Subject: Suffering and God's providence |
Bible Note: Dear Atdcross, I'm not working today. Consequently, I have a chance to answer. I don't think you've thought through your theology on this, you may be expressing a view that you've heard. For example, the Word of Faith folks commonly take a similar stance. From the Scriptures you might take time to consider: God tears, heals, smites, binds up (Hos 6:1); devours like a lion (Hosea 13:8); wounds, afflicts, strikes, bruises, smites, makes sore, heals, kills, makes alive (Deut 32:39; 1 Sam 2:6; Jer 31:28; Job 5:18; Isa 53:10); forms the light, creates and causes darkness (Isa 45:7; Jer 13:16; Ex 10:21; 14:10); makes peace, makes the dumb, deaf, seeing, blind (Ex 4:11); sends sore judgments upon Jerusalem -- the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast -- (Ezek 14:21); sends an evil spirit (Judges 9:23, 1 Sam 16:14; 18:10; 19:9-10); sends evil angels (Ps 78:49), shoots arrows and darts, breaks bones (Lam 3:12-13; Num 24:8-9; Deut 32:22); heaps mischief upon people (Deut 32:23); breaks in pieces horses, nations, chariots, rider, men, women, the young, the old, the young man, the maiden, shepherds, flocks, husbandman/yoke of oxen, captains/rulers (Jer 51:20-23); turns men to destruction (Psalms 90:3); is as a moth and rottenness (Hos 5:12); feeds and makes drunk with worm wood, gives the water of gall to drink (Lam 3:15; Jer 9:15); creates and brings evil/calamities (Isa 45:7, Jer 18:8, Job 2:10, Amos 3:6); creates the day of prosperity and the day of calamity (Ecc 7:14). etc. There are many more instances in Scripture that indicate that God is fully Sovereign. In a general sense all suffering is the consequence of sin. However, we are not given the insight to assert that a given example of suffering is always associated with that person's sin. Jesus dealt with this several times in His ministry (Luke 13:1-5, John 9:1-3, etc.) This particular branch of theology we call "theology proper," the study of God Himself. In Him, Doc "Nothing happens by chance or outside the sphere of God's providence. As God is the First Cause of all events, they happen immutably and infallibly according to His foreknowledge and decree, to which they stand related. Yet by His providence God so controls them, that second causes, operating either as fixed laws, or freely, or in dependence upon other causes, play their part in bringing them about. (Gen 8:22; Prov 16:33; Acts 2:23)" --London Baptist Confession of Faith 1689 (chapter 5, paragraph 2) "God's almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness are so far-reaching and all-pervading, that both the fall of the first man into sin, and all other sinful actions of angels and men, proceed according to His sovereign purposes. It is not that He gives His bare permission, for in a variety of ways He wisely and powerfully limits, orders and governs sinful actions, so that they effect His holy designs. Yet the sinfulness involved in the actions proceeds only from angels and men and not from God who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin. (Gen 50:20; 2 Sam 24:1; 2 Kings 19:28; 1 Chron 21:1; Psalm 50:21; 76:10; Isa 10:6,7,12; Rom 11:32-34; 1 John 2:16)" Ibid (chapter 5, paragraph 4) "The Sovereignty of God is the stumbling block on which thousands fall and perish; and if we go contending with God about His sovereignty it will be our eternal ruin. It is absolutely necessary that we should submit to God as an absolute sovereign, and the sovereign of our souls; as one who may have mercy on whom He will have mercy and harden whom He will" --Jonathan Edwards "There is no sphere of existence over which Jesus is not sovereign, in virtue of His role both in creation (Col 1:16-17) and in reconciliation (Col 1:18-20). There can be no dualistic division between some areas which He rules and others which He does not." --N. T. Wright "It is not merely that God has the power and right to govern all things but that He does so always and without exception." --John Piper |