Chapter 1. 10
The Sovereignty
Of God - Revisited
There
are Two Road in life; one of “FREE WILL”
given
by God to Man & Angels; and the other
of
what God has already “PREDESTINED”
together
they form God’s Sovereignty.
First Word
There
seems to be two parallel roads; both taught in the Bible, that seem to
never cross, but terminate in heaven through Jesus Christ; but for some reason
we seem to argue that only one of them can be correct. I hope to show here that both are COMPATIBLE
with each other. There is a running
battle about Predestination
verses Free
Will which always concludes with
three main thoughts
ONE:
We have FREE WILL to choose or reject, and the choices we
make on this side of life will have eternal consequences; like the eternal
bless of Heaven or eternal torment of Hell Fire.
TWO:
God is Sovereign and we are TOTALLY
PREDESTINED and even our
decisions are predestined. So whatever
situation we find ourselves in, it was predestined by the Sovereignty of God.
THREE: Man has LIMITED
FREE WILL, but it is within God’s Sovereignty and he
points to the story of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar as the example. I believe that example three made the most
sense for my BS,
my Belief
System; my worldview.
God’s
Sovereign Promise
God
had promised Abraham & Sarah that their descendants would be so
many he could not count them; that his generations would be like the sand in
the sea and the stars in the sky. Now that was the Promise, but time moved on and nothing had
happened.[1]
Helping
God Out
Sarah stayed barren
and was way past her child baring years; so since God was slow in fulfilling
His promise, they decided with their FREE WILL to help God fulfill His promise by taking
Sarah’s maidservant Hagar and have her bear him a son. They were just trying to help God out, since
from their point of view He was a little SLACK
concerning His promise.[2]
Consequences
of Free Will
Hagar
gave birth to Ishmael who Abraham took into his home and loved. Abraham had just turned 86 and felt like he
was getting old so he asked God to let Ismael be a great nation too and God
said SURE.
BUT,
Ishmael would NOT receive the PREDESTINED promise that would be placed on Isaac who
would be born 14 years later to Sara, Abraham’s wife. Furthermore Ishmael will be a WILD ASS of a man with his
hand against everyone and everyone’s hand will be against him.
Decisions
have long range effects, 4,000 years later we have ISIS; the Muslim Terrorist who
are a WILD ASS with their hand against everyone, cutting off the heads of
Christians, Jews and all non-Islamic believers.[3]
I
DIGRESS
I think it is important to understand what
happens when you do not trust God and you choose to do what seems right in your
own eyes. Sin is kind of like getting
caught in a thunderstorm and then asking God for an Umbrella to get out of the
rain. God will give you the umbrella,
but you will still be wet and it will take time to dry off. Look where we are now because of the decision
to have a child by Hagar the maid servant of Sarah. We now have the Muslims ISIS terrorist killing Jews and
Christians because they worship Yahweh instead of Allah.
Muhammad:
“He, who
relinquishes his faith; kill him.
I have been ordered by Allah to fight with people till they testify
there is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger”.
Ayatollah Khomeini: “The purest joy in Islam is to kill and to be killed for Allah”.
There can be no peace with the Jews or Christians or any other non-Islamic
people; and that if peace must be made, only a truce is permissible and that
“for a maximum of 10 years as an expedient to hone our swords, whet our blood
and strengthen our will.”
Mission of Islam
Hadith
9:459 – Mission – Conquer the World and get Booty
459
Allah guarantees anyone who engages in holy
war (jihad) for the cause of jihad alone
with belief in (Allah’s) words, that He will either admit him into
paradise or return him with his reward or the booty he as earned to his
residence from where he went out.
Mission of Christianity
2
Corinthians 5:21 – Mission – Conquer SIN in the World
21 God made him who had no sin to
be sin for us, so that in him
we might become the
righteousness of God. (NIV2011)
1
Peter 3:18 – Mission – To bring us to God
18 For Christ also suffered once
for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to
death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. (NIV2011)
Bless
my Mess
The
Prayer of a righteous man avails much.
Notice that instead of Abraham asking God what he should do about Sarah
being barren, he is asking God to bless what he and Hagar have already done. He was OUT of God’s Perfect Will; but he was still
God’s man.[4]
Sure enough through a FREE WILL
choice and a prayer, Ishmael would also have Twelve Tribes just like Israel and would procreate the Muslim
religion that worships Allah.[5]
Allah is an (Arabic) term which is a contraction of “Al”
meaning sole or only, and “lah” meaning God. Before the birth of Islam, Allah
was a term used by many pagan religions for their different gods. This term provided a common ground between
pagan Arabs, Muslims, Jews and Christians. Muslims insist that Allah is the same God as of the
Jews; the God of Abraham, however the name ALLAH is deemed
more powerful than the name YAHWEH. Christianity reject all of this.
Through PREDESTINATION, Isaac’s Son
Jacob would have Twelve Tribes and become Israel who would worshipped YAHWEH.[6]
God’s Sovereignty: God sees from the end all the way to the
beginning and nothing will thwart His plans. We have Free Will choices
and the results of those choices affects what happens in our everyday lives;
however our decisions do not change God’s sovereign plan.[7]
Limited Free Will – God’s Sovereignty
Did you
see it? Ismael existed because of Free Will and
Isaac existed 14 years later because of Predestination; both make up God’s
Sovereignty.[8]
I think it is interesting that in the
book of Job, Satan could to do what he pleased with Job (FREE WILL) except he could not take his life (PREDESTINED). – Although Satan was free to do what he
wanted, it was within certain limits; Satan is only a dog on a chain and can
only go as far as the end of the chain.[9]
(GOD’S
SOVEREIGNTY).
