God's Sovereignty?

I Corinthians 15:21 For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ's at His coming, 24 then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death.

One of the great tragedies of Western Theology has been the linking of the God of the Bible with determinism Greek and Roman pantheism and pagan animism. The odd mixture that has come out from this unholy alliance has been a confused view of the world and an even more confused view of God.

I read and hear deeply troubling expositions on the supposed acts of God in history that leave me puzzled as to whether or not the people expressing the thoughts have ever stepped back and listened to what they were saying. I also wonder if they have ever listened to what Jesus says.

The latest one blames Haiti's earthquake and the resultant devastation of lives on God's intervention to punish a "pact with the devil" made  during Haiti's independence. No one can even actually point to the actual historical record of the pact being made but even if it was is this how we believe God acts in the world? Jesus didn't.

Luke 13:1 Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 And Jesus said to them, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? 3 "I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 "Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? 5 "I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."

Jesus did not see the world in the neatly packaged way most religious people do. God's Justice is not irrefutably acted out in every circumstance of life. That is animism. It sees the events of the physical world being directly ordered by a god. It makes no distinction between the will of God and the events of life. It is a mixing of the physical and the spiritual in a way that debases both. 

Ecclesiastes 9:11 I again saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift and the battle is not to the warriors, and neither is bread to the wise nor wealth to the discerning nor favor to men of ability; for time and chance overtake them all.

The Hebrew word translated "chance" by every English bible is paga.  פֶּגַע  It means a random occurrence. It is not luck, it is not fortune, it is not predetermined by God. It is a random act.The Bible says these random acts come from the collective rebellion of humans against God - sin.

But western theologians in an effort to explain evil and to view it in a less horrific way than it really is turned to determinism to explain history. They shrank back from the thought that human volition was responsible for all evil in the world and in the end blamed God for it. But the Bible does not teach this. It clearly teaches that death, pain suffering and all evil arises from human choice to go their own way rather than God's. The earthquake in Haiti is a result of human sin but not necessarily Haitian sin. The collective sin of humanity starting with the first humans is the answer to the problem of evil. These are not acts of God they are acts of humanity without God.  

It is almost impossible for us to extract our theology from the deterministic mindset that has been placed upon Christians for centuries. Jesus did not hold that deterministic world view. Nor should we.

Seeing the world deterministically solves a few problems but only at the expense of creating monstrous images of God at the fringes. Take for instance the ancient practice of killing children in a place right outside of Jerusalem. It was a small valley belonging to the family of Hinnom. In Hebrew it was call Gey (valley) Hinnom (of Hinnom). By the time Jesus visited Jerusalem it was Aramaicized as Gehenna. It is found directly it in these verses:

Matt.5:22 whoever calls someone "you fool" will be liable to Gehenna.



Matt.5:29 better to lose one of your members than that your whole body go into Gehenna.


Matt.5:30 better to lose one of your members than that your whole body go into Gehenna.


Matt.10:28 rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.


Matt.18:9 better to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna.


Matt.23:15 Pharisees make a convert twice as much a child of Gehenna as themselves.


Matt.23:33 to Pharisees: you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to Gehenna?


Mark 9:43 better to enter life with one hand than with two hands to go to Gehenna.


Mark 9:45 better to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna.


Mark 9:47 better to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna


Luke 12:5 Fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into Gehenna


James 3:6 the tongue is set on fire by Gehenna.

Further it is spoken of in Revelation as the Lake of Fire.
 
It is what we today call Hell - the lake of fire.
 
Because of the wickedness practiced in the Valley of Hinnom it became a desecrated parcel of land that was Jerusalem's garbage dump. At night the continual fires of spontaneous combustion lit the whole area. By day maggots and worms openly ate the refuse. This was the symbol Jesus used for the final condition and resting place for those who refused to turn (repent) away from sin and turn to him.
 
But notice that the acts which so defiled this place were not God's desire:
 
Jeremiah 7:31 "They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, and it did not come into My mind.
 
Now let your faith that the scriptures are the Word of the Living God and can be trusted fully take hold of your mind right now and see what they tell us. God did not desire for people to put their precious children on to the altars of Baal they erected in the Valley of Hinnom. He did not desire for them to burn them while still alive in a demonic sacrifice to a god that was murderous. Their hearts were so calloused by their deception that they could not have compassion on the most innocent and helpless beings on earth..... their own children.
 
The Bible says this horror did not even come into His mind.
 
It was not an act of His sovereignty. It was not something He stood by and did nothing about. It was the act of a depraved humanity that rebelled against His will and brought about actions which He hates.
 
There is another will that has been allowed to be expressed in the universe.
 
God placed the world under the authority of human beings:
 
Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Psalm 8:4 What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him? 5 Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! 6 You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, 7 All sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field, 8 The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.

It is clear that the Bible tells us where all these wicked acts that human beings do come from. They come from the heart of the humans that God allowed to have the rule over all He created.

That is why Jesus had to come as a man. If the world were still under the direct control of God Jesus would not have had to become a man. But God had by His own decree placed the world under the authority of human beings. Where humans allow their lives to be ruled by God His will prevails. Where humans allow their lives to be ruled by their own lusts or worse, by the devil, God's will is not done. 

To see everything that happens as somehow a part of God's purpose and plan in anyway but redemptively leaves a picture of God that is beyond imagination evil. 

The monstrous heart that could take a precious child, rape her, kill her and then subject the body God created for her to gross indignities is something that God hates supremely. Like those who murdered their children in Gehenna, He did not even think of the deed. The part that God plays in this horrible wickedness is to redeem it with His own son's life.

By Jesus living a sinless life he won back the authority of the planet to himself:

Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, " All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

He will one day make right what has been done wrong.

This is God's sovereignty - He will redeem everything that has ever been done..... but not today.

The cost to God to be able to win back a world in chaos was the suffering of Jesus and those who have followed him since his resurrection who continue to suffer for the message to be proclaimed. Our great hope is not yet realized. Jesus is not yet ruling over death but one day he will. When that day comes his sovereignty will be fulfilled. We will live in a world free from evil.

Revelation 21:4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away." 5 And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new " And He said, "Write, for these words are faithful and true." 6 Then He said to me, "It is done I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.