He is Sovereign and He is in Command
When you google the word “control” one of the first images you will see is this, the new wireless remote control for the PlayStation 5, Sony’s video game.
The Webster dictionary defines control as “to rule”. If you are controlling a video game character, that character will only do what you make him do. I don’t know what kids are playing these days but say you are playing Mario Brothers for exemple, Mario will not score any points or do anything by his own accord, but only what you control him into doing.
Many today believe in the notion that God is in control. By that some mean that God is almighty and sovereign. That concept is correct, God is the almighty and sovereign creator of the universe. But many confuse that idea of “God in control” with the notion that everything that happens is a move of God. As if life on Earth is a chess board and everything that happens on this chess board happens because God moved the pieces.
People who believe that God, and only God, causes the pieces on the board to move, very often also believe that the death of their child or that fatal car accident who took the lives of their loved ones was caused, or at least could have been avoided, by God.
God, nevertheless, does not cause car accidents or any evil in the world for that matter. The apostle James says that only good things come from God. We must remember that there are other forces at play in the universe. Gregory Boyd, in his book, God at war, will remind us that there are other forces at play in the cosmos. The devil is at large in the world, Jesus himself said that the devil comes to steal, kill and destroy. Therefore we should not be premature to assign to God every evil predicament that befalls us.
Others understand that, yet, they believe that, even though God did not do the evil did himself, He could certainly have avoided it, and if He didn’t avoid it He allowed it to happen. If He allowed it to happen then it must mean that it is his will for that particular evil to happen. That notion is also wrong and has lead many people away from a loving God.
Boyd will point out that God did not want and nor did he allow Adam to eat from the fruit from the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil, He actually forbid them. Nevertheless He did not stop them from disobeying Him. Nor did God want or allow Cain to kill Abel, in fact, in Genesis 4:7 God warns Cain to refrain himself from harming his brother. Yet, Cain chose to take his brother’s life, and God does not stop him from doing it.
Generally speaking then, we see in the Bible that, by rule, the normal is that God will not stop man from doing evil. History confirms that. If God would prevent evil from happening in the world we wouldn’t have had all the wars that cost the lives of so many good men.
No, God does not stop or prevent evil from happening, he allows it. Why? Because He did not create the world for Himself. He does not need the world. He created the world for Adam, and He gave Adam dominion and rule over it. Adam then chose evil instead of good. God, as a good Father, respected Adam’s choice. How many of you will give your newly wedded son a house only to show up there on the next day and tell him how to run it?
In the NT we see God allowing John the Baptist’s beheading. Neither God the Father nor Jesus stopped or intervened in John’s death. They could have, but they didn’t. We are given a hint about that on the book of John, chapter 7 verse 30 when it says that they wanted to arrest Jesus but couldn’t lay hands on him because “His time had not yet come”. That talks about God’s will and God’s sovereign plan. They are two different things are there are very good articles written about that which you can Google if you are interested in knowing more: God’s Will (thelema) & God’s Plan (boulema).
When we read Fox’s book of martyrs, that concept becomes even more clear to us. Hundreds and even thousands of Christians have suffered persecution, gruesome tortures and even died terrible deaths because of their faith in Christ. Yet, God, who could have prevented it all from happening, did not. Why? Because he is not in control of the deeds of evil men, not even in control of the deeds of the devil or his demons. God is not in control of the evil Adam allowed into the world, but He does have it, as John Piper puts it, on a leash. This leash does not mean control, it means boundaries. There are limits established by God and these limits point to his sovereignty.
In China and other communist countries, christians are still persecuted and tortured to this very day. You won’t hear about it in social media because the government controls the internet in such countries. I have heard from eye witnesses about children who were tortured in front of their mothers in order to make them renounce their faith in Christ. Parents who watched their children die in front of them as they refused to deny Christ.