This shows me that the “parallel roads” of Free Will and
Predestination
both operate in harmony.
Free Will allows man to
modify his place in life. He will not
only enjoy the results of his decisions, but will also bear the responsibility
and consequences of those decisions. His
Free Will does not change God’s Sovereignty; only how he lives
his life within it.
God is Sovereign
The sovereignty of God is
an unsearchable divine mystery; we cannot comprehend the depth of the riches of
both His wisdom, knowledge and thoughts, nor His judgments, plans and purpose. His ways are past finding out,[10]
but we are assured that if God said it; it will happen. God as the potter has the right to make out
of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common
use. He will have mercy on whom he wants
to have mercy, and he hardens the heart of those he wants to harden.[11]
– God is
Sovereign.
Look at the life of Judas Iscariot, you can certainly see that he
was PREDESTINED to be chosen by Jesus as a disciple, but
by his FREE WILL betrayed Him.[12]
All of this was in God’s SOVEREIGNTY.
God knew what he was doing with man from
the very beginning. He decided from the
outset to shape and conform (predestined) the lives of those who love him [13]along
the same lines as the life of His Son. The Son stands first in the line of
humanity He restored.
The word “Predestination” is
found ONLY four times in the Bible and
it is when Paul was addressing two groups of believers.[14] The first group is called WE” and
is the Jews; the second group is called “YOU” who are the Gentiles; both groups known as “US” were
both followers of “The Way”; Jesus Christ. I have no problem in embracing the thought
that God hand selected and predestined “these specific men” for His glory,
before the foundations of the earth; both Jew and Gentile to be the first among
many to receive “The Promise” of salvation.
God predestined two groups of people to come together to create one
humanity out of two.[15]
- It is “God’s
Will” that ALL come to repentance for their sins and
accept his Son Jesus the Christ as their Messiah; their Savior.[16] – But ALL men won’t come to repentance.[17]
If God is Sovereign, then you would think
that His Will would be done, but concerning man, He has given him the ability
to reject His offer of Salvation. Interestingly; saying “I’m just not that very religious”
is actually a rejection of Jesus Christ and the Father God. God takes no pleasure in the destruction of
the wicked; but they will be destroyed.[18]
Ephesians 1:11-14 – Two groups; Jews and
Gentiles
11
In him WE
(Jews) were also chosen, having been PREDESTINED
according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the
purpose of his will,
12
in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise
of his glory.
13
And YOU
(Gentiles) also were included in
Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having
believed, YOU
were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,
14
who is a deposit guaranteeing OUR (Jews & Gentiles) inheritance until
the redemption of those who are God's possession-to the praise of his glory.
NIV
The Take Away
So
there we have it. Man and Angels
both have Free
Will to do as they CHOOSE,
but are responsible for the consequences of their actions. The more we seek God’s face and His Will, the
better the results will be for our Free Will choices. Man’s Free Will cannot
exceed the boundaries of God’s Sovereignty just like Satan as he runs in the
endless circle of restraint that God’s chain allows him. I encourage you to season your decisions with
God’s Word. Just look at America today
as we have drifted away from God. You
have time to get under God’s umbrella and out of the rain, but it’s going to
take some time to dry off.
Good or Bad; you will endure the consequences for your decisions here on
earth, and even more so in eternity. GOD IS
SOVEREIGN; life is choice driven.
The Godlier your choices, the better
your life will be in the sweet by and by as
well as in the nasty
now and now. – It’s in the Book -
How can they call on Him to save them unless
they believe in Him?
And how can they believe in Him if they have
never heard about Him?
And how can they hear about Him unless someone
tells them? [19]
[1] Genesis 12:1-3 – The Promise – I will make you a great nation -- Genesis
15:5 – Offspring will be like the stars – uncountable -- Genesis 17:15-21 – Sarah
will bear a child at the age of 90
[2] Genesis 16:1-4 – Take Hagar and help God with His promise -- 2 Peter 3:9
– The Lord is NOT SLOW to fulfill his promise
[3] Genesis 15:2-16 – Ismael will not be heir to the promise -- Genesis 16:12
– Ismael will be a Wild Ass & fight his brothers
[4] James 5:16 - The prayers of a righteous man avails much
[5] Genesis 17:18-20 – Abraham asked for Ismael to be blessed
[6] Genesis 17:21 – Isaac was predestined
[7] Isaiah 14:27 – No one can thwart what God has purposed
[8] Galatians 4:22-23 – Ishmael Free Will – Isaac Predestined
[9] Job 2:3-6 – Satan given LIMITED FREE
WILL
[10] Isaiah 40:13 – Who can understand the mind of God -- Romans 11:33 – We
can never figure out God’s ways and path -- Isaiah 55:9 – His ways and
thoughts are higher that man’s -- Romans 11:33 – His ways are past finding out
-- Isaiah 14:24 – He has a plan -- Isaiah 14:27 – He has a purpose -- Ephesians
1:4-5 We were chose to be Holy and blameless
[11] Romans 9:21 – He has the right to use us as He chooses -- Romans 9:18 – He will have mercy on who He
wills
[12] John 13:18 – Judas Predestined by OT prophecy scriptures
[13] Romans 8:29-30 – The Believer is predestined to be conformed to the Image
of God
[14] Ephesians 1:11-14 – Two
groups; Jews and Gentiles
[15] Ephesians 2:14-16 –
Create one humanity out of two
[16] 2 Peter 3:9 – God’s Will
is that everyone receive eternal life
[17] Matthew 7:14 – Many will not receive eternal life
[18] Ezekiel 33:11 – God takes
no pleasure in the death of the un-saved
[19] Romans 10:14 –How can they believe unless they hear and someone is sent to
tell them
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