A
Arial
Guest
Most traditional Christians---the doctrines of the tulip aside or having been set aside--- will agree with the statement that God is sovereign. If those elements of the doctrines are not adhered to, which is understable given the day and age we live in where they have almost universally been removed, there is a place where His sovereignty is not agreed with in practice. That would be the free will argument, though that in itself I do not believe affects salvation. That all not only have a will that can choose God but that it is free to do so or not to do so. Briefly, a free will, as I see it, is a concept that does not and cannot be possible. A persons will does not act independently and freely. It is always acted upon, by our circumstances and desires.
Either God is Sovereign or He is not. He shows us in His word that He is and in what way that He is. I will list but a few. We see it first in the entire account of creation. Is 25:8-9; Ps 115:3; Dan 4:35; Eph 1:11; Prov 21:1; Is 45:7; Prov 19:21; Prov 16:4,9; Job chapters 38-41. He has a plan before He ever enacts and begins that plan, and it must be under His control and complete in all its details, from the smallest to the largest, or we have chaos. It is a plan of His decree--ordination---and will come to pass by His power and wisdom. He is the first cause of everything and brings it about through second causes.
If for whatever reason this is too big an idea of God, and it certainly can be frightening as we are all control freaks at heart, some have been forced to devise a different usage of sovereign, so that their beliefs can be maintained. This is often expressed, "Sure God is sovereign," they may say, as otherwise the heresy of the rest of their beliefs would be exposed, "but not in the way Calvinists believe." Everyone knows after all that the most powerful weapon that can be wielded against a doctrine when the Bible will not actually back it up their view, is to utter the declaration "Calvinism!" So what other usages of sovereign can we find if we go to the dictionary or the world, rather than the Bible? Well we could use supreme ruler, which would greatly reduce God in sovereignty and power. After all a supreme ruler could be a president of a nation or a company(neither of which controls all things.) And then we could just drop the argument there and hope it goes away. We could even use the same type of process to remove the deity of Christ, and make Him to be a creature of world importance, the greatest prophet and human agent of God ever. Who died on a cross so now we have our sins forgiven when one day we say "I decide I will believe this stuff about Jesus." And Jesus says "Good job!" And since we are told to worship Jesus but also only God, we can go to the dictionary and the world to find the most applicable usage of worship to cover all our bases.
Either God is Sovereign or He is not. He shows us in His word that He is and in what way that He is. I will list but a few. We see it first in the entire account of creation. Is 25:8-9; Ps 115:3; Dan 4:35; Eph 1:11; Prov 21:1; Is 45:7; Prov 19:21; Prov 16:4,9; Job chapters 38-41. He has a plan before He ever enacts and begins that plan, and it must be under His control and complete in all its details, from the smallest to the largest, or we have chaos. It is a plan of His decree--ordination---and will come to pass by His power and wisdom. He is the first cause of everything and brings it about through second causes.
If for whatever reason this is too big an idea of God, and it certainly can be frightening as we are all control freaks at heart, some have been forced to devise a different usage of sovereign, so that their beliefs can be maintained. This is often expressed, "Sure God is sovereign," they may say, as otherwise the heresy of the rest of their beliefs would be exposed, "but not in the way Calvinists believe." Everyone knows after all that the most powerful weapon that can be wielded against a doctrine when the Bible will not actually back it up their view, is to utter the declaration "Calvinism!" So what other usages of sovereign can we find if we go to the dictionary or the world, rather than the Bible? Well we could use supreme ruler, which would greatly reduce God in sovereignty and power. After all a supreme ruler could be a president of a nation or a company(neither of which controls all things.) And then we could just drop the argument there and hope it goes away. We could even use the same type of process to remove the deity of Christ, and make Him to be a creature of world importance, the greatest prophet and human agent of God ever. Who died on a cross so now we have our sins forgiven when one day we say "I decide I will believe this stuff about Jesus." And Jesus says "Good job!" And since we are told to worship Jesus but also only God, we can go to the dictionary and the world to find the most applicable usage of worship to cover all our bases.