Divine Echoes by Karris Mark Gregory

Author:Karris, Mark Gregory [Karris, Mark Gregory]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Quoir
Published: 2018-01-23T00:00:00+00:00

GOD IS NOT IN CONTROL

Today, as we are bombarded with horrific stories and shocking images all day long, the overwhelming evidence of evil creates an enormous amount of cognitive dissonance that demands a verdict. The idea of a Blueprint God, who is sovereignly in control of all things like a Grand Puppet Master, is untenable.

I hypothesize that Christians who believe in a God who is not only in complete control, but who, in his sovereign will, has planned out in advance all the events that will ever occur in our lives, would not be able to maintain this position if they were forced to watch on a screen all the evil taking place worldwide in any given one-hour period of time. Granted, an experiment of that nature would probably cause the person to go insane or, at the very least, to be scarred for life. Assuming they could maintain their sanity, it is highly unlikely they could continue to hold so firmly to the belief that all things occur according to God’s loving will and intricately mapped-out plan.

When we get past the Christian platitudes, if we take the risk of facing the chaos that unfolds before us on a daily basis, and if we reflect on the nature of prayer, it becomes apparent that many questions remain. Philip Yancey quotes an inquisitive philosophy professor, with whom he had communicated about the nature of both evil and prayer:

If God can influence the course of events, then a God who is willing to cure colds and provide parking spaces but is not willing to prevent Auschwitz and Hiroshima is morally repugnant. Since Hiroshima and Auschwitz did occur, one must infer that God cannot (or has a policy never to) influence the course of worldly events. 10

Oord’s model of essential kenosis helps us understand that we should not imagine that God was unwilling to influence the course of horrific events, such as Auschwitz and Hiroshima. Rather, we should recognize that the character of God’s powerful love is self-giving, others-empowering, uncontrolling, and noncoercive. 11 Oord writes: “Because love is the preeminent and necessary attribute in God’s nature, God cannot withdraw, override or fail to provide the freedom, agency, self-organizing and lawlike regularity God gives. Divine love limits divine power.” 12 God’s uncontrolling love defines what he can and cannot do. And, contrary to popular belief, there are indeed some things God cannot do, as Scripture itself teaches. God cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18); he cannot be tempted (James 1:13); he cannot be prejudiced (Acts 10:34–35); he cannot sin (Deuteronomy 32:4); and he cannot get tired (Isaiah 40:28).

And God cannot unilaterally control people and events. It is not that God did not want to stop the events at Auschwitz and Hiroshima. It is that God simply could not control the people and lawlike regularities involved in those events to stop them from occurring. Theologian Thomas G. Belt reminds us:

We can know that for any given evil, God, being perfectly loving, always does all God can do

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