Really? A Sovereign God??

I am an unashamed believer in the Sovereignty of God. While most Christians would say the same thing, many wouldn't mean it like I do. I mean that I believe that God is sovereign in an absolute sense. Nothing occurs without either God's direct action or, at least, divine permission. Nothing.

I recognize that this belief carries some serious consequences, and it is precisely these consequences that put off other Christians. It means, for instance, that Hurricane Katrina with all its death and destruction was God-ordained ... likely even God-caused. It means that Nick Erfle's death was God's intention. It means that the horror that was 9/11 was God's plan. One of my sons asked me once how we can know the will of God for our lives. I said, "Well, if you want the easy way, look back. Whatever happened was God's will. Looking forward is a little bit tougher." You see, if God is sovereign as I mean it and believe it, then everything that occurs from the fall of Adam to the birth of Christ to the evil that was the Holocaust to the tsunami of 2004 occurred by the will of God.

In the past I've said why I believe this. I've written a variety of times on the biblical reasons for my firm conviction on the absolute sovereignty of God. And I've even mentioned the fact that this sovereignty gives me personal comfort. What I haven't talked much about is the alternative.

What if God was not as sovereign as I believe the Bible makes Him out to be? What if He was only as sovereign as so many Christians think He is? There are some that paint Him as a "gentleman" who won't interfere. There are some who suggest He just doesn't know what we will do in advance because ... well, we haven't done it. There are some who believe that God has surrendered His sovereignty to a large degree to Man's Free Will. However you want to paint this limited Sovereign we call God, it is a very odd picture to me.

Does God have the ability to forecast hurricanes at least as well as we do? Here's what I see back in August of 2005. "Oh, my," says God, "that hurricane is really getting big. If it gets over warm water and picks up wind, it could get all the way to a category 5. And, look ... it's headed straight for the Gulf Coast. Oh, my, that could be really, really devastating. I really wish I could do something about that because it could kill a lot of people ... but I can't ... or I won't. Batten down the hatches, New Orleans and Mississippi ... you're in for a big one and I'm not willing or able to stop it. But be assured, dear people, it wasn't my will."

What could have been going through God's mind on that fateful morning of September 11, 2001? "Oh, I suspected they were going to do something like that. They've hijacked those airplanes ... four of them! I can see where they're headed. I overheard their plans to fly them into buildings. I can see that this is going to be devastating. Lives will be lost. Families will be shattered. A whole nation will be affected, with a ripple effect to the world. Unfortunately, even though I know where they're going ... I'm too much of a gentleman to interfere. This is something I never would want for anyone. Too bad. My hands are tied. But rest assured ... it wasn't my will."

These are just some of the extreme examples. The same would be true in your everyday events. People are in accidents, robberies, broken relationships, car problems, financial difficulties, a myriad of things that occur in life. In every case, God would either have to not know or be unwilling or unable to prevent them ... or all three. And that is a God that is absolutely terrifying to me.

What would we say of a person like that? "You knew that someone was going to fly airplanes into the World Trade Center, had the ability to do something about it, and didn't? That is unconscionable at best and criminal at worst." "You knew that man was carrying a gun and would likely shoot Officer Erfle, and you did nothing to stop it? That makes you an accessory." "You knew that this event was coming and had the ability to prevent it and didn't? That's not a mistake; that's evil." "You claim that your hands are clean because you didn't cause or will any of this ... but you had the knowledge and ability to prevent it, so your refusal to do anything to prevent what you knew would occur makes you morally and legally culpable."

Maybe it is true that my belief in the absolute Sovereignty (with a capital "S") of God leads to some difficult conclusions. Maybe it is hard to correlate His Sovereignty and Man's free will (with small "f" and "w"). Maybe there are some sticky philosophical questions involved. To me, those sticky questions have a reasonable resolution. To me, the position is most biblical. On the other hand, I cannot comprehend the God of the other side. That is truly a baffling position to hold, both biblically and philosophically.