Will oneness be achieved by God’s Almighty power to control everything?

Anyone who has had conversation with Christians probably has heard them say, “God is in control.”  In this saying, the Christian is expressing faith in God’s almighty power.  To them, regardless of how awful something might seem to be, God has the power to make it right ultimately, and for those who trust in him, he will.  Faith in God is a good thing, but what about faith that is based on a misconception?

To help us to answer this question, consider people who do not believe in God; occasionally you might hear them ask, “How could God, if he exists, let something like this happen?”  When there is a calamity, this is often the sentiment of people who question God’s existence – especially young people.  I heard it when the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York were destroyed by terrorists on September 11, 2001.  After asking this question, one young person added, “I want nothing to do with this kind of God.”  This comment was actually a reaction to the idea that God is in control of everything.

The dilemma here is that if God is in control and bad things happen, then it would seem to be his fault.  The reasoning is that if an almighty being can do anything he wishes, he could stop the bad thing from happening.  In this world, lots of bad things happen, so if God is supposed to be in control, either He is responsible or he is not almighty and good as he is said to be.  Which is it?

Who is God?

To answer the question above, we must understand God.  The Bible tells us in Genesis 17:1 that God indeed is Almighty.  Among other biblical identities, God is Creator (Revelation 4:11), holy (Psalm 22:3), good (Matthew 19:17), and love (1 John 4:8).  Paul, in 1 Timothy 6:14-16 (NRSV) nicely summarizes as follows: he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honor and eternal dominion.  Amen.  That’s a lot of authority and power!  Paul specifically referred to Jesus, but his statements apply generally to the high authority of God, which is elevated above all.  In modern language, he is the big boss, the CEO of everything! He owns all and has the right of complete control forever.  The question is how does he use that right? Nowhere in the Bible do we find God called “controller.”  These Scriptures support saying, “God is sovereign” but not “God is in control.”

In the next few Blogs, we will look more deeply into this misconception and consider how we should think about God’s involvement in this world.