The Monty Hall Paradox
There is a famous probability problem called The Monty Hall Paradox.
Monty Hall was a famous game show producer and host, beginning his career in 1963. The Monty Hall Paradox is a probability puzzle where you initially choose one of three doors, with one door hiding a car and the others hiding goats. The host, knowing where the car is, then opens one of the other doors (a goat door). You are then given the option to switch your choice to the remaining closed door.
Suppose you're on this game show, and you're given the choice of three doors: Behind one door is a car; behind the others, goats. You pick a door, say No. 1, and the host, who knows what's behind the doors, opens another door, say No. 3, which has a goat. He then says to you, "Do you want to pick door No. 2?" Is it to your advantage to switch your choice? Most people intuitively look at this problem as once he shows me what’s behind one of the doors, I have a 50/50 shot of having picked the door with the car behind it. Wrong, wrong, wrong. The answer is that you have a far better chance of getting the car if you take Monty up on his offer. If you’re saying “no way man!”, I’ll put a link to an online solution at the end. Remember, I’m a retired actuary and a geek so I’d trust me.
I was thinking of this when I saw an article entitled “Jesus will deliver us from the wrath of Jesus” by John Piper. My mental picture has always been one of Jesus standing between me and God proclaiming my eternal damnation for my sins and saying “stop, he’s one of mine”. I’d guess this might even be a common mental picture by many of us.
That’s probably because I accept but don’t fully understand the Trinity concept of Father, Son and Holy Spirit being 3 parts of one Godhead.
“Draw near to me, hear this: from the beginning I have not spoken in secret, from the time it came to be I have been there.” And now the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit.” - Isaiah 48:16 ESV
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” - John 1:1-5
But back to the article, I had never tried to reconcile those two mental images (the triune God and salvation from God’s judgement) before.
“Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”” - Revelation 6:15-17
This passage clearly states that the judgement is from God…all of him. To mess with my mental image even more,
“For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.” - John 5:22-23, 26-27 ESV
This destroys my mental image in that the passages in John refer to Jesus executing judgement. This is where I have to stop and accept that I don’t now (and may never) understand everything and that’s ok. I’m perfectly fine turning on my tv knowing that I don’t fully understand how the complete process works.
But what is important to me is that, because I’ve accepted Jesus as my savior, the judgement which I absolutely deserve will be wiped clean by the blood of Christ.
“and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.” - 1 Thessalonians 1:10
References:
Monty Hall Paradox explanation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem
“Jesus will deliver us from the Wrath of Jesus”
