Showing posts with label moral agent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label moral agent. Show all posts

Sunday, January 17, 2021

God Is In Control?

How many times have you heard the cliché “God is in control”? Songs have been written about it including the like-titled Christian hit by Twila Paris that won a 1995 Dove Award. Another one called “You Are in Control” I heard many times at the Brownsville Revival in Pensacola, Florida. 

Some Christians believe the Lord orchestrates every detail of a person’s life. Calvinists like to quote Romans 8:29-30, which talk about people being “predestined.” It would behoove Calvinists to read the previous verse. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Notice this promise doesn’t apply to everyone but to those who love God.


Man has free will and can choose to follow his own devices (Jeremiah 18:12). Therefore, he is responsible for his actions and cannot use the old Flip Wilson excuse “the devil made me do it.” Numerous Scriptures talk about self-control. Galatians 5:23 lists that as one of the fruits of the Spirit.


Even nonbelievers recognize the inaccuracy of the claim, “God is in control.” In his book “The Art of Intercession,” Kenneth E. Hagin talked about an agnostic TV commentator who stated, “...ministers say, ‘God has everything under control. He's running everything.’ Well, if He is, He sure has things in a mess.” 


Psalm 115:16 says, “The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s; But the earth He has given to the children of men.” God may be running the universe but has given stewardship of this planet to man. We have the freedom to make choices (good or bad) such as where we will spend eternity.


While evangelizing, I’m often asked why God allows bad things to happen. I point out Satan is the “god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4 KJV) who comes “...to steal, and to kill, and to destroy” (John 10:10). People can choose which god they will submit to. Before leaving the house for the day, I ask the Lord to order my steps (Psalm 37:23). Still, I can choose to disobey the Holy Spirit’s leading and walk into places I shouldn’t be in.


So is God really in control? Events prophesied in the Bible such as Jesus' birth, death, and resurrection were predestined. The Second Coming will happen regardless of what every person does on earth. Those things God has control over. However, events of lesser significance may or may not occur depending on our obedience and how much we intercede for others.


It would be more accurate to say, “God will guide and protect those who follow Him.”


“You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.” - Genesis 4:7 (NLT)

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Free Will

A doctrine taught by some ministers is that believers don’t have free will. Recently a friend wrote on her Facebook wall, “When love invades your heart, where is the choice, the so-called free will? You turn into LOVE!” I wrote in response, “If Christians no longer have free will, then how come God doesn’t make every one of them take part in free-will offerings?”  

That reminds me of one preacher who had someone tell him, “God makes people do whatever He wants them to do.” This preacher replied, “If that’s true, then how come He won’t make you pay your tithes?” Hebrews 10:25 commands us not to forsake “the assembling of ourselves together.” Yet when I’m out evangelizing, I regularly meet Christians who don’t go to church for a variety of reasons.

A believer who truly loves the Lord will want to obey Him in all things including giving, attending church and witnessing. Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you love Me, keep my commandments.” But until we die or are raptured, we will continue living in a fleshly body still capable of disobeying God’s laws. Even the Apostle Paul had struggles in this area. He wrote in Romans 7…

15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 
16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 
17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 
19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 
20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

One dictionary defines free will as “the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate; the ability to act at one's own discretion.” When a couple exchanges wedding vows, they respond to questions by answering, “I do” or “I will.” If you’re married, I’m sure you didn’t want your spouse to feel coerced into tying the knot with you. True love is a decision. 

The Lord feels the same way about us. Jesus said to the church of the Laodiceans in Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” Notice He didn’t say, “When everyone hears My voice and opens the door…”  

God made man a free moral agent. Every day He gives us choices regarding His direction for our lives. What will you choose to do?

“I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.” - Deuteronomy 30:19