The Law of Non-Contradiction

There is a section of Matthew (and elsewhere) in which Jesus denounces "the cities where most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent" (Matt 11:20). The section ends with that glorious "Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden ... for My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Matt 11:28-30), but between verse 20 and verse 23 there are some startling words from the lips of our Savior.

I won't give you the quote. You can look it up. You should know it anyway. It begins with "Woe to you ..." and references cities that had failed to repent. Then He says something like "If the mighty works done in you had been done in ..." and refers to a city known for its vile sin and for being horribly judged by God, then "they would have repented long ago ..." It ends with the claim that "it will be more bearable on the day of judgment" for those from that pagan city than for those from the Israelite cities that rejected Him.

Now, perhaps you miss the significance of such statements. I see two serious ramifications.

First, if "it will be more bearable on the day of judgment", it can only be concluded that some sins are worse than others and that final judgment will be worse for some than for others. Now, of course, I wouldn't suggest that Hell will be pleasant for some, but it seems abundantly clear that, while all of Hell's experience will be torment, some torment will be worse than other torment, based on the sin that brings it. Now, if you're like me, that might strike you as odd because it always seemed like torment was torment and sin was sin and damned was damned. Apparently, though, that's not the case, and there are levels of sin, torment, and damnation.

Second, the statements have ramifications both on what we know about God's Omniscience and, in that Omniscience, His intent. Consider, first, that this clearly states that Jesus (as God the Son) knew what would have happened if circumstances were different in the past. It has been said, in other words, that God knows all contingencies. He knows all the "what ifs". That's a broader Omniscience than we might have thought. The Open Theist argues that God cannot know what doesn't exist, the future doesn't exist, so God cannot know the future. The Historical Theist argues that God knows the future certainly. But Jesus argues one point further -- God knows everything that might happen, but He doesn't know it contingently. That is, it might, but it won't. It might have, but it didn't. In other words, His Omniscience is complete and absolute.

But there is a step beyond. Knowing all contingencies and, yet, knowing nothing contingently, look at God's plan here. Note that God knew in advance whether or not Sodom and Gomorrah or Tyre and Sidon would repent. Not only did He know if they would, He knew how. He knew that sending "the mighty works" to these cities would have resulted in life-saving repentance. Indeed, "if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day" (Matt 11:23). Do you see what Jesus is saying here? God knew what would bring about repentance in these places and didn't do it.

Now, look, this might cause a dilemma in some minds. Perhaps God does not know what might happen and Jesus was just guessing. Perhaps it's an (unknown) idiom where He didn't really mean anything at all by it that we might understand. Perhaps the Bible is not reliable and Jesus was not to be taken seriously. Because, you see, we know that Paul wrote, "This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth ..." (1 Tim 2:3-4). So if He "desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth", how could He not do what He knew would lead them to repentance? Well, of course, even that will run into problems when we read, for instance, Paul's second letter to Timothy where he says, "God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth" (2 Tim 2:25). Wait! What do you mean "may"? Didn't we already establish that He does desire all to come to the knowledge of the truth? So we're still at this dilemma.

Look, I could offer my own personal considerations on the topic, but I suspect that most don't really want to hear it. Most have answers of their own. So you go ahead and think it through and see what you can come up with. I will say, however, that I believe it is possible to hold both that God desires all to be saved and does not plan for all to be saved and that no actual contradiction exists. But you'll have to see if you can figure that out. You know, without doing damage to your brain. Because either the Bible is true and does not contradict itself or it contradicts itself and is not true. Your call.