God's Sovereignty

Roger E Olson wrote,

I do not believe that God always gets his way or that everything that happens is according to a divine plan. Did God “plan” the fall of humanity into sin with all of its consequences? I think not. Did God permit it? I think so. Did God have a plan for it, should it happen? Yes. Is God in control of everything? No. Could God control everything? Yes. Is God sovereign? Yes. Does God’s sovereignty mean meticulous providence? No. Does God know the future comprehensively, infallibly, absolutely? I don’t know. And it doesn’t matter. God is omnipotent and omniresourceful and perfectly wise. He can establish his kingdom no matter what creatures do; we cannot thwart God’s final, perfect plan for the end of all things.

Soverignty

Ben Davis has an interesting comment on sovereignty at Jesus Creed, where he reviews a book called Divine Providence by Bruce Reichenbach.

Sovereignty, he suggests, invokes the image of a political relationship, namely, that between a governing ruler and the governed. On this score, not everything that happens aligns with the governors will, nor does he/she get to determine the outcome of everything they want. The scope of the governor’s rule is set by the freedom allowed for their people. If significant freedom is granted, then it stands to reason that the governor is limited in their range of action – assuming, of course, they continue to respect the integrity of this arrangement. Thus, “In granting significant freedom to their subjects, sovereigns make it possible for their authority and will to be freely obeyed and also freely resisted,” Reichenbach notes. Furthermore, “If sovereigns command their subjects to do some act and if the subjects are free, they can refuse – although at the same time they must bear the consequences of their refusal.”

God is Sovereign

You will have heard people say, “God is sovereign”. The assumption is that everything that happens is his will, so we must accept it graciously.

I want you to know that “God is sovereign”, but that does not mean that everything that happens is his will.

A soverign God could create angels and sovereignly give them freedom to rebel against their creator.

A sovereign God could sovereignly give authority over the earth he sovereignly created to the people he had created. He could sovereignly decide to give this authority without recourse. He could sovereignly agree that he would not take the authority back from humans if they messed up; even if they gave it to the spiritual powers of evil.

So a situation where the spiritual powers of evil have authority to do evil on earth is consistent with the sovereignty of God.

God is sovereign, but that does not mean that evil cannot happen. He sovereignly created a world, where it could, because he had a greater purpose.

Loss of Sovereignty

Protesters against the TPPA are concerned about loss of sovereignty. I am not sure whether the benefits bought by free trade will outweigh the negative effects of the investor/state dispute settlement process, but I am more worried about the loss of sovereignty to the state than to the TPPA.

Modern governments claim absolute sovereignty. They claim authority over every aspect of life. That authority is more dangerous than the TPPA.

Sovereignty and Choice

Making a god of sovereignty results in weak theology. God is sovereign, but it is only one aspect of his character. Sovereignty is not a concept representing philosophical perfection. It must mean something in terms of the character and activities of God.

God is constrained by his character. He is constrained by his choices about how he will operate that flow out of his character. If God is sovereign, he can choose to constrain his activity. That does not limit his freedom or omnipotence.

Once God created a finite world and finite people to live within it, and committed himself to working with them, he constrained himself to working within time. He is beyond time, so he can still move across time, but if he intervened on earth outside the order of time, his interventions would not make sense to those living within time. God has a strategy for restoring the earth. This involves a sequence of interventions on earth that makes sense in terms of finite time.

When God created people and spirits and gave them real freedom, he constrained himself. He could have kept them under his control, but he decided against that, because the wanted them to be free to do things that are contrary to his will. Having made that choice, it was almost inevitable that spirits or people would do things that are contrary to his will. This allows them to constrain his ability to accomplish in purpose in various ways. Every time I resist his will, I hold back his plans.

I wonder how many people the Holy Spirit spoke to before Abraham heeded the call to move to the land he was called. I presume he had spoken to many people, but was ignored. I presume some heard, but chose to disobey. Abraham was the first to hear and obey, so he received the promise of blessing.

