God Is Sovereign: I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means

Inigo Montoya, in one of many famous lines from The Princess Bride, tells Vizzini, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”  Lately, I’ve noticed quite a few references to God’s “sovereignty” that have left me scratching my head and silently repeating Montoya’s line. There seems to be a misunderstanding in at least part of the Christian community about what the sovereignty of God is. I’d like to offer a few thoughts in hopes of straightening out some of these errant beliefs.

                The general misunderstanding I have observed is the belief that if God is sovereign, and he is, then whatever happens must be his will. It only takes a few moments of rational thought to realize the logical consequence of this belief is that our righteous, just, loving God must cause evil. How can this be?  It can’t. I John 1:5 assures us there is no darkness (evil) at all in Christ, the Son of God. Peter reminds us that “…he who called you is holy…” (I Peter 1:16 NIV). The four creatures continuously praised God on his throne as “Holy, holy, hoy” (Revelation 4:8 NIV). Do I really need to go on about God’s purity, righteousness and aversion to evil?  It is perhaps the most basic truth about God, and I must believe even the most wayward believer accepts this truth.

                Then why the persistent belief that everything that happens must be his will?  It may have to do with too much proof-texting. Actually, any proof-texting is too much. I have noticed that people will pull certain verses out of context to explain some action, often one of their own actions, that many would called a bad or evil action or result of a bad decision. One verse that comes up often in this context is Romans 8:28. This is one of those taken-out-of-context verses that are used to justify stupid decisions. Did you foolishly spend your rent money on a new toy or wardrobe accessory?  No worry, God works everything out for good!  Did you choose your friends carelessly, listened to their advice, and end up the county jail for a year?  Not a problem; it’s all part of God’s purpose for your life!  Did you end up single and pregnant, or an unmarried father responsible for the care of a child because you sought to gratify desires you should have run from?  Rejoice, God meant it for your own good!  No matter what kind of mistakes we make, we Christians don’t have to regret any of it because God works everything out for our good. (Note the sarcasm dripping from that last sentence)  The faulty reasoning that goes along with this kind of misinterpretation is usually along these lines: I learned something from that experience, and I am now closer to God than I was before, so God must have planned that experience for me for my own good. You notice how the responsibility for disobeying God has been completely removed?  It reminds me of the old line by comedian Flip Wilson, “The devil made me do it!” 

                What about Joseph?  He was sold into slavery by his brothers and taken to Egypt where he eventually was put in a position that allowed him to save his people from starvation. Then he told his brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20 NIV). Doesn’t that prove God was the one who prompted his brothers to do evil by selling him into slavery?  No, it does not. What they did was wrong, and they had to bear the responsibility for their sin. What is does prove is that God’s ultimate purpose is not thwarted by the evil actions of men or Satan. That is not the same as redefining evil as good because it wasn’t as successful as the evildoers had hoped it would be.

                Sovereignty means absolute power. It does not mean absolute control. I am not suggesting God is incapable of absolute control, only that in a discussion about sovereignty, control is not the issue. Authority is. Since God is in absolute authority, he can decide to exercise complete control, delegate some control, or give up all control. He’s the final authority. He can do as he pleases. If he decides to force select individuals to respond positively to his call to salvation, he can do that. If he decides to give each individual the opportunity to reject his offer of salvation, he can do that. Similarly, if he decides to give Satan a certain amount of control over things on earth, he can do so. He is the sovereign ruler. He sets the rules, the parameters, and the conditions.

                This means we are subject to whatever decisions he makes about how the world will be run, how our volition will play a role in our lives, how much influence Satan will have on us, and how severe the consequences of our actions will be. It does not mean we can look back at all the sinful, disobedient, foolish decisions we made and the actions we took as a result of those decisions, and claim God wanted us to do all those things. He is holy, and he demands we be holy. Nor does it mean we can carelessly live our lives with little or no discernment of right and wrong, or good and evil, assuming that since he is in control, anything I do will be his will. He does not and will not approve of sin, no matter how much we say we love him or how much we believe we learned from experiencing the consequences of that sin. He is a great healer, though, isn’t he?  He can fix things so we can continue to love and serve him, even while living with the, sometimes painful, consequences of our sin. Now that’s real power.

