Why must God be 'sovereign' in the ways defined by western Christendom? I picked up a book entitled, God is Not Great by Hitchens out of curiosity and find there ...again ... the same tired old arguments against the existence of God. As usual the naysayer trots out arguments against the existence of God for reasons of defects in the character of God.
Among other arguments Hitchens makes, there is this thorny issue of God's sovereignty, and it seems that Hitchens has not explored God concepts outside the orthodoxies of what have become 'historic' orthodoxies in Christianity, Islam or Judaism. I am of the view that what we have as 'historic' Christianity is a result of a misreading of texts that have come to us. The notion of sovereignty is one of the ideas with which we labor for a couple of reasons.
Sovereignty as we understand it in the west is something of a borrowed idea. The texts, even as we have them now, suggest that God limited the extent of His (excuse the use of the masculine for the moment) sovereignty - read control - by creating beings that are really and truly incipient. The texts suggest something different from what our philosophizing and conversing has produced. I mean that we have adopted something of a Hellenistic idea of sovereignty that is not entirely accepted elsewhere. If it is the case that God changes His mind about actions He will take in response to human action, He is not sovereign in any sense of the word as we... in the west ... currently understand it.
When one says that God is sovereign we generally take this to mean that God is in complete and utter control of all events, all of the time, either by causing them to occur or by allowing them to occur for some redemptive purpose. This is the point at which naysayers leave the conversation. If God is 'sovereign' in the sense suggested by much of orthodox Christianity, then all evil and suffering is God's doing ... and there is really no way 'round the conclusion.
Perhaps we need to re-think God with a view of sovereignty suggested by the texts. It may be that God chooses to interact with persons and intervene in the affairs of incipient beings contingent upon their responses. Perhaps we need to consider God in the context of His self-chosen limitations ... a difficult conceptual shift to make because it does violence to beliefs constructed over centuries.
1 comment:
Hi Greg,
I am so very glad you raise this issue of God’s sovereignity. The word ‘sovereignity’ is vastly misunderstood. The commonly used meaning presents insurmountable problems. This denotation does damage with respect to God’s character & any hope of real justice.
As a friend of mine once said, “ a word is like a tool, if you use a screwdriver as a pry-bar you break it”
Yes, God is Sovereign, this just means, #1 - He is BIGGER than we are and #2 - He is SMARTER than we are! Further, because He CHOOSES to be benevolent then He has the RIGHT to be the moral governor of the universe. Just because He is bigger than me doesn’t make Him the boss of me! But because He’s smarter AND loving this creates the obligation for us to make the wise choice of having him influence (not cause) our lives. An INFLUENCE you can resist...a CAUSATION you cannot!
Again, this means God cannot FORCE moral beings and they still remain ‘moral’? Moral has to do with right and wrong with attached consequenses of praiseworthiness for good behaviour and blameworthiness for wrong behaviour.
If God TEMPORARILY sets aside man’s normal freedom then man is not held accountable and responsible for that particular act. We see instances of this providential government from time to time in the Bible. However, throughout the word of God deals with man as free and making his own choices....this is the RULE.
God never takes a good man and ‘makes’ him do wrong, but at times will take a person with a developed bad character and will ‘use’ him for a greater purpose. An example would be pharoah and we see that sometimes God hardens his heart...Why?....”so that my mighty wonders would be performed in the land” When God ‘uses’ man providentially DO NOT take these DESCRIPTIVE passages of God’s unusual dealings with man and make them DOCTRINAL. These are unusual and exceptional instances.
God’s ULTIMATE PURPOSES for these plagues, was to destroy a confidence in the false gods of Egypt (which is LOVE toward the Egyptians when you think about it) and to further inspire a confidence in the true God for the sake of the Jewish nation. Does God love the Jews more than all men? No. At one time God chose the Israel to be a model nation as an example for all nations. This appears to have failed and now He seems to want believers and individuals as examples. (little christs, if you will).
Yes, God is Sovereign....He can ‘wrap’ things up when He deems it is the appropriate time. People have time now to figure out what is the most intelligent way to live. No man is without excuse and we will be judged according to what we know (not what we aren’t aware of!).
Yes, God is Sovereign...He could have created robots...He didn’t!
Yes, God knows all that can be an object of knowledge...every thought people are having and every hair on any head, He knows! (the future is future and the only thing sure about it is what God will purpose to bring to pass...another topic!)
Yes, God is Sovereign...He has always existed, is and will always be.
Yes, God is Sovereign...He is uncreated and also has the power to create.
But God’s Sovereignity DOES NOT mean He has everything under absolute ‘control’. By control, I mean absolute causation of everything and everyone and their actions and thoughts. He isn’t micro-managing everything that occurs in this present universe.
If this sad sack of a mess is because of God’s absolute control then I wouldn’t be interested in Him for another minute!!! Most people refuse His ‘control’, don’t they?
It is obvious in the sacred texts that there are other beings making choices....There is God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Satan, good and evil angels (how they got good is the same as us...they either remained intelligent and loving or chose selfishness as their ultimate purpose of life. Character is determined by choice. An old southern babtist truism goes something like this....” sow a thought, reap an action, so an action reap a habit, sew a habit, reap a nature and sew a nature (or character) and reap a destiny”
There are, in the scriptures, good men and evil men all making choices that have consequences. All profoundly and ultimately affect all we know as ‘life’. Last and not least, there are you and I with our choices.
When people say God ‘allows’ suffering...they should really more accurately say, “God CANNOT JUSTLY STOP IT” (thank you Mike Saia!) Precisely, because of the way He designed moral free beings in the first place...He cannot justly stop every wrong we decide to commit. We are free and we KNOW it!
This is why we have a conscience...(that is untill we abuse it into silence!)
Everyone would like to blameshift...”my mom and dad brought me into this world...I didn’t choose to be here!” True! But what are we gonna be lke now that we are here? There is a certain comfort in fatalism and the common erroneous presentaion of soveignity. We wish it was all God’s fault...what cowards we are!
Later, John
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