This, of course, doesn't sit well with a lot of Christians. (Of course it doesn't sit well with non-Christians, but since they hate God, it's irrelevant if they have an absolutely clear concept of God's Sovereignty.) I know it runs up against many of our own beliefs, so I thought I'd show you some things that Scripture tells us God will do.
"I will go before you and make the rough places smooth; I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron bars. I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden wealth of secret places, so that you may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name. For the sake of Jacob My servant, and Israel My chosen one, I have also called you by your name; I have given you a title of honor though you have not known Me" (Isa 45:2-4).We're good with that. God makes rough places smooth and gives treasures and calls you by name and all that stuff. Nice, really nice. But I stopped at verse 4. Read on to get a bigger view of what God says He does.
"I am the LORD, and there is no other; besides Me there is no God. I will gird you, though you have not known Me; that men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there is no one besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other, the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these" (Isa 45:5-7).Yeah, yeah, all good. Forms light, causes well-being ... but, wait! What was that other stuff?? Yes, God says that He creates darkness and -- get this -- calamity. While we're busy burbling about trying to figure out where earthquakes and tsunamis and hurricanes and all that stuff comes from, God says, "Did you see that? That was Mine. I did that." He confirms this in Amos:
If a trumpet is blown in a city will not the people tremble? If a calamity occurs in a city has not the LORD done it? (Amos 3:6).That's God's claim. "If a calamity occurs in a city has not the LORD done it?" Now, Bryan McClaren writes, "God’s sovereignty is not totalitarian. God isn’t the kind of king interested in absolute control. God wouldn’t create that kind of relationship with the universe because God isn’t that kind of God. Instead, God creates space and time for a universe to be, to become, to unfold in its own story, its own evolution. God’s kingship is God’s absolute commitment to be with us, whatever happens, always working to bring good from evil, healing from suffering, reconciliation from conflict, and hope from despair." (How, pray tell, is a God who "creates space and time for a universe" that unfolds its own story without actually being sovereign there some sort of "hope from despair"?) I'm quite sure that McClaren expresses what a lot of people, even Christians, believe. But it's not what the Bible says.
How about Solomon's claim?
The LORD has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil (Prov 16:4).We're all good with "The LORD has made everything for its own purpose", but what about the rest? The secondary phrase will trip us up. "The LORD has made ... the wicked." That's what it says. Did you know that was His claim?
Some might complain. "Now, wait! If God makes the wicked, how is that fair?" God offers a proper response.
"Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker -- An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, 'What are you doing?' Or the thing you are making say, 'He has no hands'? Woe to him who says to a father, 'What are you begetting?' Or to a woman, 'To what are you giving birth?'" (Isa 45:9-10).We don't get that option. We don't get to quarrel with the Maker. The idea that we think we do is a product of our own rebellion, the worship of the creature rather than the Creator.
Psalms tells us in two places:
Our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases (Psa 115:3).Got that? He does whatever He pleases. We don't get to tell Him "That's not fair!" or "That's not right!" He does whatever He pleases. He works all things after the counsel of His will (Eph 1:11). And if it pleases Him, on what basis can we say, "No, that's wrong!"?
Whatever the LORD pleases, He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps (Psa 135:6).
Here's one I found that was quite astounding. According to the prophet Isaiah,
They do not know, nor do they understand, for He has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend (Isa 44:18).Now, doesn't that blow your mind? No? Maybe you didn't get it. Isaiah was saying that there are people in the world that do not know or understand God's truth. Yes, we get that. But Isaiah goes a step further. The reason they don't get it is that "He has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend." God did it. Now, of course, we have that whole "people choose to defy God" and "people are going to Hell because of their own rebellion" and all that. True. And Pharaoh hardened his own heart before God hardened his heart. Right. But we've been told that God is trying to save as many people as He can, and Isaiah, speaking for God, says, "No, that's not true. God is actually preventing some from seeing and comprehending."
Do you know what I think? I think that our God is too small. I mean the God that we carry around. The one we claim. It seems to me that the One who has revealed Himself to us in the pages of Scripture is much larger than we realize. Perhaps we need to expand our thinking on what God will and will not do.
2 comments:
I think the weirdest thing about all this is at the beginning where you say that non-Christians 'hate God'. I doubt Jews (or Muslims, for that matter, even if they think of God differently) 'hate God', their central target of worship. I know a fairly sizable number of atheists and agnostics (even some Neo-Pagans), and none of them ever express to me, implicitly or explicitly, in word or deed, a hatred for God. Did Abraham, Moses, or Elijah hate God?
A couple of things here.
First, this post is addressed to modern readers and the statement that "it doesn't sit well with non-Christians" deals with the statement I made to readers, so Abraham, Moses, and Elijah have nothing to do with it. No one who is not reading this post has anything to do with it.
More importantly, it would depend on where you derive your information regarding the hatred of God among non-believers. If your basis for the conclusion that they do not hate God is whether or not they express a hatred for God, then I would admit that you could easily disagree with the statement of mine. If your basis of what is or isn't true on the matter is a biblical one (which is my basis), then you're stuck (as I am) with the categorical statement that "the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God" (Rom 8:7). Further, if you understand the word "hate" in the biblical sense, then you might see my point rationally. Biblically the term doesn't simply reference an extreme dislike. The English word references "intense hostility and aversion", which, it must be agreed, is the starting point of an atheist. But the biblical use operates as a measure of value. Biblical "hate" isn't the opposite of "love", but the opposite of "esteem". Thus, when Jesus said, "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:26), He wasn't talking about "intensely disliking" them; He was talking about a comparative valuation, where mother and father were not nearly as important as being a disciple of Christ. From this perspective (a continuance of the biblical perspective), if one does not consider Jesus as most valuable, as is the case with any Jew, Muslim, atheist, agnostic, or neo-pagan -- any unbeliever -- then they would be classified as loving whatever else they value and hating God.
That's without even touching on the fact that the God of the Bible is not the same God as the "Allah" of Islam. The God of the Bible is a Trinity, which isn't the same as the God of Judaism. And, of course, there are those who believe in "no god" or who don't believe in god or who believe in other gods. If loving God (the one, true God) entails doing what He says, and the singular thing He says is "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength", then those who make no attempt to do so (which would include everyone on the list you had) would have to be classified as hating God regardless of what they express outwardly.
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