Chapter 2 of Suffering and the Sovereignty of God was the densest chapter in the book (complete with paragraphs and paragraphs of footnotes in size 3 font...), and it was also the one that was hardest to swallow for me. Yet, thinking through it and looking at the biblical support for the claims made in this chapter, I can't argue with it and I believe it as truth. This one will be split into 2 posts - today's post will be about God's involvement when people wrong each other, and the next post will be about God's grace and purposes in these situations.
A fact of life is that humans sin against each other and hurt each other, often in horrific ways (look at the Holocaust). We may ask, why would God allow this?
The argument made in this chapter is that not only does God passively allow these bad things to happen, He actively wills them by ordaining them and bringing them about - all without Himself becoming the author of sin. God brought about the Holocaust? He ordained each adulterer? He purposed each murderer?
Some have tried to find ways around this, to "let God off the hook", so to speak. What they came up with is something called open theism - the idea that God cannot prevent the evils in the world without restricting or destroying our freedom, which is of great value and importance. Sounds reasonable, right? Well, let's look at the story of Suzanne, paraphrased by me:
Suzanne was a faithful, passionate disciple of Jesus. The desire of her heart from an early age was to be a missionary to Taiwan, marry a man with the same vision, and to raise a missions-minded family. She ended up going to a Christian college, and met a man who did share this vision. They ended up courting for 3 years, praying together, preparing for missions together, and falling deeply in love with each other. This man eventually proposed to her, but she didn't say yes right away. She wanted to be sure that this was God's will for them to be married, even though so many things fell in place perfectly. Suzanne and her boyfriend prayed and fasted about this for months. They sought guidance from friends, family, and their pastor, who all prayed about this. In the end, everyone was sure that it was God's will for Suzy and the man to marry. The overwhelming sense of supernatural peace and joy that Suzy felt when she prayed was just added confirmation to her. So they married and went off to missionary school.
Two years into school, though, Suzy was horrified by the discovery that her husband had been cheating on her with another student. At first he repented, but after a few months, returned to the relationship. And despite intense Christian counseling, he just kept falling into it, and eventually he decided to ditch Suzy and live with his mistress. His spiritual convictions were gone and he turned hostile and abusive. Two weeks after he left her, she found out she was pregnant. Suzy was left bitter and angry with God.
The pastor she told about this suggested to her this idea of open theism - the "God of the possible" always had a Plan B and Plan C. God doesn't have complete, definite foreknowledge, but He has unfathomable wisdom to clean up the mess should something go wrong. When God guided these two to marry, it was the best decision at the time, but things went awry, and so He is now moving to plan B for Suzy.
Does that sound like our God? This open theism view directly challenges God's sovereignty and glory.
Hebrews 1:3 - "...He upholds the universe by the word of His power."
The Greek word used for upholds is phero: to bring, bear, produce, or carry; active and purposeful control over the thing being carried.
Ephesians 1:11 - "...according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will".
NOTHING falls outside of His will; open theism is not an option.
God doesn't want to be let off the hook. The truth is that God is in control of everything and that He actively brings about all things. In fact (and this part is hard to swallow), God even brings about evil aspects for His glory - look at the plagues in Egypt, and the man born blind (John 9:3). He brings about evil aspects for His people's good too (to strengthen and correct us). It's important to remember though, that to create, send, permit, or even move others to do evil is not the same thing as doing evil or tempting someone to do evil (more on this in future posts...it's a headache, I know).
I'm going to end there for this post and next time discuss God's will and purposes in these situations. Remember, our God is sovereign and good. We can't lose sight of that.
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