Divine Sovereignty vs. Human Choice

The tension between divine sovereignty and human choice is one of the great paradoxical realities of human existence.

This quote by Spurgeon, which I found in a book I am reading, does a great job of making this paradox more palatable to the human mind...by using an example from mathematics. Those who have studied non-Euclidean geometry will find this most interesting.

"If...I find taught in one part of the Bible that everything is foreordained, that is true; and if I find, in another Scripture, that man is responsible for all his actions, that is true; and it is only my folly that leads me to imagine that these two truths can ever contradict each other. I do not believe they can ever be welded into one upon any earthly anvil, but they certainly shall be one in eternity. They are two lines that are so nearly parallel, that the human mind which pursues them farthest will never discover that they converge, but they do converge, and they will meet somewhere in eternity, close to the throne of God, whence all truth doth spring." (quoted in Twelve Ordinary Men, by John MacArthur, from The Autobiography of Charles H. Spurgeon, 4 vols., 1:177)

Thoughts from Charles H. Spurgeon

The following quotation is from the evening devotional for this date, August 20, from Charles H. Spurgeon's famous devotional, Morning and Evening. The verse is Nehemiah 3:8: "And they fortified Jerusalem unto the broad wall."

"Cities well fortified have broad walls, and so had Jerusalem in her glory. The New Jerusalem must, in like manner, be surrounded and preserved by a broad wall of nonconformity to the world, and separation from its customs and spirit. The tendency of these days is to break down the holy barrier, and make the distinction between the church and the world merely nominal. Professors are no longer strict and Puritanical, questionable literature is read on all hands, frivolous pastimes are currently indulged, and a general laxity threatens to deprive the Lord's peculiar people of those sacred singularities which separate them from sinners. It will be an ill day for the church and the world when the proposed amalgamation shall be complete, and the sons of God and the daughters of men shall be as one....Beloved reader, be it your aim in heart, in word, in dress, in action to maintain the broad wall, remembering that the friendship of this world is enmity against God."

Thoughts from Charles H. Spurgeon

The following quotation is from the evening devotional for this date, June 18, from Charles H. Spurgeon's famous devotional, Morning and Evening.

"The heart of the believer is Christ's garden. He bought it with His precious blood, and He enters it and claims it as His own. A garden implies separation. It is not the open common; it is not a wilderness; it is walled around, or hedged in. Would that we could see the wall of separation between the church and the world made broader and stronger. It makes one sad to hear Christians saying, "Well, there is no harm in this; there is no harm in that," thus getting as near to the world as possible. Grace is at a low ebb in that soul which can even raise the question of how far it may go in worldly conformity."