Reasons to love predestination

If there was one doctrine you’d remove from the Bible, what would it be? For some it would be ‘predestination’. For many Christians today, this teaching is not only hard to understand, but even hard to accept. Most pentecostals and charismatics tend to avoid or work around this topic. I've written previously in depth about the problem that predestination poses to Pentecostalism generally. But what are the benefits of this doctrine for us?

Without denial the Bible again and again insists that God’s people were chosen by him to be saved; and chosen according to his sovereign pre-determining grace.

“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.  And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” (Rom 8:29-30)

“He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons.” (Ephesians 1:4)

Why has God told us about predestination? Does this bible word deserve the ‘dirty’ image it has among many today? I’ll never forget a sermon I heard by tape from a local Presbyterian, Rob White, who gave five reasons why God gave us the biblical doctrine of predestination:

1. To humble us

When we see that salvation is attributed wholly to God we realise there is nothing to boast about, for then even our very faith is a miraculous gift from God (Eph 2:8-9). Rather than causing boasting, this truth excludes it; it actually works against our pride. Understanding God’s sovereign grace should eliminate arrogance. We only believe because he breathed his Spirit into us who were dead, and gave us faith; and he gave us faith because he called us; and he called us because he has chose us; and he has chose us because he fore-knew us, fore-loved us even before we existed, before the creation of the world.

If we have understood grace, we will be forever astonished and humbled that God has had mercy on us, completely unlovely sinners, yet loved by God even while we were against him and his enemies.

2. To give us assurance

Predestination gives us great assurance because we know that we are going to get there. And because it’s not that we are going to get there ourselves. God is going to do it and our salvation depends entirely on him; and he will never let us go.

The way some preachers appeal to Christians we’d be forgiven for feeling as though our lives were forever oscillating between ‘falling away’ from God and ‘coming back’; forever wavering between ‘with him’ and wandering ‘away’ from him.

But if God has brought us to faith in Christ, he has put his Spirit in us as a guarantee that he will keep dwelling in us by his Spirit; continually working in us and walking with us and keeping us in his love.

Even when we pass through periods of weakness in our faith and obedience, we can have the security of knowing that our salvation lies purely in the predestined will of God; like children who because incomplete in our obedience experience loving discipline, we always repent in full knowledge of our Father’s presence and love. This knowledge is the gift of Christian assurance. But despite this gift of knowledge, even if you don’t have full assurance as a Christian, that won’t stop God doing it, for, he is faithful.

3. To uphold our responsibility

Incorrectly understood, this doctrine is said to encourage apathy, because if salvation is entirely God’s work, then we don’t have any responsibility before God. But actually, God’s predestination upholds our responsibility before him. Jesus who said: ‘no one can come to me unless the Father draws Him’, also said to those who did not come to him, ‘you refuse to come to me and have life’.

Apathy is inconsistent with mature Christianity and an understanding of sovereign grace: it is when we are taking responsibility for our sin and life before God that it is evident that God is working in us by his Spirit and has therefore chosen us to be his own.

4. To motivate our holiness

Incorrectly understood, the doctrine of predestination is said to encourage complacency, because if God has destined us to have eternal life, his people have a license to live however we please.

But truly understood this teaching is the true motivation for holiness, because the purpose of God’s election is our holiness (Ephesians 1:4). We have been predestined to be conformed into the likeness of Jesus. If God’s Spirit is in us we will be living by the Spirit, and that means putting to death the misdeeds of our bodies; we are dead to sin, and alive to God.

Understanding that we have been chosen by God’s grace is the only real fuel for holiness and antidote for complacency.

5. To give us confidence

Incorrectly understood, election is said to encourage narrow-mindedness, because the chosen of God will become self-absorbed with this knowledge. This teaching is said to stifle evangelism, because if no one can be saved whom God has not chosen before time began, then there should be no point in our efforts to win the lost.

But actually, this knowledge shows us that salvation is so much bigger than ourselves and our lives. The reason God chose Abraham, Israel, Christ and his people is to bring his salvation to the ends of the earth. So actually, this teaching is the real fuel for our evangelism and missions.

It’s only when we understand God’s sovereign plan of election that there is any point in evangelisation. If God is working with us and he has promised that our work will be effective, and if he has ordained that through the preaching of the gospel that he himself will call his elect people to salvation, then we can have confidence in our praying and our preaching, and not become discouraged.

God’s word will accomplish his sovereign purpose, drawing his people to himself and condemning to judgment those who do not believe. It’s a sobering and humbling task because we are guaranteed to succeed, whether our message brings forgiveness of sins or not, because the gospel message itself was predestined to bring both salvation and and condemnation:

Just as Simeon said to Mary about the predetermined plan of God for Christ:

“This child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed." (Luke 2:34-35)

Though pierced with grief ourselves by those who reject Christ, we are always rejoicing as partners in God’s work, because as we labour in the word and in prayer, we always know that ‘as many as are appointed to eternal life [will] believe’ (Act 13:48).