New Year, Old Goals

The title of this post is the motto of all of us I-mean-well-but-can-never-quite-get-it-together types. Fortunately for me, I have only made public one New Year’s resolution that I can remember. And I am pretty sure it is the only one because I generally eschew New Year’s resolutions all together. I don’t like setting myself up for failure. I have enough feelings of failure in my life already, I don’t need to willingly participate in my own demise.

I ran across this list of the Top-10 Most Popular New Year’s Resolutions of 2014 (which no one achieves!). You could guess all ten if you just took a few minutes to write them down. Go ahead. I’ll wait……. Okay, it is the usual mix of attempts to change character flaws, fix personality disorders, shed addictions, and achieve those impossible dreams. I’m thinking about trying to change these consistent failures into resolutions that might offer some hope of success.

1. Lose Weight. This is not a problem for me. I always need to lose weight, and I do so constantly. It’s the gaining it back part that is a problem for me. So, I may only keep track of the number of pounds lost in 2015, and declare myself successful when I have lost say, 25 pounds, regardless of how many pounds I gain. Or, maybe I’ll keep track of pounds lost and stones gained. In the British system, a stone is 14 pounds. So, I could trick myself into thinking I’m successful by losing 14 pounds and only gaining back 1 stone.

2. Getting Organized. I have always been one of those people who dearly loves to be organized, but never quite achieves it. “Organized chaos” is one of those expressions only people like me understand. It is the completely disorganized people’s way of relieving themselves of any guilt associated with being slobs. By simply declaring the mess to be organized, I have succeeded in my goal to get more organized.

3. Spend Less. Save More. Why would I want to do that? I thought the point of bringing dollars in was to be able to spend them. There is a way of making this goal work in favor of my success. I could think not in terms of money, but in terms of energy. I could resolve to spend less energy and save more energy. The perfect couch potato resolution!

4. Enjoy Life to the Fullest. Yeah, and Miss America is going to achieve world peace. Seriously, how can anybody hope to accomplish the first three while sincerely trying to achieve the fourth? My idea of enjoying life to the fullest involves a whole lot of pizza, money and not cleaning up after myself. I suppose I could resolve to enjoy life to the adequate, though.

5. Staying Fit and Healthy. In my case, this seems to be a conundrum. Every time I attempt to get fit, I injure myself. Oh, I admire people who can flip over giant truck tires, jump rope without doing face plants, and climb over eight-foot walls. But I can’t think of any situation that could possibly arise in my life that would require me to do any of those things. I work hard to avoid those situations. But, if you read carefully, this resolution assumes a state of fitness and health already exists. I believe I can successfully maintain my current state of fitness and health, as long as I don’t try very hard to live life to its fullest.

6. Learn Something Exciting. How many unexciting things do I have to learn before I happen across the exciting one? I mean, can I really know something is going to be exciting before I learn it? No. There, I’ve just learned something exciting.

7. Quit Smoking. I have never smoked cigarettes, cigars, or anything else. Maybe I could quit being so smoking hot. Not much hope of success, though.

8. Help Others in Their Dreams. I already do this. I help lots of mediocre actors achieve wealth and fame by watching a bunch of TV shows and movies. I also provide people who like to adopt these ridiculous resolutions feel successful by lowering the bar for them.

9. Fall in Love. Really? People still think that can make themselves fall in love? This can be a goal toward which a person can work? The expression itself indicates happenstance. You are “falling” people, not climbing the ladder of success. I could set a goal to simply be aware of when I happen to fall in love, but I’m not sure my wife would go along with even that. I’ll have to change this one to just falling. That I can do.

10. Spend More Time with Family. The fact that this has to be a goal in the first place is unsettling. Let’s be honest, we don’t have to make resolutions about things we enjoy doing. We make resolutions because we need to force ourselves to do things we don’t want to do, or stop doing things we know are detrimental to us. If I really enjoy being with family, other things, like “Hang Out in the Sports Bar More Often,” will end up on my New Year’s list. The fact that it is on the list of things nobody ever achieves is just plain sad. Maybe this one should read, Expend More Effort Making My Family a Group of People I and They Will Love Being With. Yeah, that ought to do it.





Reference: http://www.daimanuel.com/2014/12/12/top-10-most-popular-new-years-resolutions-which-no-one-achieves/