Jesus Christ provides the most sterling example of paradox when he warns His disciples that whoever desires to lead must become a servant (Luke 22:26) and whoever would save his life must be willing to lose it (Luke 17:33). A special instance of paradox is the conundrum or riddle.
A paradox is a seemingly contradictory statement that is still true. There are several in Christian theology, and we accept them by realizing that God knows everything and fully understands reality, though we do not. Isaiah 55:8 applies.
It turns out that the Matthew 17:21 passage is not included in any of the more recent Bible versions, either Catholic or Protestant, because the older and better manuscripts of Matthew do not include it. The two best manuscripts: the Codex Sianaiticus and Codex Vaticanus do not include the verse.
Christianity is full of paradox beliefs. A paradox is a seemingly contradictory statement that does not sound possible, but upon closer examination is proven to be true. Christianity is founded on apparently contradictory but true beliefs.
The paradox is: If God can do anything, can He make a mountain which is too heavy for Him to lift? If one changes this question to a sentence, it becomes: God can do anything, which means that He can make a mountain which is too heavy for Him to lift.
He preaches a reversal of every social hierarchy while deliberately avoiding explicitly political claims. He disallows divorce… yet consorts with prostitutes while denouncing even lustful thoughts.
In statistics, Lord's paradox raises the issue of when it is appropriate to control for baseline status. In three papers, Frederic M. Lord gave examples when statisticians could reach different conclusions depending on whether they adjust for pre-existing differences.
Some of the passages most commonly criticized include colonialism, the subjugation of women, religious intolerance, condemnation of homosexuality and transgender identity, and support for the institution of slavery in both Old and New Testaments.
The Believer's Paradox is an outstanding work that deals with the presence of unbelief in the believer. A.W. Pink has taken the prayer of Mark 9:24: “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief,” to illustrate this paradox.
When Jesus expresses this kind of frustration, the issue is nearly always the same: unbelief. Specifically, the people of "this generation" have failed to believe in Him as the Messiah and in His authority and power as the Son of God.
In fact, the Catholic Douay-Rheims New Testament includes Acts 8:37: “And Philip said: If thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayest. And he answering, said: I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
God's forgiveness of you is tied to the way that you forgive others. “Forgive ... so that your Father ... will also forgive you” (Mark 11:25). That's the point of verse 26, “But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.”
The paradox is if God is able to do anything, can he create a stone that is too heavy for him to lift? A simple yes or no answer to the question leads to problems with omnipotence. If yes, then there is something that God cannot do: he cannot lift the stone.
Paradoxes are found when information crosses a threshold. They seem to be opposite, when in Truth they are exactly the same. They seem contradictory. But that's only if we let ourselves get stuck in the concrete of our fixed beliefs. If we cultivate personalities before principles it's much more fluid.
If a being is accidentally omnipotent, it can resolve the paradox by creating a stone it cannot lift, thereby becoming non-omnipotent. Unlike essentially omnipotent entities, it is possible for an accidentally omnipotent being to be non-omnipotent.
Number One, Achilles and The Tortoise. How could a humble tortoise beat the legendary Greek hero Achilles in a race? The Greek philosopher, Zeno, liked the challenge and came up with this paradox.
The secret to getting out of the paradox is to give the situation some distance. Either physically or emotionally. To create this space, you must pause, reset and engage. Pause to give yourself time to react — whether it's a few seconds, minutes, hours, or days.
: a statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true. b. : a self-contradictory statement that at first seems true. c. : an argument that apparently derives self-contradictory conclusions by valid deduction from acceptable premises.
Here are a few paradoxes we find in the Bible: Three Persons in the One True God. Christ's two natures in one person. Divine election and human responsibility.
Was Jesus a real person or a legend, a myth made up by the earliest Christians? Most serious Bible scholars assume that Jesus existed, but some skeptics question Jesus's existence and argue that the early Church developed Jesus as a mythical figure.
The universe is His universe, and He rules it with perfect wisdom and absolute power. To replace God with His creation is to give it the honour and worship that belongs solely to Him. The Scriptures refer to this practice as the sin of idolatry.
And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.
What does Jesus mean by "I will spit you out of my mouth"?
He is asking them to be useful, that is, hot or cold. If they are not hot or cold, of course, He says that He will spit them out of His mouth (v. 16). This is a warning. God will not abide a lukewarm Christianity or a heart that is only partially His.
21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”
