How Do We Reconcile God’s Sovereignty and Man’s Responsibility? - By Aimee Joseph

Found here. Our comments in bold.
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The author employs words but explains absolutely nothing, except that the answer to the title's question is a mystery. 

She quotes no Bible verses. At all. The article is about 620 words, rather short. Of those, 362 words are actually hers. The rest are references to or quotes from theologians. The author relies on them to restate what she already stated, except these quotes are themselves undocumented statements.

We think she intended to explain the Calvinistic/Reformed teaching about predestination versus man's free will. We're guessing, because she provides no information.

This simply Bad Bible Teaching. Embarrassingly bad.

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Being infinite, inexhaustible, unlimited, and eternal in his very nature, our attempts to understand God and his ways in the world are marked by a necessary mystery. (Bad grammar. The author begins the sentence with descriptors about the subject, God, but after the comma she changes the subject to "our." This makes it seem that we are infinite, inexhaustible, etc..)

The Christian life is riddled with mysteries that our finite minds struggle to comprehend. Our God is three in one, one in three. Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man. We are righteous in Christ and being made righteous simultaneously. (Undocumented assertions. They may be true, but the author needs to explain where these concepts are found.)

God, speaking through the prophet Isaiah, tells his people that his thoughts are not their thoughts, and his ways are not their ways. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, God’s ways are much higher than ours (Isa. 55:8–9). (Sigh. This is aggravating. The author takes 33 words to paraphrase two verses comprised of 38 words: 

Is. 55:8-9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. 9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

There must be some reason these supposed Bible teachers so avoid the Bible. We have been unable to ascertain what that might be.)

In his classic book The Pursuit of God, A.W. Tozer powerfully captures how we ought to respond when we bump into the mysteries of God. He writes, “The believing man does not claim to understand. He falls to his knees and whispers, ‘God’.”[1] (She can quote theologians but not the Bible.)

When we approach the topic of God’s will, we have to acknowledge the mystery of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. (Will the author explain what she means by "sovereignty?" Nope.)

When we face mysteries like these, we often find ourselves leaning heavily toward one side or the other. However, we do so at the peril of truth. If we lean too heavily on the side of man’s responsibility, we will crush ourselves under the weight of decisions. Without the balancing and buoying reality of God’s sovereignty, thousands of possibilities and potential consequences will paralyze us. Indeed, the overwhelming statistics of anxiety and depression gripping our world give evidence that we are leaning too heavily on man’s responsibility. Without the knowledge of a good God who, in the words of Martin Luther, sovereignly draws straight with crooked sticks, (?? What does this mean?)

decisions can lead to crippling fear and debilitating anxiety. (So the fact that people don't recognize the sovereignty of God is why they are indecisive, depressed, and anxious? Really?)

On the other hand, if we lean too heavily on God’s sovereignty, we erroneously depict God as a puppeteer. We imagine him moving the strings to do what pleases him while we sit powerlessly pulled in various directions. (What does sovereignty have to do with this idea of God controlling or not controlling everything?)

This line of thinking, left unchecked by the balancing reality of our responsibility as image-bearers, can quickly lead to fatalism and nihilism. (Unexplained terms.)

In his book Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, J.I. Packer (Another theologian.)

addresses the mystery of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. He uses the long-disputed scientific debate over the nature of light to help us understand this antimony, “an apparent incompatibility between two apparent truths.”[2] (No, that would be the word "antinomy," different than antimony. Antimony is a metallic element.)

As physics was developing, some scientists and experiments proved, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that light behaved as a wave. Other scientists and experiments proved, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that light behaved as a particle. Both sides were certain that only one could be true, but both were wrong. Light is both light and particle at the same time! (A wasted paragraph...)

Packer continues to describe the antinomy (She gets it right this time.)

between God’s sovereignty, represented by God as King, (What does God's sovereignty have to do with God as king, or Him controlling or not controlling everything? A king is not required to control anything. It seems the author is equating sovereignty with control.)

and man’s responsibility, represented by God as Judge. Both are Scripturally supported, sometimes in the same passage. (Um, which passage? Where in Scripture? Is it a secret?)

He concludes, “Man is a responsible moral agent, though he is divinely controlled; man is divinely controlled, though he is also a responsible moral agent.”[3] (This is just a a restatement of the issue, adding no new information.)

We are free to make decisions, and those decisions matter. (Undocumented statement. This is one half of the central premise that needs to be demonstrated.)

At the same time, our God is sovereign over every action and consequence, directing all human history toward his desired ends. (Undocumented statement. This is the other half of the central premise that needs to be demonstrated.)

Both are true simultaneously. (Well, maybe so, but how does this work? What are the Bible verses that talk about this? Is the author describing the predestination of the Elect, or God's foreknowledge of our choices?)

While our human minds want to reconcile this antinomy, (Two out of three...)

C.H. Spurgeon reminds us, “I never reconcile friends.”[4] ( In other words, the question asked in the title is "we don't.")

Rather than seeking to reconcile them, we are invited to kneel in awe before the God who holds all things together (Ps. 95:6; Col. 1:17). (Let's quote these, just for the sake of actually having Scripture in this supposed Bible teaching: 

Ps. 95:6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker... 

Col. 1:17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

It is curious that the author is unwilling [or unable] to supply even one Scripture that speaks to her topic.)

Elisabeth Elliot (A missionary and author.)

shows us how, by stating, “Next to the Incarnation, I know of no more staggering and humbling truth than that a sovereign God has ordained my participation.”[5] (God ordained? "Ordain" is to establish or order by appointment, decree, or law. What does ordaining have to do with sovereignty? How did God ordain our participation? Is the author going to explain anything? Oh. She's done.)

Content taken from Demystifying Decision-Making by Aimee Joseph, ©2022. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

[1] A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God (Camp Hill: Christian Publications, 1982), 73.

[2] J.I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God (Downers Grove: IVP, 2008), 28.

[3] Packer, Evangelism, 30.

[4] Packer, Evangelism, 43.

[5] Elisabeth Elliot, Discipline: The Glad Surrender (Old Tappan: Power Books,1960), 34.

Aimee Joseph has spent many years directing women’s discipleship and ministry at Redeemer Presbyterian Church and in Campus Outreach San Diego. She is the wife to G’Joe who has recently planted Center City Church, and mother to three growing boys. Her first book, Demystifying Decision Making released with Crossway in January 2022. You can read more of her writing at aimeejoseph.blog.