God Is in Control (Part I)

Even before the presidential election, I heard so many Christians say, “Well, no matter what happens, God is in control.”

Do not number me as one who denies God’s sovereignty. He is the Lord of the universe and omnipotence is one of His natural attributes. He will determine when this whole earthly experiment has run its course, and one day everyone will have to stand before Him to give an account. Further, He decides the eternal destiny of each person. So, yes, in that sense, He is in control.

But some use that phrase too casually. Is the earth merely God’s chessboard? Does He move us around as pawns? Do we have no ability to affect the future? Can we not make really bad decisions that hurt others?

If we are going to assert that God is in control, we need to explain the assertion more clearly. There are some Christians who honestly do believe that everything that happens ultimately is God’s will. I am not one of them. In millions of ways every day, God’s will is not being done. Every time someone sins, that is decidedly not God’s will. And all sin leads to deadly consequences.

Our choices do make a difference. He has given us, as part of His image, the ability to choose whether to follow Him or not. Our choices affect our culture overall, and they do lead to the government policies under which we all will have to live.

I would urge Christians to stop using that phrase, “God is in control,” simply because it promotes so much misunderstanding. He never excuses us from our responsibility to choose wisely; neither has He promised that we will escape the consequences of our choices. I’ll give some Biblical examples in the next post.