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. JOHN: Yeah, they’re saying the same thing. Augustine and many medieval thinkers believed part of the mystery could be solved by identifying evil as a privation of the good, suggesting that evil is something without existence in and of itself. These same kinds of testimonies are found in the Bible, perhaps none more profound than the prophet Isaiah’s account of his life-changing encounter with the sovereign Lord. He’s – He determines these things. JOHN: That to me is the amazing reality. Think of it this way. In this collection from the 2007 fall conference series, R.C. JOHN: Well, because God has an intention within His actions that is not purely arbitrary, and it is not left to chance. God’s will is sure to be fulfilled whether we evangelize or not. If He does, then why didn't He? PHIL — where I thought that evil was pretty much in charge and God was trying to – trying to gain control. We got in the studio that afternoon right after those attacks and spent some time. And you may have noticed that there is a common thread that runs through virtually every one of those conversations, the issue that always seems to come up is the sovereignty of God. PHIL: And in the punishment of evil doers, His justice is put on display. JOHN: So they’re trying to divest God of a responsibility that He’s perfectly willing to accept. They are true about Him all the time. God determined that when He laid out the plan. Now this played out in a drama that’s beyond comprehension because the pastor of that church who had become the pastor of the church was in his church on a Wednesday night and a prophet had come to town and announced that he was, this pastor was going to be a preacher of the work to the world, he was going to do miracles and he was going to be a great preacher. God’s Sovereignty provides us with comfort. The question is whether we believe it or not because it is definitely in the Bible and a lot of people know it and it frightens them when they read it. It is to say that He controls all the contingencies. JOHN: Yeah, because we are the means. On the contrary, prayer is multidimensional. Reformed thought on this issue is summarized by the Westminster Confession of Faith: God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain what-soever comes to pass: yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the crea-tures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established. This article is also available and sold as a booklet. You were a big help in answering some of my doubts about being saved. You know, He looked on the masses with compassion. After defining the biblical view of divine sovereignty, they look at God's sovereignty in salvation and answer common questions about its relation to prayer and evangelism. PHIL: — that always comes up with the sovereignty of God. And I suppose it’s the hardest and most obvious question of all about God’s sovereignty. You know, invitations are all through the Scripture and given by our Lord Himself and given by the apostles and – and given by Isaiah. The mission, passion and purpose of Ligonier Ministries is to proclaim the holiness of God But there are variations on that question that you occasionally hear in other realms. Did He weep over the city of Jerusalem? Answer: The sovereignty of God refers to the fact that God is in complete control of the universe. “Oh I’m so sorry Satan did this to you?” Well, what – is that what we’re going to say? What always interests me is how the New Testament says, “Honor those that are over you in the Lord. The idea that “God is in control” seems like it honors God because many mistakenly think that absolute control over everything at every moment is a fundamental requirement for God to be God. 11:36). God is responsible for evil in the broad sense that He willed it to exist without causing it in itself. And again, we’re back to the folks who came to the church and said, “We can’t live under the sovereignty of Satan.”. That’s what sovereignty is. And that’s the way you would turn the thing on its head, in that sense. I’m going to go here, I’m going to do that. So if you start at that point – you know, if somebody else brought the universe into existence, and God was trying to get control of it, that would be one thing. Hyper-Calvinism would be the view that we shouldn’t even preach the gospel to everybody, we shouldn’t give an open universal call. Nothing is outside His box. But at that point, I exercise my faith. Fair doesn’t rule the universe. Biology says this should not have happened. And if you have a horrible leader and a person who is doing wrong things, they are wrong, and you can make that judgment. God’s sovereignty casts no shadow over the prayer of adoration. JOHN: He is sovereign, and it is His plan that He would be glorified in judgment as He would be glorified in salvation. You know, if – if God ordains when I’m going to die, why should I wear a seatbelt? If one attribute were disproportionate or over-emphasized, chaos would result on a universal level. JOHN: By the way, that verb “falls” is probably the verb for “hops.” So He not only knows when they die, He knows when they hop. Does God have the ability to save everyone? Are there realms in the created universe where God does not govern? You are welcome Nick. Nothing is by chance. The attributes of God are things we can know about God. II. You know, how could the evil things that somebody does to me with evil intention, how can God have a plan in that that’s good? I can honestly tell you, I don’t think I ever heard the answer. 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. 28:19)—such reasoning ignores the fact that God fulfills His sovereign plan through human means and instrumentality. Oh really? It says, “The heart of man plans his way –. JOHN: It’s an impossible thing to say that God works all things together for your good if you don’t believe God is sovereign. JOHN: It is, it is. That He is who He is. The definition of free will that creates controversies with those like me who believe in the sovereignty of God over the human will — not just a general statement about the sovereignty of God, but God’s sovereignty over the human will — that definition is this: man’s will is free if he has the power of ultimate self-determination. After clicking 'Register', you will receive an email with a link to verify your account and to complete your registration. The first lesson of day one, we had to learn the definition of the decree of God, that the decree of God is His eternal purpose according to the counsel of His own will whereby for His own glory He has unchangeably foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. I realized this demonstrates a lack of trust in His wisdom and sovereignty. Are there realms in the created universe where God does not govern? The completed registration allows us to send order and donation receipts to the email address you provided. You have to ask the question; how does it affect God? JOHN: Yeah, Open theism that God – God doesn’t know the future, that He doesn’t know the end from the beginning, didn’t plan the end from the beginning. So I think this will help a lot of people if we can get a biblical handle on how to understand the sovereignty of God. And yet, it says, “How shall they hear without a preacher?”. We are culpable in transgression and praiseworthy in obedience. In addition, Paul previously says that God has "predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 1:5). It’s a subject that raises lots of questions and we want to ask you some of those questions today and get your help in finding biblical answers. And so when you look at the problem of evil, you don’t ask well this seems unfair to me because of how – of how it affect me, or how it affects people. PHIL: God had a plan that was good, and He used it for good. Luther wrote a book called The Bondage of the Will. JOHN: It will. And yet, the humanistic view of the world and the universe is that the entire universe exists as a product of chance. So the question really is, why did God allow evil? To him be glory forever. Sovereignty of God is the Christian teaching that God is the supreme authority and all things are under His control. How they going to preach until they’ve been sent? JOHN: So this was kind of a rift in the family. Is it true that everything happens for a reason? God did that, He overruled me in order to save me. He allowed it so He could put His judgment, justice, vengeance, wrath on display. He is never arbitrary in what He does or decrees. Accordingly, we have updated our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions in order to comply with GDPR. A. How will they hear without a preacher? That – that is not to say that this is some direct, immediate, hands-on work in which God does everything. Please contact the publisher to obtain copies of this resource. 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