"Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?" (Job 18:4).
All Christians agree that God is absolutely sovereign. A good statement of God’s sovereignty is found in the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF 3:1), which begins, “God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass.”
Christians don’t always realize that they believe this. I like to ask, “How many of you believe this statement?” There is always a sizeable minority who say that they don’t believe it. Then I explain to them that there is nothing distinctively Calvinistic about this statement. No branch of the church would deny what it says.
In fact, if we don’t accept what this statement is saying, we will wind up being atheists. If there is anything that happens in the world outside of the foreordination of God, then whatever that thing is, it is happening outside of God’s sovereignty. It would have to be something over which He has no control.
Everything that happens in this world happens with God’s permission. God always has the power to prevent something from happening. And if God allows it to happen, then He has decided beforehand (“foreordained”) to allow it to happen. If things were to happen outside of God’s control, that would mean that God is not sovereign. And if God is not sovereign, God is not God. He is just a big man in the sky with limited control over things.
If there is one molecule in the universe running loose outside of the control of God’s sovereignty, then practically that means we have no guarantee that any promise made by God will come to pass. That one maverick molecule may prove to be the one grain of sand that trips up God’s plan. It may prevent Jesus from returning again. It may destroy the kingdom of God. It may wreck the plan of salvation.
If this is true, we cannot be sure that He will fulfill what He has guaranteed us in His Word. No Christian believes such a thing, and thus we see that every Christian believes in the total sovereignty of God over all events in time and space.
Take a look at today’s newspaper. Do you see anything going on that could possibly thwart God’s plan? Meditate on the fact that God has total control over all these events, threatening as some of them may appear. Consider how this fact affects you. Consider also the alternative.
