Who's in Charge Here?

How far does God's authority really extend? Is He sovereign over everything or just some things? Is He intimately involved in the details or just the general plan? And if He's not in charge, then who is?

Three Options

There are actually only three options to choose from:

Chance. There is no God. Everything that happens is unplanned and accidental.

Dualism. Authority is shared between two (or more) gods who are at cross purposes with one another.

God controls and has authority over everything.

The LORD is Intimately Involved with All Things:

He determines the roll of the dice -- Proverbs 16:33 The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.

Not one sparrow alights upon the ground apart from God's direction -- Matthew 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.

God directs through the decisions of government leaders -- Proverbs 21:1 The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; He directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.

God causes affluence and creates calamity -- Isaiah 45:5-7 I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me, so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting men may know there is none besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.

God is involved in bringing famine, drought, blight, plague, and war -- Amos 4:6-13.

The LORD has a plan and works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will (Ephesians 1:11).

Therefore, no plan of man can succeed against the LORD -- Proverbs 21:30 There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD.

The LORD Directs the Decisions and Destinies of Men and Women:

A man's mind may plan his way, but the LORD is the one who determines his steps (Proverbs 16:9).

Some men rise to prosperity & fame, while others are brought low. God is in control of this too. -- Psalm 75:6-7 No one from the east or the west or from the desert can exalt a man. But it is God who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another.

The days of our lives which lie ahead are already known and ordained by the LORD -- Psalm 139:15-16 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

In Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).

The Scriptures Are Not Afraid to Confirm That Even the Actions of the Wicked are Ultimately Under God's Control:

The LORD works out everything for His own ends - even the wicked for a day of disaster (Proverbs 16:4).

The evil actions of Joseph's brothers were ordained by God to accomplish His purposes -- Genesis 45:7 Joseph said to his brothers, "But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance." Genesis 50:20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

The decisions of Herod, Pilate, Caiaphas, and others to destroy Jesus were part of the plan of God -- Acts 4:27-28 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.

Even Satan works under God's control and unwittingly accomplishes God's purposes -- Compare 1 Chronicles 21:1 with 2 Samuel 24:1. See also Job 1:20-22; 2:10; 42:11.

Summary:

The biblical view of man -- indeed, of the whole universe -- pictures a God who has made men in His image and the world to reflect His goodness. It reveals Him busily involved in all the processes of nature and society, upholding the universe by the word of His power, working all things according to the counsel of His will and for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. He is shown to be the God who "doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and holy providence."

While God certainly does use secondary causes -- like genes, the environment, and all the other "impersonal" forces (that evolutionary science wants to credit for our development) -- at bottom, He is at work in them all, accomplishing His good purposes to glorify Himself by the manifestation of His mercy and His justice. The whole universe is personally attended to by the living God; and men, as His image-bearers, are personally responsible for the kind of stewardship they exercise over their relationships with that cosmos and with one another. They may not be excused from their behavior by appeal to impersonal forces or the whims of evolution.

The writer of the Book of Ruth understood the true nature of the universe. He tells us that Naomi "heard in the land of Moab that the Lord had visited His people in giving them food."

The writer tells us that God "visited" his people. The word here is, in Hebrew, paqad, and has a variety of meanings. One of the most interesting is that it is the word used in the Book of Numbers to describe the activity of going tent-to-tent to count ("to number") the people of Israel. It speaks to us of a God who is so intimately involved with all the details of weather, soil conditions, botanical processes, and agricultural savvy that He can be seen to be personally present in the workings of nature for the deliverance of His faithful people, "visiting" them with His blessings as they act in accord with their covenant responsibilities.

What a far cry from the picture of an impersonal, uncaring, even savage universe that is painted for us by the best minds of evolutionary science.

This is not an impersonal cosmos, and the people with whom we share it are not simply the products of chance, time, and impersonal material particles and processes. They deserve more personal consideration than modern science is willing to afford them. In addition, we must expect more in the way of responsible stewardship from them than our evolutionary moral and legal systems require. And we must give more acknowledgment and thanksgiving to God who visits His creation for the purposes of His glory than this sad generation has been willing to give.

What Difference Does It Make to Believe That the LORD is Sovereign and in Control of All Things?

It challenges our small-minded images and concepts of God. -- We live in an age when the world and many churches are willing to acknowledge the existence of a god. But the god that is acknowledged by the world and preached about in many churches is not the powerful, sovereign, all-ordaining LORD of the Scriptures. This modern version of deity is an emasculated caricature of the God of the Bible. He is a buddy who we can use in times of trouble, but don't need to bother about when things are going good. Or He is the "good" god who fights against Satan, sickness, and weak finances when we give Him permission (-- this is just another form of dualism).

The true God that we see in the Bible is God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen. (1 Timothy 6:15-16).

We need to get our view of God up to Biblical standards, no matter how difficult it may be to reconcile man's freewill, the problem of evil, and God's sovereignty. These are philosophical questions with Biblical answers, but we will only understand them when we are willing to believe what the Bible says about the LORD. The Bible affirms a completely sovereign God who is involved at some level in every action, every event, and every decision ever made throughout all eternity.

We realize our absolute dependence upon God for any blessing, any mercy, or any goodness. My times are in your hands (Psalm 31:15). We are completely dependent upon God for anything good that happens to us. People who have a proper view of God have a deeper trust in God, are more humble, and are less fretful during times of trouble.

We find a greater security in the Christian life. Less depends on us and more depends on God. The God we read about in the Bible is not only willing, but able to keep us -- Jude 1:24 To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy.

John 6:39 Jesus said, "And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that He has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I WILL raise him up at the last day."

Romans 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing good, bad, or evil will happen to me without first passing through my Daddy's hands, so I know that all things do work together for the good for me (Romans 8:28).

For further reading on the sovereignty of God you can begin with these verses: Deuteronomy 32:39; 1 Samuel 2:6-9; 1 Chronicles 29:11-12; Job 2:9-10; Ecclesiastes 9:1; Isaiah 45:7; Jeremiah 18:1-23; Lamentations 3:37-38; Daniel 2:20-21; 4:17,25,35; Matthew 10:29; Luke 1:53; Acts 1:7; 17:24-26,28; Ephesians 1:4-5; Colossians 1:17; Revelation 4:11.

Who's in Charge Here?

Three Options

The LORD is Intimately Involved with All Things:

The LORD Directs the Decisions and Destinies of Men and Women:

The Scriptures Are Not Afraid to Confirm That Even the Actions of the Wicked are Ultimately Under God's Control:

Summary:

What Difference Does It Make to Believe That the LORD is Sovereign and in Control of All Things?