Is God in Total Control?
Often I will hear people say when faced with one of life’s challenges, “Well God is in control.” I don’t think some of my fellow believers in Christ have really thought through what that declaration means. Is God in control of all things? Does He control my every action and completely take any initiative out of my hands? Is He in control when I am disobedient or sinful? Was He in control when Hitler murdered over 6 million Jews and over 7 million others? Is He personally causing the deaths of people due to disease, war and famine?
Believe it or not there are people who believe that all of these terrible things are part of God’s plan and that He does control them. They believe that He controls every little detail of your life and that of all other humans. To them, He is in that sense in total control.
This idea is a devastating error. Let’s explore why that is so. Keep in mind that if you have a preconceived notion about anything you will be able to find scripture that seems to support it. As a former Jehovah’s Witness I can attest to that truth. We used the proof text method to support our false ideas. Always search the scriptures to see and embrace its message but don’t begin with your message and find passages that seem to support it.
In the beginning God created the first humans. He was not creating robots or just a higher form of animal life but children who were to bear His image (Gen 1:27). We were to bear His image in the same way that a sons or daughters bear the image of their parents. They would be like Him. He gave them a spirit and a soul so they could contain Him and express Him on the earth (Gen 2:7; Prov 20:27; Zech 12:1).
To be His children demanded that we be given a free will. He built within us the ability to choose. We could choose good or evil because our will is free. To be like God, to bear His image, demanded that we have the ability to make decisions. God is love and love demands freedom. Some people cannot understand how God could be totally sovereign and still allow us to have the freedom of choice. It’s simple — God built it into our being the ability to have that free will because God loves us. It is what all children possess. Imagine a father handing down hard rules for living without the balance of love and free will. That would be a dictator, not a father.
This freedom was necessary if humans were to exercise the authority God gave them at creation. Imagine the spiritual power they had to have to exercise dominion over every living thing on the earth (Gen 1:26)! They were to subdue the earth and everything on it contrary to God’s will (Gen 1:28). This required total freedom to make choices.
The first evidence of this is God’s command to the first man:
From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die (Gen 2:16, 17).
This command makes no sense if man did not have a will. God was speaking to beings that understood that they could choose between the two trees, between life and death — between the ability to live by God’s life or to live by a life of their own in which they could discern good and evil in their own way without God.
They chose wrongly and we inherited the pain and suffering of death because of their misplaced decision (Rom 5:12–14). Death and all of its consequences were the result of that act of their free will.
We see the continuing evidence of that in Cain and Able the children of the first man and woman. God gave them a choice of bringing an offering in which God no doubt had made clear what kind of offering was acceptable. Able was a shepherd and brought an offering from His flock. Cain brought vegetables from His garden (Gen 4:3–6). God accepted the offering of Able but not that of Cain. God had His reasons for His decision that unfolded clearly in later events but and the two sons had free will and could respond the way they chose. Cain chose to rebel against God and later murdered his brother Abel.
They both had a choice of which offering to bring. They both had a choice of what to do as a result. Cain chose to be petty, jealous and angry to the point of murder. Abel lost his life because of his brother’s moral decision. Did God orchestrate all of this? Of course not! Free will is built into us by God. We get to make choices and that’s why we need the leading of the Holy Spirit (Rom 8:14; Gal 5:16; Matt 16:13). Was this His will or were the two men simply exercising the moral choice that God gave them?
This problem arises from our understanding of God’s sovereignty as it relates to free will. Some theologians cannot bring themselves to believe that God’s sovereignty can include free will. That God can be sovereign and man be free to make choices is not an incomprehensible mystery.
Time and again the word of God calls us to choose. He gave Israel the choice between Him and the gods of the nations: “Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Josh 24:15).
Isaiah prophesied to Judah the same choices: “If you consent and obey, You will eat the best of the land; But if you refuse and rebel, You will be devoured by the sword” (Isa 1:19, 20). Just as it was with Adam and Even and Cain and Able, the choice was theirs to make because God had given it to them. That choice remains before us today.
Our choice to receive the gift of salvation makes no sense if we do not possess free will. Paul wrote“everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom 10:13). That verse only makes sense if we know that we possess the will to call on the Lord and be saved.
People will quote verses like Philippians 2:13 trying to say that this is not so: “for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13). They try to say that it is His will not ours that accomplishes His good pleasure. As with all proof text attempts, there are several things wrong with that interpretation. First the word for “work” here is the word energeo which means to energize something unlike the word ergo which simply means to do work. So of course God energizes us through His Spirit to exercise our will and do His work. God’s sovereignty certainly does mean that He gives energy to His will in us to exercise the free will He has given us. He wants our will to line up with His.
God, indeed does have sovereignty and in His sovereignty He has given us the will to choose or reject Him. The often quoted verse in Romans 8:28 is used by some to muddy the water: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” God does cause all things to work together for good but there is a condition to that promise — ”to those who love God, to those who are call to His purpose.” The words “all things work together” don’t mean that everything turns out “good” but that the events in our lives are used by God to produce His good in us.
The next two verses continue this thought: “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified” (Rom 8:29, 30).
Notice that God predestined us to “become conformed to the image of His Son” not to heaven or hell. This is a comforting message to followers of Christ that His eternal purpose of conforming us to His image will be accomplished. His foreknowledge does not mean our calling, justification and glorification are separated from our exercise of free will. It is by our choice that all He offers to us is given to us (John 3:16; 4:14; Rom 6:23).
The enemy of God is an effective propagandist. He is the one who comes to “steal, kill and destroy” but Christ came to given us abundant life (John 10:10). But Satan uses his propaganda through religion, philosophy and politics to convince us that God is doing all the evil things he does. An evil thing happens and people cry out “Why did God do this?” thinking that God is in control of everything that happens and could have done the opposite.
God allowed His Son to be crucified but it was His enemy who unknowingly orchestrated His death. Look how God has used that death to liberate millions from his clutches!
Is God in total control? Yes, but He has chosen us to work with Him in the accomplishment of His will. We are invited to be His church, against which the gates of hades will not prevail (Matt 16:18, 19). The body of Christ is granted extraordinary authority and with that authority comes freedom of will.
