A Real and Significant Biblical Contradiction?

[spockrates]

Helpful concordance here: http://www.studylight.org/com/bcc/view.c...hapter=014

I have deceived that prophet…
(Ezekiel 14:9). As Cooke noted, A statement like this is not intelligible unless we take into consideration the thought patterns of oriental mind.F7 We have the same pattern in the thinking of believers even today. When a loved one is lost, we have all heard it said that, The Lord has called him home. This merely by-passes secondary and subordinate causes and attributes all that happens to the eternal will of God. God's deceiving a false prophet here was in no sense an evil act upon God's part. As a matter of fact the false prophet had brought the deception upon himselfF8 a by his own evil desires and deeds.

What is in view here is God's judicial blinding, hardening, or deception of wicked men. The classical example in the Old Testament is that of Pharaoh. The Lord indeed "hardened Pharaoh's heart"; but that occurred only after the Bible had declared no less than ten times that, "Pharaoh had hardened his own heart." Does the equivalent of such a thing happen today? Most assuredly, it does.

"And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness" (2 Thess. 2:11-12 KJV).

It was possible to say of this self-deceived prophet that God had deceived him, because, "The consequences of his sin,. as well as the moral law of God which he violated were God's ordinances, and because the penalty of deception, was according to God's will, therefore his state of deception could quite properly be attributed to God."F9 This line of reasoning, however, suggests no amelioration of the false prophet's guilt. "No man can possibly become a false prophet without criminal blame upon himself."F10

This passage forbade any true prophet to provide God's Word to idolaters; and, by definition, that meant that any prophet speaking with an idolater was, of course, an evil-doer himself.

It is amazing, as Calvin said, that, "Neither imposters nor frauds take place apart from the will of God." Keil quoted Calvin's remark, and then added that, "This can happen only with persons who have first admitted evil into themselves. Furthermore, the penalty of God's judgment shall fall upon both alike, the deceived prophet, and the idolatrous inquirer."F11

Thank you Frodo for the info. (BTW, I'm looking forward to the Hobit coming to theaters. Also, a co-worker of mine has a son who is playing a small part in the film.)

I suppose the passage makes more sense from a Calvinist point of view. To the Calvinist, everyone who is self- deceived is God-deceived, because there is no freewill. Everything everyone says, thinks and does (the good, the bad and the ugly) is caused by God. I have trouble accepting Reformed Theology for other reasons, as it does not agree with some scripture and sometimes results in illogical conclusions. But the Calvinists certainly have an answer for this apparent contradiction.

(BTW, you don't have to say so if you don't want to, but do you consider yourself a Calvinist? From what I've read on your ratings page, you seem to be a friendly Steve Brown kind of guy.)