The evangelical wing of the Church in which I came to Christ--for which I never cease blessing God--by and large embraces Calvinism's soteriology. But much of the evangelicalism with which I am familiar does not openly teach a full-orbed view of God's sovereignty with far-reaching scope. There are numerous exceptions. For instance, Bethlehem Baptist Church, to name one. Christ Church in Moscow Idaho also comes to mind.
In the course of my ordinary, daily Bible reading over the last ten years or so, repeatedly I've been shocked by text after text that boldy speaks of God's absolute sovereignty. The texts are literally everywhere, and one notices them particularly in Old Testament narrative, where they are starkly set in daily life. This one is from a recent assigned reading:
Judg. 9:23: "And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem, and the leaders of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech. . . ." Read the rest of the chapter, and note the strife, wreckage, and bloodshed that follow. Of course God himself does not sin; don't be silly, we should say, and read the rest of the Bible. But his sovereignty is absolute, and it embraces "evil" as well.
Among evangelicals who call themselves Calvinists, there is oftentimes a truncated view of God's sovereignty, which focuses chiefly on God's sovereignty in salvation, not everywhere. And it's not so much that God's sovereignty is denied explicity. It's denied functionally, from lack. In a day of rampant functional deism, it would be salutary, in my estimation, for the full-orbed, robust, biblical atomosphere of God's total control to be set forth. As for me and my house, in any case, God's absolute rule is beyond dispute, beyond precious.
1 comment:
Ah, yes... the sovereignty of God is revealed again and again in His Word! In my daily Bible reading I'm trekking through 2 Samuel and just read this morning about the end of Absalom's life.
To recap the narrative, Absalom tried to steal the throne from his father King David and got David's counselor Ahithophel on his side. However, this conspiracy against David did not prevail.
2 Samuel 17:14 "And Absalom and all the men of Israel said 'The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel.' For the Lord had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, so that the Lord might bring harm upon Absalom."
Yes, God's sovereignty reaches far and wide... and is over life and death! It is indeed precious.
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