This week's Truth Keepers for Truth Seekers column is about humans blaming God for catastrophes as if He were some monster that would punish the good and bad people at the same time.
Ever heard that famous phrase: “All things work together for good?”
Sounds OK at first.
But what is good about kids trafficking? Or people being killed in car accidents or starving? What is the advantage of babies being aborted at any stage of pregnancy but especially when it is about to be born or already born?
Even in society as they talk or write about: “Acts of God” when a catastrophe happens, they blame the act on God as if He were some monster that would punish the good and bad people at the same time and not protect His own creation and people like any Father would. More so He says: “He makes His sun rise on those who are evil and on those who are good, and makes the rain fall on the righteous [those who are morally upright] and the unrighteous [the unrepentant, those who oppose Him] (Mathhew 5:45 AMP)
Where did we go wrong?
One minister wrote: “My heart was really stirred when I attended a meeting where an old friend of mine was ministering. He had been through some terrible things that nearly destroyed his faith. He became bitter and angry at God for the things that had happened. When I heard him, he had humbled himself and was again loving the Lord and excited about the future. Praise the Lord! However, in the process, he had come to believe that it was the Lord that caused all his problems. He had resigned himself to the “sovereignty of God.”
This might be the worst doctrine in the church today. The belief that God controls everything that happens to us is one of the devil’s biggest tricks to destroy lives. If this belief is true, then our actions are irrelevant, and our efforts to help anyone are meaningless. “Que Sera, Sera? Whatever will be will be??”
If we believe that God wills everything, good or bad, to happen to us, it gives us some temporary relief from confusion and condemnation, but in the long-term, it slanders God, hinders our trust in God, and leads to passiveness, can leave people sick, even makes people die because they are not taking a stand.
The word “sovereign” is not used in the King James Version of the Bible. It is used 303 times in the Old Testament of the New International Version, but it is always used in association with the word “LORD” and is the equivalent of the King James Version’s “LORD God.” Not a single one of those times is the word “sovereign” used in the manner that it has come to be used in religion in our day and time.
Religion has resulted in the invention of a new meaning for the word “sovereign,” which basically means God controls everything. Nothing can happen but what He wills or allows. However, there is nothing in the actual definition that states that. The dictionary defines “sovereign” as, “1. Paramount; supreme. 2. Having supreme rank or power. 3. Independent: a sovereign state. 4. Excellent.” None of these definitions means that God controls everything.
It is assumed that since God is paramount or supreme that nothing can happen without His approval. That is not what the Scriptures teach. In 2 Peter 3:9, Peter said, “The Lord is…not willing that any should die, but that all should come to repentance.” This clearly states that it is not the Lord’s will for anyone to die, but people are! Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad and easy to travel is the path that leads the way to destruction and eternal loss, and there are many who enter through it. “(Matt. 7:13). Relatively few people making it up compared to the number that will go down. God’s will for people concerning salvation is not being accomplished. Why?
This is because the Lord gave us the freedom to choose. He doesn’t will anyone into hell. He paid for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2; 1 Tim. 4:10), but we must choose to put our faith in Christ and receive His salvation. People are the ones choosing hell by not choosing Jesus as their Saviour. It is the free will of man that damns them, not God.
People virtually have to climb over the roadblocks that God puts in their way to continue on their course to hell. The cross of Christ and the drawing power of the Holy Spirit are obstacles that every sinner encounters. No one will ever stand before God and be able to fault Him for withholding the opportunity to be saved. The Lord woos every person to Him, but we have to cooperate. Ultimately, the Lord simply enforces the consequences of people’s own choices.
God has a perfect plan for every person’s life (Jer. 29:11), but He doesn’t make us walk that path. We are free moral agents with the ability to choose. He has told us what the right choices are (Deut. 30:19), but He doesn’t make those choices for us. God gave us the power to control our destinies.
Typical teaching on the sovereignty of God puts Jesus in the driver’s seat with us as passengers. On the surface that looks good. All of us have encountered the disastrous results of doing our own thing. We desire to be led by the Lord, and teaching that nothing happens but what God wills fits that nicely. However, the Scriptures paint a picture of each of us being behind the wheel of our own lives. We are the one doing the “driving” of our lives. We are supposed to take directions from the Lord, but He doesn’t do the driving for us.
Man has been given the authority over his own life, but he must have the Lord’s direction to succeed. Jeremiah 10:23 says, “O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” God created us to be dependent upon Him and our independence is at the root of all our problems. As if it wasn’t bad enough for man to try to run his affairs independently of God and His standards, it has been made even worse by religion teaching us that all our problems are actually blessings from God. That is killing people’s faith killer. And makes them totally passive. The Word of God teaches: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” This verse makes it clear that some things are from God, and some from the devil. We must submit to the things that are of God and resist the things that are from the devil. The word “resist” means, “Actively fight against.” Saying “Whatever will be will be” is not actively fighting against the evil you encounter in your life and surroundings you work and live.
This week, ponder where you stand on this touchy Word “Sovereignty”.
Learn to defend a perfect Holy and GOOD God and submit to His Word. And commit that if it is in your power to resist and fight against that which is evil. Why? For the sake of those who are hurting, have no voice and ultimately to bring Glory to a GOOD God who loves the people He created but also gives them free will to choose life or death, blessings or cursings.
What will you choose? God says: “Choose life! “ Will you?
Blessings
Akhrienuo