God’s Sovereignty: Misunderstood and Misrepresented

Do you think that whatever is happening, whatever happens in general, is happening according to God’s will? The following blog is arranged as follows:

God as a Puppet Master?

When people say God is sovereign, what they mean is that God absolutely controls everything which happens in the universe. One renowned theologian said, “Right now at this moment, if there is a speck of dust falling from the ceiling to the ground, that is planned and controlled by God, for His glory.” That means even the trajectory of the fall, the coordinates, the time at which it fell, was planned and controlled by God, so that His glory will be revealed.

This doctrine has been infused into our lives more in the last few decades than before, and it has been wreaking havoc in our relationship with God.

“God allowed it”

There is another version of sovereignty which is also being passed around, and that says that God controls everything, and that He has His hands on every single thing on earth, every single activity. They say that either God initiates it, or the devil asks God for permission to do it, and He gives the devil permission to do it. And hence, whatever is happening in your life is God’s will. It is no different from the other definition. In both definitions, we see that God is responsible, and everything which happens in your life and mine is what God wanted to happen.

This doctrine of sovereignty finds its way into many of our conversations and social media memes and posts. And honestly, it’s confusing. We say, “God knows what He’s doing. If it’s God’s will, it will happen. If something already happened, that was God’s will. God is powerful and can stop this right now.” But we keep the door open to plenty of questions.

I remember a few years ago, I was talking to my friend and telling him that it was not God’s will for him to be sick. And then, he, the smart one, asked me, “But God allowed it, right?” I started to get confused because I thought, “How can something happen if God stopped it?” And so, it should be that God allowed it, and that went directly against what I was saying in the first place.

Like I said, it’s a very confusing topic and people have doubts about this topic. A lot of believers are taught this way in their churches and Bible studies, and they naturally come up with some ideas about this topic. I believe it is high time we address this, or else it will grow into doubts in every area of our lives as believers.

“But isn’t whatever happening God’s will and his plan?”

Now let’s look into the sovereignty doctrine in detail. We saw that when people say that God is sovereign, it means that God decreed for things to be this way—everything. It would mean that God created Lucifer, the devil, to be that way, and every sin was orchestrated by God to serve His purposes.

The original sin would be orchestrated by God, and even this coronavirus would be orchestrated, allowed, decreed, and controlled by God to serve His purpose. But God did not know everything. This is seen in verses like Genesis 22:12, which says, “Now I know…” God is saying that. Which was when God found that Abraham loved Him more than Isaac. Why did God test Abraham if He already knew that?

And in Jeremiah 32:35, it says, “Nor did it enter my mind.” Now, why would God say that? And He says also in Jeremiah 31 that He will not remember our sins anymore. Again, why would He say that? In Isaiah 5:4, it says, “God expected the vineyard to yield grapes, but it instead yielded sour grapes.” There are plenty more things in the Bible which show us that God did not know everything.

Listen, God gave space for your choice

God did not even plan the specifics of how Jesus would be born on earth. Yes, He would be born of a virgin, and that He would come to save the world. But if you noticed, all the plans about His birth and death were after the original sin, and not before that. He did not plan in the beginning, before everything.

There are only a few verses in the Bible that talk about what happened before the foundations of the earth, and it is mentioned in 1 Peter 1:20 about Jesus. It says that He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world and revealed in these last times for you. God foreordained Jesus or prepared Jesus before the foundations of the earth.

Why? Because everything depended on that one choice of man and what Adam would choose in the Garden of Eden. He did not know what he would choose and hence He prepared for the possibility of Adam eating from the tree.

I can give further proof of this. Revelation 13:8 says, “All who dwell on the earth will worship him whose names have not been written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Notice that it says He was slain from the foundation of the world. Emphasis on from. He was foreordained before the foundations of the earth and slain from the foundations of the earth.

What happened in between? God chose, Adam chose to eat from the tree. God did not know what Adam was about to do, and hence, He prepared Jesus and foreordained Him before the foundations of the world. And after that, as soon as Adam sinned against God, God decided, “I am going to send my Son and He will die.”

He said that at that moment, and since He made a covenant, He said that, He knew that it was as good as slain from now onwards because God cannot lie.

When did God say that? In Genesis 3:15 it says, “And I will put enmity between you and a woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

You see a similar situation when Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac. God stops him. It’s mentioned in Genesis 22:12, and then in verse 13, it says, “Abraham looked behind and saw a ram.” This is exactly a picture of how God prepared Jesus for us beforehand, waiting to see what decision Adam took at the Garden, just like He waited to see what Abraham would do.

