Another Contradiction in the Bible?

In this regular feature, Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call.  Here is this week’s question:  Dear brothers in Christ, In past programs I have been greatly edified by your discussions of what seemed to be contradictions in the Bible.  Here is another one I hope you will address.  In Romans Chapter 3, verse 11, it says that “There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.”  Yet in Jeremiah:29:13And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
See All..., it says:  “And ye shall seek me and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”  How is this reconciled?  

Tom:

Dave, we read Romans:3:11There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
See All..., Gary just quoted, “There is none that seeketh after God” talking about the condition of mankind, but it gets worse.  Picking up with Romans:3:14Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
See All..., “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.  Their feet are swift to shed blood.  Destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace have they not known:  There is no fear of God before their eyes.”  This seems to be talking about the condition of man.  This seems to indicate you can’t seek after God, but on the other hand God says, seek after me and ye shall find me.

Dave:

Well Tom, let me clarify something from the questioner, first of all, [he] said that he enjoyed our discussion of contradictions in the Bible.  We weren’t confirming contradictions in the Bible, we are correcting the fact that there are no contradictions in the Bible.

Tom:

The misperception that there are, very good.

Dave:

So we get that clear with our listeners out there, and this is not a contradiction either.  You could go to a verse in Ecclesiastics for example that says, “Draw us and we will run after thee.”  So yes, in our natural state man is corrupt, he is perverted; we have no thoughts for anyone but ourselves.  There is no thought for God; we don’t even want to know God.  But God, as Pascal says has put a vacuum in our hearts.  We have a sense of something missing within us, and although our natural bent is to be materialistic, to seek selfish satisfactions in this material world.  So, we don’t seek after God, yet God seeks us, and He draws us, and as He draws us with His Word, I mean this is what the Bible is all about:  “Choose you this day who ye will serve,” God is revealing himself.  God calls Abraham, for example.  It doesn’t say that Abraham was a seeker after God; it says that God calls him.  It doesn’t say that Saul of Tarsus was seeking Jesus Christ, but Jesus arrested him on the road to Damascus, and brought Saul of Tarsus to the point of being Paul the apostle where he could say oh, that I might know Him, [and] that this was his passion and his desire.  So, it’ not a contradiction, it’s telling us what we are by nature, and what we would be if God left us to ourselves.  But when God calls us and reveals His truth to us, we certainly can rationally respond, we can evaluate the evidence as we’ve been trying to do just in the earlier segment on this program.

Tom:

Dave, some who lean on this verse that is Chapter 3:11 of Romans, they would say this indicates that man is so totally depraved that he can’t respond, that God has to do something because this man is dead spiritually, there is nothing he can do.  Yet God keeps pleading.  I mean, I could give you verse after verse where He says, “Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth which have wrought his judgment, seek righteousness, seek meekness.”  How can God say that if we can’t respond?

Dave:

I know this is a controversial item, and I have friends who are on the other side, there are good people on both sides, but I think biblically and rationally there is only one way you could go.  There are two points that you’re making here.  Number One:  Why is the Bible full of pleas for men choose?  You turn the whole Bible into a charade if man can’t really choose, if he is so totally depraved that he can’t respond to God, and yet all through the Bible God pleads.  He sent His prophets, He pleads with His people to repent, but they can’t possibly repent they are so totally depraved according to this view.  So, what is the point of pleading with people to repent who can’t repent?  Now they could repent according to this Calvinistic view if God would extend, and only if God would extend irresistible grace to them.  Then we have a God who is, I’m sorry, some kind of a—is He playing games with us, is He mocking us?

Tom:

It’s a charade in effect.

Dave:

Yeah, He’s pleading with us to turn to Him, but we can’t unless He extends irresistible grace, but He won’t extend irresistible grace except to certain elect.  Well then on what basis does He decide to give irresistible grace to the elect and not to others?  Why are they His elect?  You cannot find a rational or biblical explanation for this.  God is no respecter of persons, and there is no reason within any of us why He would do this.  Tom, I’m sorry, it’s like you’re in the bottom of a well and I’m dangling a rope 30 feet above your head, and I’m pleading with you, Tom, please, please, take a hold of it, I want to take you out.  But I’ve got it 30 feet above your head; you would think I was mocking you.  And how can I explain to other people that I really want to take you out of that well, but you’re the one who doesn’t want to come out of that well.  It doesn’t make sense and I don’t think it’s biblical.

Tom:

So, there is no contradictions, God does plead with people, He draws people to Him and we are able to respond by His grace which He provides for all of us.