Dirty bible words (such as predestination)

The knowledge of God's predestination is without doubt an unspeakable blessing to us as children of God our Father. Like all it's teaching, there are no doctrines in the bible that are not vital. They all interdependently arise from the one true God who has inspired the Scriptures by his Spirit, and given us in his Word everything that we need for our salvation, for our good and for our holiness.

We must not play ‘favourites’ with doctrine; we must not be 'choosy' with any truths of God’s word. In fact, being 'selective' at all with the Bible poses great dangers to Christian maturity. This is one of the major limitations with memory-verse systems and the like. We invariably give the upper-hand to our biased preferences which influence how we approach the Bible. We end up imposing our systems above the bible which are based upon our limited understanding, presuppositions and worse still popular appeal. 


But it is God who is speaking and we should be listening. And he speaks through all of his Word. It is all given to us for our instruction and our good. We must not ignore or silence anything that the Bible says to us. It was original sin to doubt that God’s word was good and for our good, and to cease listening to everything that God had said to us.

There should be no doctrine we’d even dream of sidelining in the Bible, much less changing or removing; and least of all the doctrine of ‘predestination’, which to the Christian should perhaps be the grandest and sweetest of all truths. Though for many Christians today, this teaching may remain hard to understand, we should do more than simply accepting this doctrine. We should embrace it with two hands from our heavenly Father, with childlike faith, knowing that by grappling with it and growing up into this doctrine, it will come with all the rich rewards we’ve learned to expect from our good, gracious and loving Lord and God.

Experiencing God’s guidance

God’s promised guidance

God guided his people under the Old Covenant into the inheritance he had prepared for them. Psalm 78:51-55 shows the LORD, after redeeming Israel, leading them into his promised land of Canaan with the loving guidance of a shepherd. But although the LORD destroyed the house of Israel for their sin and exiled Judah from their paradise – the land flowing with milk and honey – the prophets foretold that when the Christ came, bringing salvation, restoration and deliverance, he would have compassion on God's people and once again guide them, leading them into a new paradise (Isaiah 49:8-10). And so Jesus came, declaring “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11-16); “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish...” (John 10:27-28). The new promised paradise into which our Lord guides his people – Christians – is the eternal life of knowing his Father (John 17:3).

Just as Moses led Israel our of Egypt, through the sea and through the desert, until they came into their promised inheritance of Canaan, the New Testament teaches that through Christ in the scriptures God does guide every Christian into the inheritance he has promised them. “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.” (Hebrews 1:1-2) God has spoken to us in the person of Jesus, and through the Scriptures the Holy Spirit continues to guide us into God's love, Christ likeness and Heaven's glory. God’s will is to bring all things under Christ’s authority (Ephesians 1:10) and make us more like Christ; this is our destiny; this is God's plan for our lives (Romans 8:29, 2 Peter 1:3, 1 Thessalonians 4:3, 2 Timothy 3:17, Ephesians 2:10).

Experiences, external and internal

External experiences – circumstances and events – are ambiguous without objective revelation. We cannot know for sure, in advance, what God’s specific will is in external events. External events are dumb; they do not speak to us. An event itself will not tell me God’s will. God gave Satan permission to test Job’s faith (Job 1:6-12). The book gives the reader the actual will of God behind the events, but Job and those present at the time did not have this revealed to them. In Job 1:20 we see that Job trusted God even while he didn’t know what was going on. In Job 8:1-6 we see that Bildad interpreted the events falsely. Without what we have in the Scriptures, they were in the dark. God sent Assyria as a tool for judgement against Israel, in Isaiah 10:5. But in Isaiah 10:7 we see that Assyria had no idea that this was God’s purpose. They were just war mongering. A crowd with Jesus made a false conclusion about a man’s sickness. They thought the reason was sin. But Jesus declares that God’s own purpose was very different (John 9:1-3).

Internal events – inner promptings, urges, convictions, dreams – are also unreliable. It is not doubted that God can speak to us through external and internal experiences. But he does not promise to do so. Therefore, Christians should not expect the voice of the Spirit to come through circumstances, events, inner promptings, urges, convictions or dreams. These things are not normative, but subjective, and as such untrustworthy means of knowing God's will. However, we can trust the Scriptures. The Apostle Peter declared that the word of the prophets is surer than even his own eye witness experience (2 Peter 1:19). The only promise we have is that God has spoken to us through Jesus (Hebrews 1:1-3). We don’t need to wait for this; we can simply read the Bible. Countless Christians have wasted countless hours praying for God to speak to them through other unreliable means, but he has already spoken to us a word that is sure and unchangeable. We should instead be students of the Bible, which is an objective revelation, and his reliable word.