God didn’t plan the Genealogy

God did not even plan the entire genealogy. He planned it to include Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and not everyone who finally ended up in the list was there because God ordained it. Because when you look into the genealogy of Jesus, you see Ruth and Bathsheba.

Now Ruth was a Moabite, who was born from Moab, who was born from an incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughter. Bathsheba was someone else’s wife whom David possessed through adultery and murder. If God had planned this, it would mean God planned incest, adultery, and murder from the very beginning.

So, God planned the disasters?

Also, there is a moral issue as well here. I have heard people say that it was God’s will that their daughter was raped and killed. My friend said that when her pregnant friend lost a child a few months into the pregnancy, the pastor said, it seems, “It was God’s plan.”

It’s hard for people then to love God because you never know when God is going to kill your child because it is His plan? Many people have turned away from the Lord because of this doctrine.

Just imagine, if every little hurt, the death, the words, the divorces, the rapes, suicides, and every little thing in your family was either caused by me or I gave permission for that. There’s not even a single person listening right now who would like me. And understandably so.

There wouldn’t be any judicious system in any civilized world that would let me live if I was in charge of every mayhem, destruction, pain, and suffering in the world. And yet, this is what religion is presenting of God—that God controls everything.

It is hard to love God when you define sovereignty of God this way. It would mean He was pretending in every conversation in your Bible, toying with us in every way. It is impossible for you to believe that God is a good God if you have this doctrine.

This demonic understanding has crept into our worship

Many of our songs are reflective of what we think of God. And many times this doctrine gets into it. And it really irritates me, to be very honest. When I hear songs that say “I am coming to worship in Your presence, and even if You put me in hell, I will love You. Even if You hate me, I’m going to love You. I don’t want anything from You, but can You please come to me? Please don’t let go of me. Please. I just don’t want anything from You. Just love me, please.”

We think these songs glorify God, but all these songs malign God in so many ways. Let me explain. Imagine your child going on stage in front of a huge crowd saying, “Dad, even if you burn my arm, I will love you. Even if you close the door with my hand stuck in between, I will write that I love you with my blood because all that matters to me is you. I am not here for anything you have to give to me, but for you to be just near me. Please don’t leave me. I am desperate for you.”

Now think about a passive bystander who hears that. What picture do you think they would get about you as a father or as a parent? You would get arrested by child services. And yet, we paint a picture of God that way.

We paint a picture that we are so loving, and God is not loving. Think about those songs. Yet the Bible says that we love Him because He loved us first (1 John 4:19). We are unable to love God without God loving us first. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we should love God because He does something for us. There’s a difference here.

But let’s be real—we get hurt if God does not keep His promise. But praise God, He always keeps His promise. We are unhappy if God puts us in the fire. But praise God, God rescues us from the fire. Some of these songs really malign God, and it really gets me.

His Will is not always done on earth

Now, Jesus never taught us that whatever happens on earth is God’s will. When He prayed in Matthew 6:10, He said, “May Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” If God’s will is being done on earth, why is Jesus praying this prayer? Think about this. Isn’t it a clear sign that God’s will is not being done on earth?

The epistles never say that whatever happens is God’s will. Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 11:32, “But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.” Wait a minute—if God knew everything about the person from the very beginning, why is He intervening to change the end outcome?

The truth is, as Paul says in Romans 8:28, “God works all things together for good.” God uses every situation and tries to bring good out of it. He uses our stupidity, our sins, and everything to bring some good out of it.

It pains God when people perish. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 2:4 that He wants everyone to be saved. If God is controlling everything, why is everyone not saved? Also, in 2 Peter 3:9, it says, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

It cannot get clearer than this. It absolutely pains God that people are perishing, and He did not plan for their destruction.

Jesus never fit into this erroneous Sovereignty doctrine

What about healing, then? Do you know that today, a lot of people say, when a person is not healed, that it was not God’s will for the person to be healed? During Jesus’ ministry, many times in the Bible, it is mentioned that Jesus healed everyone who had gathered there. So do you mean to say that not everyone there was appointed by God to die of sickness?

Also, we see Jesus in the Gospels, the disciples in the New Testament—they all cast out demons, healed every disease, and brought healing everywhere they went. If it was God’s plan for someone out there to be sovereignly sick, wouldn’t it mean that they were using the authority of Jesus even accidentally against someone God sovereignly wanted sick, and hence going directly against God?