To be honest with you, I don’t think I would be able to withstand such a thing. You may be thinking the same. Perhaps the Holy Spirit will enable and empower us in order not to deny Christ if we ever had to endure such malevolent dilemma. But my point here is that God could, yet did not, prevent any of it from happening. God will not prevent evil from taking place as long as it does not affect his boulema (plan), his sovereign plan. Herod Archelaus would have baby Jesus killed but God sent an angel to prevent it, why? Because God needed Jesus alive to fulfil his perfect boulema for this world. In the same manner God did not prevent Herod Antipas from killing John the Baptist because God’s bolema for John had already been fulfilled. Though, on earth, his death was a tragedy, if you look with eternal eyes, in heaven he was surely hailed as he entered the pearly gates on that fateful day.
From the death of Abel to the Holocaust, God could have prevented it all from happening, but He did not. God could have given baby hitler a deadly sickness or even prevent him from being born, but he didn’t. Heck, God being almighty and omniscient, could have decided not to create the devil at all. The world would be a better place without the devil, don’t you think? Yet, God, knowing that Lucifer would become the devil, still created him? Why?
Well, I believe it was for the same reason He created you and I, for though we are not the devil, we have surely had our share of evil deeds in our lifetime, haven’t we? Who has never told a lie or stolen a cookie from grandma? Some have killed, other have stolen, we humans may think there is a difference, but even though there may be difference in consequence, the essence is the same: evil.
There will come a day when God will get rid of evil altogether. When Jesus returns to his bride he will get rid of death and evil. Until then, we must deal with pain and suffering for Jesus himself said we would have afflictions in this life.
To conclude, for I have written far more about this than I had meant to when I sat down with my coffee this morning, I want to leave you with this idea: Sovereignty and Control are two very different concepts. God is almighty, He is sovereign, but he is not in control. To illustrate that let me summon Queen Elizabeth who, besides being the queen of England, is also queen over other countries such as Canada. The queen is sovereign over Canada, but she is not a ruling queen, she does not control the country. For that purpose there is the prime minister and other local government officials, elected by the people. The queen, however, being sovereign, has the power to intervene at any moment. Her image in engraved on the Canadian currency as a daily reminder for the people, reaffirming and reassuring them of her sovereignty over the nation. Nevertheless, the power to do good or bad resides in the hands of every citizen.
So it is the case with God, he is not in daily control of everything that happens in our lives. He does not cause nor allows (wants) any evil to happen to us but evil happens despite his good and perfect will for us.
It is not God who causes a child to be born with a physical disability or even another to die prematurely. It is not God who causes a car accident driven by a drunk man or the death of another by the hands of a violent man. All of this is a consequence of Adam’s original sin and the misuse of free will.
Could He prevent it from happening? Indeed he could, he can and I’m sure he often does. If it were not for his mercies I’m sure, and the Bible tells us, that we would have long being destroyed. In fact, the reason this world is still withstanding and the sun is shining upon us every morning is only because of his love and mercy.
God is indeed, SOVEREIGN, but he is not in control, He is in COMMAND which is very different from CONTROL. God being in command means that He is giving us daily directions to live in the center of his good, perfect and pleasant will and whoever submits to his will and obeys his command will be blessed and prosper and that is a promise God made himself all over the Scriptures.
Now that does not mean that bad things will not happen to good people on this life, but it does mean that those who choose to love Him will be loved by Him on this life and will one day be completely free from evil, pain, harm and tears in the life to come, with Him, in heaven.
So stay strong, brethren, especially you who have suffered great pain. Do know that God did not cause nor did He allow your pain. It happened despite His goodness and his love for you. If you choose not to be overwhelmed by the pain and remain seeking God as the Father he is, you will find comfort on his loving arms. God will prevent evil from happening to you if this evil will prevent you from accomplishing his good and perfect bolema for your life. If God does not prevent a certain evil from happening to you, He will give you strength to endure it and He will turn it into your greatest strength.
God did not prevent Jesus from going through the cross, even though Jesus asked to be delivered from it. Nevertheless, the cross that Jesus had to suffer became our salvation. Do not reject the crosses the Father allows you to carry for they may become your greatest strength.
Honor and Glory