power to eliminate all evil, to control our behavior and to not allow any of us to reject Him, but to do so would eliminate the possibility for us to have the option to love (which is precious to God) or not. Without ‘free will,’ humans are simply robots who respond according to pre-programming rather than from a position of true love and obedience.

Gods’ sovereignty means He does and can control all things. However scriptures also state humans can and do make choices on what to do. This is called an antinomy – “a seeming contradiction between two things that both appear to be true.” We are also confronted with a paradox, “a contradiction between two beliefs or conclusions that are in themselves reasonable.” The explanation of antinomy and paradox helped me to understand how there are seemingly contradictions in scripture, however, both are true.  

With all this in mind I am still of the belief that God is in control but is not controlling. He is sovereign and also allows choices or decisions that can be made without devaluing His sovereignty. Only God can have it both ways!