And remember what Jesus said in Mark 3:24: “A kingdom divided against itself shall not stand.”

Also, look into the pool of Bethesda. An angel would go up there and stir the water, and whoever entered first would be healed. It was not like someone was holding back people who were not part of God’s plan from jumping in.

In Mark 9 and Matthew 17, we see the incident where a person brings his demon-possessed child to the disciples, and the disciples were unable to heal the boy. Think about it—if it was today, we would say it was God’s sovereign plan or will for the boy to not be healed.

Understanding Sovereignty of God through love

Any definition of God’s sovereignty that allows evil to exist as part of His will and purpose is an immoral definition of sovereignty.

If you look into the definition of sovereignty in the dictionary, you will see it says that when used as a noun, it means a monarch or a person who has supreme power or authority. And when used as an adjective, it means supreme, greatest in degree.

All these are true. I believe God is supreme and has the highest power or authority and that He is greatest in degree. There’s nothing above Him and nothing higher than Him. But He did not allow evil to exist as part of His plan.

So, what is going on then? Why is everything happening the way it is? The devil is responsible for all the evil in the world. In John 10:10, the Bible says that the devil comes only (emphasis on only) to steal, kill, and destroy. In that very chapter, Jesus calls the devil a thief.

And a thief does not ask for permission. That is why he is a thief. In fact, throughout the Bible, you see God saying, “Don’t do this, or else you will die.” He does not want you to die. But the devil is always searching for ways to attack every person on the planet—not just believers, even unbelievers.

We talked about this briefly, but God decided to give man free will. And that means God would not know what man was going to decide. This is a huge problem for some people. They think, “How can God not know something?”

However, let me ask you one question here. When Jesus came on earth as a baby, the Bible says that He grew in wisdom and stature (Luke 2:52). Can you imagine the God of all the universe, the second person in the Trinity, as a baby first of all? That would mean He was like any other baby. He had to learn how to talk, He had to be taught the Torah, He had to be fed, washed, bathed.

He wasn’t speaking perfect Hebrew when He came out of the womb saying, “How art thou, woman?” When He came out of the womb, He didn’t say any of that. He was like a normal baby.

We find it so difficult to comprehend, but that is the truth of what happened. Can you imagine that? If you can accept that God chose to come as a human and not know, but rather decided to grow in wisdom and stature just like any human being, why would He have a problem in creating human actions independent of His knowledge?

For the same reason—love.

God doesn’t violate free will

The reason why evil entered the world was because Lucifer chose freely to rebel against God. Moreover, at the Garden of Eden, Adam chose against God by using his free will to choose against God. But then, God was surprised when He said, “Adam, what have you done?”

Why was free will given in the first place? He decided to let it be that way, I mean, with the free will. Because that is the only way by which love could be proven. Love requires the existence of free will. You need to have the free will to choose God in order for God to know whether you really love Him.

There need to be choices. That is why God told Abraham, “Now I know that you love Me more than your son Isaac.”

He will not violate anybody’s free will. But that is what the other definition of sovereignty does. He decided well beforehand, and a person cannot choose anything apart from what God has chosen in the first place for him, decreed.

But God does not violate anybody’s free will.

Randomness in man’s choice

Now, a lot of people argue, saying that in Psalm 139, it says God knew what the thoughts of man were. I believe God knows what our thoughts are. However, it is different from saying God knows what our thoughts will be in the next moment. He may be able to estimate it so well, but still God does not know for sure what it is going to be, as we have the authority over our will.

Many people say that every decision of man is because of some reason, and that let’s say if we had to choose between a red ball and a black ball, it is because we have, if we choose any of the balls, it is because we have a certain reasoning and a preference, and that man cannot choose without a preference.

I think you might believe me as I have a PhD in Statistical Sciences and I have taught this subject in college, that we can make truly random choices.

Now, you can do an experiment and test this yourself. Draw two big circles— I mean, it doesn’t have to be a circle, but two big circles in your computer or your tab. Draw them. Choose one of them. Same color, same shape, everything. . Why did you choose one of those? A lot of people say that if we have the same preference towards something, we cannot choose. That’s not true. Although that’s a much deeper study in probability and randomness, you can choose even when there is no preference.

My point here is that people can make truly random decisions. If someone claims that humans are completely predictable, just look at a toddler. It’s incredibly hard to predict the behavior of a baby. You never know what they’re going to do next.

