DOES GOD CONTROL EVERYTHING?
This provocative question, I believe, is imperative to understand accurately if our faith is to survive and thrive in the real world. I’ve seen many people stumble in their faith over this question because of what I believe is a misunderstanding of God creating man with free will.
Let me illustrate. On February 15, 2014 my daughter left her house to run an errand. She’d just gotten married 4 months earlier, and was thrilled to begin her new married life. She pulled up to a stop sign, when suddenly, out of an alleyway, a woman driving an SUV slammed into the side of her car, right where she was sitting. The woman was very drunk. It totaled my daughter’s car, doing painful damage to her body.
Several days later I was in a meeting with the pastors I worked with, they’d heard about the accident and asked how she was. It was of course very emotional for me, as my wife and I had cared for our daughter during her extreme illness for 7 years, just previous to this. This was a gut-wrenching blow. These men recognized how difficult all this was for me. As they sought to comfort and encourage me that morning, one pastor offered this quote from a well known Calvinist preacher/writer, thinking it would comfort me: “What God allows, God causes.” Not only did it not comfort me, but I strenuously, wholeheartedly disagree with it, finding it a terrible misrepresentation of God.
I had to speak up. I said, “Brother, do you really believe it was God who caused this woman to get drunk, that He then with His own hand caused her to slam into my daughter and do such damage to her body?” He stared back at me blankly, for only then did he realize what he purported to believe.
Friends, I do not believe for one second that God caused that woman to slam into my daughter any more than I believe God made Joseph’s brothers get jealous of him, that God caused them to treat him so cruelly, to then throw him in a pit, torment him, talk of murdering him, then sell him into slavery. How dare we blame God for the wicked sins and evil choices of other people and the damage they cause! Did God have an overarching plan to bring good from all of this? Absolutely, and many years later, God did. God certainly used their evil choices to accomplish his ultimate plan. But I sincerely believe that if Joseph really thought it was God who caused this horrible thing to happen to him, that God threw him in jail unjustly for 13 years of his life, robbing him of everything, Joseph would have turned away from that God, rather than trust God all those years to deliver him from his brothers’ evil actions and work them for good!
God does not literally have his hand on the lever of every decision that ever gets made in this world. God does however promise to work all things, for our ultimate good. For you see, if God didn’t choose to work all things for our ultimate good, then bad things would stay, always, only bad. God will work out all things to accomplish His divine purpose for our lives.
God does indeed have a master plan for the entire culmination of the world, for mankind, and for the future for His people. He will bring about the end of the world, and divine justice and retribution and create the new world, just as he promised. God is ultimately in charge of, and overseeing His creation. He is the King of the universe. God is actively working to accomplish His plans for our lives. God is absolutely involved in our world. That does not mean however, that God made me choose to use Crest toothpaste this morning instead of Colgate. Our God-given freedom to choose does not threaten God’s power to rule!
Does God, at different times in the course of world history cause disasters to occur, bringing them about by His own hand, as His divine judgment on specific nations, or situations? Yes, absolutely. But that does not mean every disaster or bad thing that occurs was specifically caused by the hand of God. Most of the pain, suffering, injustice and trouble in the world is caused by the hands of men! Which is why God will hold them accountable and judge them for it!!
As devout Christians, and people of faith in the living God, we must cling in faith to God, trusting Him throughout the course of our lives. We will not understand everything that happens to us, nor will there always be a simple explanation for the things that occur, or situations that arise.
Sometimes the reasons will be obvious, sometimes they’ll be shrouded in mystery. But always, there will be God, who never ceases being God Almighty. He promises to be faithful to us, to comfort and sustain us, to walk with us through the dark valleys of the shadow of death. God promises He will cause all things to work for our good. For you see if everything that ever happened to us was already good, He would not have to “work it” for good. In other words, bad things do happen to us, but then God, in His mighty, mysterious ways, works it for our ultimate, eternal good. That’s His promise. That’s His mighty power at work. Be assured, God is actively working in your life to accomplish His purposes for you, and He certainly does work providentially in our lives.
Always Remember Romans 11:33 NLT
Oh, what a wonderful God we have! How great are his riches and wisdom and knowledge. How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his methods! For who can know what the Lord is thinking? Who knows enough to be his counselor?
Let me also say, God certainly does at times personally bring painful things into our lives. Meaning he doesn’t just allow it, He personally brings it. One example of this is his prophet Ezekiel. God literally came to him and told him, “I am going to take your wife from you, she will die tomorrow. I have a specific plan for it all, I am using your terrible loss and pain, as a symbol to Israel of what is coming to them. So do exactly what I tell you.” I actually did an entire message on this, entitled: The Unreasonable Request.
I would like to conclude with this: I know some of you have wondered about Calvinism, wrestled with it, or been very confused by it. Please read this carefully, as I believe it will give you some clarity of understanding. I wrote this a while ago to help a friend.
The Incongruent Doctrine
Consider these:
Would God tell you to jump off a cliff and fly, when He knows you can’t?
Would God tell you to live underwater when He knows you can’t breathe there?
Would God tell you to eat glass when He knows you can’t digest it?
Would God tell you to never sleep when He knows it’s impossible for you?
Would a righteous God then judge and condemn you for disobeying these commands, knowing you have no power or ability to do them, knowing He created you without the ability to do these things?
Would God then encourage all to believe in Christ, knowing they cannot?
Would God invite all to receive His Son, knowing they cannot?
Would God command all men to repent and believe, knowing they have no power to do so?
Would a righteous God blame those He disallows to believe in him, judge them and send them to hell forever, because of something He wouldn’t let them choose?
This illustrates the unreasonable, incongruent nature of the ultra-Calvinist position. This is the reality seldom talked about. I believe it is a misrepresentation of the one, true Living God and Jesus Christ our Lord.
Why? Because I know the Living God, the Lord Jesus Christ who is righteous and fair in all He does. I know what His Word reveals to be true and self-evident. God created all men with freedom and power to choose! He holds them accountable for the choices He enabled them to freely make! This is the clear teaching of the Holy Scriptures.
Helping you become a Strong Disciple,
Because of Jesus,
Pastor Mark Darling
