- The Bible says God is Controlling Everything/All powerful
- The Bible says God is Love
- Bad Stuff still Happens
I answered Rob's question with the following:
I'll preface my thoughts by stating up front that I lean slightly more towards calvinism than free will.
I truly believe that God is working through all things(its in the Bible). I also think God is in control of all things.
Matthew 10:29 states a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without God willing it.
Ephesians 2:10-12 talk about how God has predestined us to certain things and that He is working all things to his will.
We look at all the bad that happened to Job(his family KILLED!) and God was behind it all. Allowing it to happen. In fact he is the one who gave permission for it to happen.
So if i truly believe God is in control..the question switches from "does everything happen for a reason" to "why does God allow bad things to happen?"
I was in Denver when Columbine happened. For so long people questioned why God would allow this to happen. Yet I also remember the story of Rachel Scott which brought many to their knees before Jesus. We was working this incident to bring people to him.
I think the key in all this is our definition of GOOD in romans 8:28. So many times i interpret that as MY good. Rather everything God is doing is for eternal good/aka His Glory.
Lastly...I believe that we perceive ourselves to have free will. But God created us and formed us in the womb. He knew the decisions we would make...and he created us to be the person that made those decisions. We can not surprise God with our decisions. I dont think God reacts surprised to us and then pulls together a plan around our mistakes. That takes away sooo much of Gods power. I do believe that we make decisions...but those decisions have been ingrained in our being but the God who created us. I personally lean towards calling that "predestination" but i understand the argument for free will.
What are your thoughts?
1 comment:
Grat stuff. For me though the fact that God knows what will happen doesn't affect my free will. For example if I see you run blindfold onto the middle of 64 at 5:00 PM I can know what's going to happen. I'm not surprised that you get creamed by a car. Now I know that's a bad example because I don't know for sure but the point is just because God knows doesn't mean we don't have a free will. My biggest hang up on predestination is sin. I don't think that we are predestined to sin. For example I don't think someone that commits suicide is predestined to kill themselves. They made that poor choice. The devil, temptation, and prayer go out the window if we are predestined. If I don't have a choice but to sin then why does the Bible tell me to resist? I loved your comments on the blog. I'm glad that we could have this conversation via the world wide web.
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