Some will say that God knew in advance, the people who refused the call would refuse. That is playing games. Does it mean that he was not calling those people seriously, but just speaking to prove that they were rebellious? That would be insincere. If God’s will is limited to what actually happens, it becomes a bit meaningless.

Sovereign Capability

If God directly controlled every living being in creation, like a puppet master manipulates his puppets that would be amazing capability. Keeping track of each person and making them act according to a coordinated plan would be an amazing achievement.

However, God does something even more amazing. He sets the puppets free to their own thing. He limits himself to influencing them by making suggestions. A few are committed to doing his will, but most are openly hostile. Worse still, many angels who have rebelled, have the ability to control some of those who are hostile. This looks like an impossible situation, but God is able to accomplish his purposes on earth, without needing to control people.

God is able to achieve this through his amazing wisdom an power.

• God’s wisdom is perfect and complete.
• He knows what is happening everywhere all the time.
• God totally understands human behaviour, because he created us. He knows how we will respond and behave in various situations.
• The Holy Spirit is active throughout creation. He can speak simultaneously to every human on earth at the same time.
• Everything he does moves people and events towards the fulfilment of God’s purposes.
• The Holy Spirit can influence people who are hostile to God, because he knows what suggestions they will respond to.
• Humans have limited imagination and often do not know what they want to do. They are open to the Spirit’s suggestions.
• The powers of evil are pathetic and feeble by comparison. They can only be in one place at a time. They can only influence one person at a time, unless they get hold a poltical leader.
• The powers of evil are disunited, so the often work against each other.
• They often do not know what is going on, so they do things that hinder their cause.

This is amazing capability. God is so great, he can accomplish his purposes with one hand tied behind his back. It just takes a little time.

More in Kingdom Authority.

God's Soverignty

God’s sovereignty is often presented as if he directs events on earth by remote control, but that would be a breach of his gift of authority to humans, and would turn us into puppets. He has the power to control people, but he limits himself to influencing people into freely choosing to do his will. He uses a variety of means to get people who do not know want to obey him to do what he wants.

• The Holy Spirit can put thoughts into the minds of hostile people. If they accept his ideas, they voluntarily do God’s will without understanding that they are being guided by him.
• He will often give the same thought to several people, so they spur each other on.
• The Holy Spirit makes his suggestions well in advance, at a time when the person is receptive. He often repeats the thought until it is accepted.
• The Holy Spirit presents his thoughts in a way that appeals to people, so they think it is their own idea.
• When dealing with kings, he takes advantage of their pride. God was able to use King Cyrus to accomplish his purposes, because Cyrus accepted the suggestions of the Holy Spirit. He was led by God without realising it (Is 45:1).
• When dealing with ordinary people, the Holy Spirit often stirs up emotions like fear or anger (Deut 2:25). Many Canaanites fled their land when they bought into the fear that he stirred up.
• God sometimes uses evil spirits to deceive evil people (1 Kings 22:19-20). These spirits do not want to do his will, but if he makes a suggestion, they will often do it, because they do not have many original ideas. Unlike humans, angels were created to obey another person, so they are not very creative.
• God uses physical events to prevent powerful people from doing evil things. He used the Red Sea to destroy Pharaoh’s army (Ex 14:27-28).

God does not control events on earth. He accomplishes his purposes by superior wisdom and the ability of the Holy Spirit to influence people, often despite their opposition, and without their understanding (Kingdom Authority, p.44)

Waitangi and Sovereignty

The Treaty of Waitangi is the founding document of New Zealand. An important aspect of the treaty is often missed.

In the second clause of the Maori version of the Treaty of Waitangi, the crown agreed to protect the tino rangatiratanga (sovereignty) of the chiefs and hapu (subtribes) and all the people of New Zealand over “their lands, villages and all their treasures”. The English version expands the latter expression to include “lands and estates, forests, fisheries and other properties”. This clause is really important as it places significant limits on the authority of the state. It cannot interfere in the lives of the people or their possessions unless a crime occurs.