Like I said, God knows whatever we think because it is an electrical impulse in our brain, and God can see it the moment it happens. However, whatever we are going to think tomorrow hasn’t happened yet, and God will not know that.

If you read the KJV version of Psalm 139, the writer of the psalm is talking about things that have already happened—their nature, their thoughts—rather than predicting the future. God has given us authority over our will, and for Him to force us to do something against it would be to violate our authority.

God’s sovereignty from the very beginning

God respects the authority that He gives us. To explain this further, think about the Garden of Eden. If you read Genesis, the devil came as a serpent. Have you ever wondered why he came as a serpent? He could have come as himself, and Adam wouldn’t have recognized him.

But the devil came as a serpent because, on earth, the serpent had more authority than the devil. In fact, a worm has more authority on earth than the devil. The devil had to come as something with earthly authority to deceive Adam and Eve.

Romans 6:16 says, “You become slaves of whoever you obey.” When Adam obeyed the devil, he became a slave to sin and the devil. Adam willfully gave the devil the authority God had originally given to man.

This is why we see murder and destruction right after the Fall. The devil started creating chaos, pain, and destruction as soon as he gained authority over the earth. The Bible says in Genesis 6 that “the Lord regretted making mankind on the earth.” It only took six chapters for God to regret creating humanity.

Now, here is another proof that God did not plan everything—because God would not regret something He planned.

But then, why didn’t God destroy Satan straight away? Could He, being righteous, destroy Satan right then and there? The answer lies in the authority God gave to man. When man gave authority to the devil, Satan gained a claim over the earth. If God destroyed Satan outright, Satan could argue, “Who are You to question me? Man gave me this authority by his own will.”

Man and all of humanity would remain stuck because the devil had a legitimate claim to the authority that man gave him. God couldn’t just override that authority without compromising His own righteousness.

So what did God do? In Genesis 3:15, God declared that someone would come in the future—the seed of the woman—to crush the serpent’s head. God prepared Jesus.

But imagine if Jesus had come the very next day. Without proper preparation, if Satan had been destroyed without atonement, who would kill Satan? Jesus’ death was necessary for the atonement of mankind’s sin.

Hence, God prepared a group of people—Israel—through whom He could give the law, prepare the world, and eventually bring Jesus into the world as the Savior born of a virgin. Without the law, evil would have been rampant, and who knows if there would have even been a virgin by the time Jesus was to be born.

In the meantime, we see that even in the genealogy of Jesus, there was incest, adultery, and other sinful acts that God did not plan. God did not plan these events; He worked through them.

This is why we see so much mess in Jesus’ genealogy. But whatever the devil planned for evil, God turned into good.

So, at the time when Jesus was born, it was the perfect time. God had waited for centuries for the prophecies He spoke through the prophets to be fulfilled. The devil, during this time, wreaked havoc across the earth, not realizing that God’s ultimate plan of redemption was unfolding.

God’s sovereignty in the death of Jesus

When the devil killed Jesus, he thought he was victorious. But he didn’t realize that by killing Jesus, he fulfilled God’s plan of atonement for humanity. The law of atonement, given to Israel, prepared the way for anyone who believes in Jesus to be saved.

Praise God! God is always good, and He can turn any evil plan into good.

After Jesus won the victory over sin and death, He didn’t force anyone to choose Him. Even now, He waits for each individual to willfully accept Him as their Savior. He respects our free will.

So what can we take away from this?

Finally, let’s explain sovereignty

First, God is not responsible for everything happening on earth. He is working all things together for good, as it says in Romans 8:28.
Second, we must recognize who our real enemy is—the devil. John 10:10 clearly states that the devil comes only to steal, kill, and destroy.

The devil has always been the one behind sickness, destruction, and evil. Any definition of God’s sovereignty that includes evil as part of His will is deeply flawed and contradicts God’s nature as revealed in the Bible.

Use your authority

As believers, we must understand that God has given us authority. When Jesus was on earth, He healed the sick, cast out demons, and used His authority against the works of the devil. As His body, we are called to do the same.

We need to take up the authority given to us by God and stand against the devil’s plans. God works through His church—His body on earth—to fulfill His will. When we pray, when we declare His promises, when we stand in faith, we allow God to work through us to bring about His goodness in the world.

God is good, and His plans for us are always good. Let us live in that truth and walk in the authority He has given us. Amen.

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