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Sovereignty of God
Many Christians struggle with the issue of God's supremacy as opposed to the apparent free will that the same God has given to humanity. The Garden of Eden seems to be a case in point. Why did God give Adam and Eve the ability to choose if he knew they were going to make the wrong choice? In the same way one could ask why sin is part of society, and indeed part of the lives of devout Christians. Why do we sometimes choose to do wrong? Why do we have a choice in the first place? Why does God let us do wrong things? The answers to these questions I believe are complicated and many, but one can also attempt to find satisfactory answers using one's own God-given common sense in combination with biblical teaching.
In Romans 9 Paul attempts to explain not only to himself, but also to his fellow Christians the way in which God's sovereignty works. He quotes from Exodus 33:19, proving that like human beings, God also has a choice in using his supremacy. He has...
God's choices are made from the perspective of omnipotence and for the purpose of his own glory.
In support of this argument, it can be said that, in given free will to human beings, God has acted according to his own power of choice, for his own glory and for the benefit of his followers. Furthermore the Bible states that God has created human beings in his own image. The benefit of free will forms part of this image. When applying this concept to the example of Adam and Eve then, one can argue that God has chosen to give his first people the power of choice in order to help them represent his image on earth. The fact that they chose incorrectly indirectly adds to his glory in that God is able to show his mercy to those who choose to accept it.
As far as Moses and the Pharao are concerned, God shows his supremacy by choosing to harden Pharao's heart until the tenth plague.…
Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God Packer's latest work is a brief, nontechnical discourse about how God's sovereignty and responsibility of humans impacts evangelism. It is not a guide to the latest in evangelistic action. The primary objective here is to quell the ideal that faith in God's sovereignty barricades evangelistic initiatives and demonstrate it strength to evangelism. The book is laid out in four chapters. The concepts explained therein
Is it possible that four or five billion people could be mistaken when it comes to believing in the existence of God? For the most part, organized religion was created by human beings who found it necessary to construct a belief system in order to control human society and the actions of men upon the Earth. But if the atheist is correct, then all organized religion and their related principles
106). This is an increasingly popular view among the ancient astronaut theorists, for example, with the reference to "Nephilim" being used by some to mean angels, others to mean demons, and yet others who believe these were extraterrestrial visitors and there is enough tangential evidence to fuel additional interest in this explanation concerning these alternative identities of the sons of God. A final explanation is provided by Eastman (2002) who
Moltmann and AquinasMoltmann's Passable God has been criticized for its lack of emphasis on divine transcendence. It could also be said to undermine the traditional understanding of God's immutability and perfection. However, the weakness is not so much in Moltmann�s use of the term passability as it is in people�s understanding of the Trinity. God as Trinity must necessarily be perfect and impassable.[footnoteRef:1] But God as Man was passable and
Verhey, Allen. "Playing God and Invoking a Perspective." Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 20 (1995): 347-364. Any physician of a moral and ethical frame of mind would be reflexively offended if a patient, or the loved one of a patient, accused that physician of 'playing God.' But what does this phrase mean? According to Allen Verhey's essay on medicine, modern bioethics, and "Playing God and Invoking a Perspective," the phrase
Hobbes, Locke, And Democracy There once was a time when kings ruled and their people were subject to the absolute authority of that king. The king literally was the law, whatever he said became law. All of his subject had an obligation to be loyal to their king simply because God had appointed him king. Kings claimed their authority from God, and therefore possessed the ultimate authority. However, beginning in the