The first point, which is seldom noticed, is that it applies to “all the people of New Zealand” nga tangata katoa o Nu Tirani). The second clause is for all people, and not just to Maori.

Secondly, the treaty recognises that ‘sovereignty” belongs to individuals, families and tribes and not to the Crown. The treaty does not create this sovereignty, but recognises that people already have it. The right to control legally acquired property is given by God (Exodus 20:15). It is not given by the State. It cannot interfere with a person’s property unless it is acquired by illegal activity or a crime occurs within it. Thus the treaty provides a protection for everyone against an imperialist and totalitarian state.

This ties in with the first clause of the Treaty, which gave the crown “kawanatanga” (a transliteration of governorship) over New Zealand. This is a lesser authority than sovereignty. The national government does not have sovereignty, but only governorship.

What does governorship mean? If the people and tribes have sovereignty, then governorship must be limited to the authority that they hand over to the crown. And if the people and tribes remain sovereign, they can take back authority that they have given. The governorship of the central state is limited to what the sovereign people have given to it.

Sovereignty in New Zealand belongs to people, families and tribes, not to the central state.

Waitangi (3) - Sovereignty

In the second clause of the Maori version of the Treaty of Waitangi, the crown agreed to protect the tino rangatiratanga (sovereignty) of the chiefs and hapu (subtribes) and all the people of New Zealand over “their lands, villages and all their treasures”. The English version expands the latter expression to include “lands and estates, forests, fisheries and other properties”. This clause is really important as it places significant limits on the authority of the state. It cannot interfere in the lives of the people or their possessions unless a crime occurs.

The first point, which is seldom noticed, is that it applies to “all the people of New Zealand” nga tangata katoa o Nu Tirani). The second clause is for all people, and not just to Maori.

Secondly, the treaty recognises that ‘sovereignty” belongs to individuals, families and tribes and not to the Crown. The treaty does not create this sovereignty, but recognises that people already have it. The right to control legally acquired property is given by God (Exodus 20:15). It is not given by the State. It cannot interfere with a person’s property unless it is acquired by illegal activity or a crime occurs within it. Thus the treaty provides a protection for everyone against an imperialist and totalitarian state.

The only problem with the Treaty of Waitangi from this point of view is that it does not explicitly acknowledge God. However, as I understand it, tino rangatiratanga is not absolute sovereignty, but includes a whole of responsibilities and limitations. Sovereignty is balanced by a requirement that its exercise should always be “tika”, true and correct. The leaves room for the sovereignty of God.

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Sovereignty and Freedom

The sovereignty of God is a bit of mystery. The amazing thing about it is that God can achieve his purposes without contradicting human freedom. I believe that God sovereignly chose to make us truly free. I also believe that he is sovereignly accomplishes all his purposes.

His wisdom is so great that he can put people together in such away that they freely interact to accomplish his will. He throws in a large dose of influence by the Holy Spirit and his angels. He accomplishes his purposes despite our free will, not by nullifying our freedom.

For example, when God wanted Pharaoh to rescue Joseph from prison, he gave him a dream that he could not resist. Pharaoh did God’s will without God forcing him to do it. I presume that when God wanted Cyrus to invade Babylon, God put the idea in his mind, and being a big shot, Cyrus could not resist the idea.

I can see this pattern working in the way that I became a Christian. I was walking away from God, when a whole lot of things happened that turned me back towards him. This was the Holy Spirit drawing me to him. The pull was strong that it was almost impossible for me to resist. That is the sovereignty of God. Yet at the same time I freely chose to surrender to him. My freedom was not abrogated.

What I did not realise at the time was that before I surrendered to God, I was not free. I was actually a slave of sin. The other thing the Holy Spirit did was to rescue me from the dominion of darkness and bring me to a place where I was free to choose to serve God. I could not have made that choice, if he had not made it possible.

The irony is that we are only truly free when we are submitted to God. When we think we are free from God, we are actually slaves of sin.