43: God’s Sovereignty: Does It Mean He Causes Everything?

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Welcome to the Ready for Eternity podcast, a podcast and blog dedicated to inquisitive

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Bible students exploring biblical truths that might not be fully explored in typical sermons or Bible studies.

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My name is Eddie Lawrence. For centuries Christians have wrestled with a big question.

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If God is truly sovereign do we really have free will?

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We've got to tackle this question before we can move through verses 4 & 5 of Ephesians chapter 1.

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The opening verses of the book of Ephesians contains wording that has been a source of substantial theological disagreement among Christians for over 1 ,500 years.

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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.

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For he chose us in him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in his presence.

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In love he predestined us for adoption as his sons through Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of his will.

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Ephesians 1 3 through 5. A small but vocal group of Christians who follow

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John Calvin's teachings claim that verses 4 & 5 prove God personally selects each individual's eternal destiny.

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This interpretation misunderstands two key points. The nature of God's sovereignty and the idea that humans lack the ability to make their own spiritual choices.

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We've got to work through these two ideas before attempting to understand what verses 4 & 5 teach us.

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God's sovereignty and mankind's free will are deeply interconnected theological concepts.

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Countless books and scholarly works have explored these ideas and this podcast episode will not resolve the long -standing debate.

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Instead, I aim to offer a clear biblical perspective on what

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Scripture reveals. This episode will focus on God's sovereignty and next week we'll talk about human free will.

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Calvinism asserts that God's sovereignty means he is the ultimate cause of all things.

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He actively brings about everything that happens according to his divine will.

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Every event in history, every human decision, and even the smallest details of life occur because he has ordained them.

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In this view, God causes human choices and actions and governs them through his overarching plan.

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This ensures that his purposes are always accomplished. This perspective emphasizes

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God's absolute authority, his control over creation, and the belief that he actively causes all things to happen.

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The following quotes exemplify this view. John Calvin, in his

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Institutes of the Christian Religion, wrote, The will of God is the supreme and primary cause of all things, because nothing happens without his order or permission.

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R .C. Sproul, in his book, Chosen by God, said, If there is one single molecule in this universe running around loose, totally free of God's sovereignty, then we have no guarantee that a single promise of God will ever be fulfilled.

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And finally, John Piper, in his book, Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, shared this disturbing thought.

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In other words, it isn't just that God manages to turn the evil aspects of our world to good for those who love him.

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It is rather that he himself brings about these evil aspects for his glory. This includes as incredible and as unacceptable as it may currently seem.

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God's having even brought about the Nazis brutality at Birkenau and Auschwitz, as well as the terrible killings of Dennis Rader, and even the sexual abuse of a young child.

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In this view, God controls absolutely everything that happens, including all evil and suffering.

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If anything at all existed outside God's control, even something as tiny as a single autonomous molecule, it could mess up God's plans and make his promises unreliable.

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Thus, according to this perspective, God's sovereignty means his absolute control is the ultimate cause of everything.

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The implications of this view, as John Piper explicitly states, are deeply troubling.

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It makes God responsible for every sin ever committed. To put it bluntly, this view shifts the blame for the works of the devil onto God himself.

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Now, this podcast episode is not an attempt to engage in a point -by -point refutation of this view of sovereignty.

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Many, many books and scholarly works have explored this debate in great detail.

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Rather than rehashing those arguments, my goal is to focus on what

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Scripture does say about God's sovereignty, rather than framing the discussion around what it does not say.

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So what does the Bible say? What is the biblical view of God's sovereignty?

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Let's consider three passages which clearly demonstrate that while God is in control, he is not the cause of all actions.

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This passage presents a direct challenge to the Calvinist idea that God decrees all events, including evil actions.

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Here, God explicitly states that he did not command nor even conceive of the horrific practice of child sacrifice.

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If God were the primary cause of all things, then such atrocities would have to be part of his defined decree.

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Yet, this passage refutes that notion by showing that some human actions are entirely outside his will.

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This supports the idea that God's sovereignty does not require him to be the deterministic cause of all events, particularly sinful ones.

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In this lament, Jesus expresses his heartfelt desire to gather the people of Jerusalem to himself, yet he acknowledges that they were not willing.

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This reveals a tension between God's will and human response.

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If God were the primary cause of all actions, as Calvinist interpretations suggest,

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God would also cause the unwillingness of Jerusalem's people, making

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Jesus' longing and lament inconsistent or insincere.

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Instead, the passage portrays a genuine divine desire thwarted by human choice, indicating that people can resist

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God's will. This resistance demonstrates that humans possess free will, and their actions determine their response to his invitation.

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Thus, while God retains ultimate authority, he does not force or predestine every action, allowing human will to play a significant role.

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This passage suggests that God desires all people to come to repentance, creating tension with the

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Calvinist doctrine that God predetermines who is saved and who is lost.

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If God directly caused all events, including salvation, then this passage would indicate internal conflict within God's will.

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He would be willing that none should perish, while simultaneously causing some to perish.

