JOHN: It means absolute rule. from Derek Thomas What it is actually saying, it seems, is that God ordained the means by which people will be saved. Well what did He do? God is King and Lord of all. Sovereignty is the absolute, unfettered right to decide when and how—and if—to use that power. I have a difficult time comprehending that. Whatever happens, it accords with the counsel of God’s will. Deborah Fagan Schultz. And He allowed it so He could put His grace, mercy, kindness, forgiveness and redemption on display. Your gift enables our worldwide outreach. JOHN: (They used to draw lots to try to quote/unquote randomly determine something. It’s a form of the word “sovereign.” Sovereign was a designation of the person who reigned, the – the single ruler, the king, the monolithic power, the unilateral authority and that is essentially what to say God is sovereign means, that He is the sole ruler, He is the sole authority. I mean, he’s not – he’s not driven by God toward some sin. Going back to say September 11, something that I think all of us would agree, was a horrible thing and yet, it doesn’t make it any less horrible to say God is sovereign over it. JOHN: Indifference toward ministry, indifference toward godliness, indifference toward evangelism. To him be glory forever. And you come back again to the personal accountability issue that every sinner is held responsible for his own unbelief. ANSWER: "Sovereignty is God's control over His creation, dealing with His governance over it: Sovereignty is God's rule over all reality." PHIL: That still doesn’t change the sovereignty of God, right? I – I love the end of the book of Job, Job 42:6, where Job says, “I had heard of You but now my eye sees You. Does God have the ability to save everyone? JOHN: Yeah, Luther said that. I mean, God starts with a blank and He creates the universe and then the whole thing unfolds, He is God, He can do whatever He pleases. You’re a believer, I’m a believer, that’s the end, in a personal sense, but it is the end because it was the purpose, the beginning. JOHN: No. God’s Sovereignty provides us with comfort. In God’s higher rationality, things that we think must be either-or can in reality be both-and. Who were the audience of the captivity narrative? Illustration, just a few days ago we had a little three-year-old boy in our church die, cycled through Leukemia three different times in three years, and he went to heaven. 2:12–13). He’s prosperous, everything is going great, all of a sudden, his children are killed, he loses everything, including his own health, all he’s got left is his wife and she’s no help. Where were you when I made the world?” The interesting thing about it is Job never got the information that we get. 1. JOHN: Well the answer to that, of course, is well because we don’t know who they are. PHIL: Yeah, coming in that context, it – it is not saying well, you know, that the Lord is helpless to save anyone without our help. But in any case, our salvation displays God’s glory: “For from him and through him and to him are all things. And yet, to – to all the people who came across His path, who suffered, He – He’s demonstrated this continual compassion and even went to the degree where He relieved them of those immediate issues that – that caused them to suffer. Because that’s not the agenda, that’s not the purpose, that’s not the plan. If I – if I am disobedient, He has a plan even for that, that doesn’t justify my disobedience. And I think the definitive statement there is, “I am God and there is no other.”. Hyper-Calvinism would be the view that we shouldn’t even preach the gospel to everybody, we shouldn’t give an open universal call. And I – I’ve said this through the years in my teaching that when the Lord Jesus came into the world, He could have done all kinds of things to demonstrate His deity. Language of God changing His mind in Scripture is an accommodation to us and our way of speaking, not a description of a true change in God’s mind. If the power to save lies in man’s free will, if it truly lies in their unaided ability to save themselves, why would we implore God to “quicken,” “save,” or “regenerate” them? And these are the dangers that turn into the criticisms by the Arminian people. John, we’ve done a number of these studio interviews over the years, going back, I think – I think the first one we ever did was on September 11, 2001. All rights reserved. 3) When my kids got older, they would sometimes question me persistently about a decision that I have made. And his mother wrote the most beautiful, beautiful tribute to God for giving that little Malachi to them for three years and celebrated his home going and celebrated him being in the presence of Christ. The completed registration allows us to send order and donation receipts to the email address you provided. But God makes that promise, and millions throughout history have testified to its truth because God has proven His ability to back it up time and time again. There are dangers, aren’t there with this doctrine? Open theists or free-will theists, for example, insist that the future (at least in its specific details) is in some fashion “open.” Even God does not know all that is to come. The Sovereignty and Goodness of God Questions and Answers. But there are variations on that question that you occasionally hear in other realms. And, by knowing Him, we can choose to trust Him with our lives. The inteded audience was parochial or church goers. And by the way, that entire theology, as heretical as it is, came into existence to get God off the hook for evil. But we dare not reason this way. If God is all powerful and if nothing happens apart from His purpose, why is there evil? It needs to be said at that point that doesn’t mean that God motivates everything that happens, He doesn’t – doesn’t motivate evil, He doesn’t cause evil, He doesn’t do evil. PHIL: Yeah, you mentioned Joseph earlier. JOHN: Yeah, I think there’s two sides to it. God isn’t causing me to sin just because He’s sovereign? Maybe God can make something out of this mess.” That’s not what she believes. And give by Jesus at the end of the book of Revelation, come. The movie follows the rise and fall of Civil War hero General Thomas Jackson, and does not try to hide his Christianity. Look, sinners are responsible. JOHN: He makes the wrath of men to praise Him. 2:13). The only thing it should do is give us greater reason for expressing our adoration for who God is. As the glimmers of dawn break forth, Jackson calls out to God, asking for His will be done. When we wonder whether God is in control or knows about our situation, we are wondering about his nature and power. If not everybody is going to be saved, then you could say, “Well who – who decided not everybody was going to be saved?” Well you could say, “Well sinners decide that.” Well then God decided that sinners could decide that knowing that sinners wouldn’t decide that. Here’s the answer I got. JOHN: He is sovereign, and it is His plan that He would be glorified in judgment as He would be glorified in salvation. Second, there is the question of ethics. I determined the end at the beginning, which is to say that whatever God purposes is what will happen. The heart of a king is in the hand of the Lord, He turns it however He wants. Within the sovereignty of God or outside the sovereignty of God, the answer to that would be within the purposes of God, those men were where they were. Was Herod in power at the time of Jesus? And I think the New Testament would even call us to – to that kind of love toward one another, to that kind of compassion, to that kind of ministry to the suffering and the weak and all of those kinds of things. Log In God’s foreknowledge or determinate counsel … PHIL: Does that even apply in a democratic government like ours where we elect our leaders? Evil is allowed by God, but He distances Himself from that. The choice is part of His sovereign nature. The mission, passion and purpose of Ligonier Ministries is to proclaim the holiness of God There is a scene in the Civil War motion picture Gods and Generals that is telling. It deals with future things from our day even. Proverbs 16:9 says the very same truth really applies to all of us. 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