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God's patience only makes sense if people have some causal role in their own repentance.

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God's sovereignty does not necessitate meticulous control over every human action, but allows for genuine human choice.

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The biblical narrative presents God as desiring certain outcomes while permitting people to resist his will, making moral responsibility meaningful.

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If God directly caused all things, his expressions of grief over sin and longing for repentance would be incoherent.

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Instead, scripture portrays a God who governs with authority, yet does not override human agency.

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This demonstrates that sovereignty and free will are not mutually exclusive.

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This understanding of sovereignty aligns with the insights of various scholars who distinguish between God's supreme authority and the idea that he directly causes all events.

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Consider what Jesse Morell said from his book The Natural Ability of Man. The sovereign, by definition, is one who exercises supreme authority.

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God is the sovereign of the universe because God is the ultimate authority over everything, not the ultimate cause of everything.

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Dr. Jack Cottrell, in his book The Bible vs. Calvinism, says,

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The biblical view is that divine sovereignty is God's absolute lordship over all things, understood not in terms of causation, but in terms of control, being in control.

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So what's the Bible's definition of God's sovereignty? The Bible defines

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God's sovereignty as his ultimate authority over everything, not as him controlling every detail of our choices.

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He's fully in charge, yet he allows people to make real decisions, which means our actions truly matter.

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If God caused everything directly, his sorrow over sin and desire for people to repent wouldn't make sense.

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Instead, he rules with wisdom, guiding history towards his purposes, while still giving us the freedom to respond to him.

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Dr. Leighton Flowers has a superb chess analogy which challenges the idea that God's sovereignty requires him to control every move.

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Take a listen. We all believe God's sovereign. What does that mean?

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It means that he has the right to rule as he pleases. That means he even has the right to give you a free choice if he wants to, because he's that sovereign.

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And this is a different view of sovereignty. We were talking about this earlier. I really do agree with what you said.

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We have, I think, in our view, a higher view of God's sovereignty than that of our Calvinist friends. That's no disrespect to them.

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I'm sure they think the same thing. They wouldn't hold to their view if they didn't think that. But the reason I say that can be illustrated this way.

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If you're walking down a boardwalk and you come across a man playing both sides of the chessboard, he moves a black piece and he goes around that side and moves a white piece.

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And you say, sir, why are you playing both sides of the chessboard? And he looks at you and he says, what's the only way

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I know how to ensure my victory? So you have to control both sides, the evil and the good.

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You have to control everything meticulously in order to ensure your sovereignty, your control, your victory.

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Okay. Well, you go down the boardwalk a little ways and you find another man who's playing a line of chess masters with like six or seven or 10 or 12 different chessboards around him.

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You've seen those chess masters that are just taking on everybody. He's doing that just one after another. He's beating every single one of them without even a seeming effort.

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Which one of those two are you going to go on the brag about? He's ensuring his victory, not on the basis that he controls what his opponents will do.

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He ensures his victory based upon how good he is at chess. He's just better than everybody else is.

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And I think that's a higher view of sovereignty. And I think that's the view that scripture paints of an actual opponent.

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An opponent, yes, that's been given his authority by God. He's created by God. I'm not dualist here in the sense that they're saying there's two equal powers.

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No, God's given Satan his authority. God's given us choice. But God's able to handle our choices.

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He's so sovereign. He's so powerful. He has so much knowledge and so much ability. He's able to accomplish his purpose even when we choose to do things against his will.

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He doesn't have to control meticulously our moves on the chessboard in order to bring about his victory.

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True sovereignty is not about God micromanaging every molecule in the universe or directly causing all events past and future.

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Rather, true sovereignty centers on God's ultimate authority. While God grants both humans and spiritual beings genuine freedom to choose paths contrary to his will, he maintains supreme lordship and control.

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His sovereignty means that despite these freedoms, God still determines the final outcomes.

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So in the end, we must ask ourselves, which God is truly greater?

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Is it a God who can only accomplish his purposes by meticulously controlling every molecule, thought, and action in the universe?

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Or is it a God so supremely sovereign that he can achieve his ultimate purposes even while granting his creatures genuine freedom?

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A God who can work through, around, and despite the actions of those who oppose him.

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Scripture consistently portrays the latter. A God whose sovereignty remains undiminished by allowing real human choice, but is rather magnified through his ability to bring about his perfect will without overriding our will.

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This God demonstrates a sovereignty far more profound than mere deterministic control.

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His is a sovereignty of wisdom, relationship, and redemptive purpose that invites our participation rather than rendering it meaningless.

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The problem isn't that Calvinism goes too far with God's sovereignty.

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The problem is that it doesn't go far enough. God's true sovereignty isn't in causing our actions, but in fulfilling his purposes through our choices.

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Thanks for listening to the podcast. We hope this episode has deepened your understanding of Scripture.

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If you found this content valuable, please share it with your friends. For more biblical studies, visit our website at ReadyForEternity .com.

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That's all for now. Keep studying your Bible, growing closer to God, and getting ready for eternity.