Beyond the subjective

What should we to do with experiences and feelings? We should trust in God’s sovereign goodness, and not the situation. God sovereignly (and invisibly) directs everything behind the scenes for the good of Christians. He uses every situation to steer us towards Christ likeness. We should also learn of God’s moral will as revealed in Scripture. God has given us moral guidance in Scripture. We can consciously cooperate with his will revealed in the Bible. We can take actions that we know God wants us to take. We need to learn from the Scripture what God has already said to us all, and let this interpret our experience, rather than the other way around.

We should enjoy your freedom of choice regarding non-moral decisions. We don’t need to be concerned to discover God’s specific individual will for our lives, through interpreting our external and internal experiences. The first problem with this (apart from its subjectivity and ambiguity) is that it leads to frustration. Everybody will inevitably fail to follow any perceived path perfectly. We will sin and therefore step outside our expected ‘Plan A’. This leads to feelings of guilt and spiritual inadequacy. A second problem is that this understanding diminishes God’s power. Cannot God still accomplish his perfect work in your life despite your failings, bad decisions and sin. The Scriptures indicate that this is in fact what He is always doing. Therefore, regarding non-moral details we have freedom to choose from many options. As long as we make sure to live like Jesus, we don’t have to be scared about missing his plan. We are not pre-planned robots with an exact path to follow at every point. We have the dignity to be able to think and do, as we will in God’s good creation, trusting that the outcome will always be for our good under God’s sovereign providence.

We should therefore focus on the big picture and leave God to order the minute details. This is not being flippant, but enjoying our freedom. God does have a specific will for everything, but he has never promised that we will know this. It’s his secret until it happens. We can’t therefore be sure that we will know his specific will in advance (although you can in hindsight, for whatever happens is his specific will). Although we can step outside his moral will as revealed in Scripture, we can never move outside his sovereign will behind all things. “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever!” (Romans 11:36)

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Adapted from a sermon given by Scott Warner to Mars Hill Anglican Church, NSW, 2004.

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Predestination: A Pentecostal problem

God, grace and sovereignty

Christians are ‘blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ’ (Ephesians 1:3). They have adoption, grace, redemption, revelation and the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:4-14). But why has God blessed Christians? Why us and not others? Why some and not all? This is an important question, which the Bible itself insists on answering.

Is it because of something to do with us? Is it our faith that causes God to bless us? Is there some innate goodness in Christians that responds to the Word of God that is not present in other people? Or is it chance? Did we simply happen to hear at the right time from the right person?

Pentecostalism is part of a growing movement that has for centuries now maintained that although God would bless all with salvation, the presence of faith in Christians (which is not present in others) ‘allows’ God to bless them so. But the Bible’s answer to this question is very different, and for good reason.

The Bible’s answer

The Apostle Paul in Ephesians 1:3-14 answers: “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will--to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves... In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:4-6, 11-12).

The reason why God has blessed us spiritually in Christ is that “he chose us in him before the creation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4). And he did this, not because of some goodness in us, but “in accordance with his pleasure and will--to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.”

Someone will exclaim, ‘Did not God choose us because we have believed in Him?’ But “he chose us before the creation of the world,” (Ephesians 1:4) before we believed. Again, someone will ask, ‘But did he not choose us because he knew we would believe?’ But we were chosen in him, “having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” (Ephesians 1:11). God does not work out everything in conformity with what we will or will not do, in conformity with the purpose of our will. But he works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, and he chooses accordingly, based on his sovereign grace and for his own praise.

Paul later explains the role of faith: we are saved not by faith, but by the grace of God. Faith actually is a “gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8-9), given to those whom he saves. In other words, it is not something innate that some possess that enables God to save them. But instead, it is something that God himself chooses to give those whom he has chosen to save – they do not merit salvation (they are saved purely ‘by his grace’), but they are saved through the faith he graciously provides.

Ephesians 1:3-14 makes very clear that we are Christians for no other reason than that God decided to make us so. The reason is found in God himself, and not in ourselves. We are not more deserving than others. Nothing has moved God to save us except God’s own will: He wanted to do it. The source of God’s election is to be found in his loving-kindness and nothing else.

Jesus, speaking to his disciples, said: ‘You didn’t choose me, but I chose you’ (John 15). He taught this teaching openly to non-believers too: ‘No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him’ (John 6:44). To them, he said, ‘You do not believe because you are not my sheep’ (John 10:26). He did not say, “You are not my sheep because you do not believe.” The Apostle John makes it very plain when he says, ‘We love him because he first loved us’. The Apostle Peter also makes this clear. He begins his first letter addressing Christians: ‘To God’s elect... who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father’ (1 Peter 1:1-2). And later in the same letter, speaking about unbelievers, he says: ‘They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for’ (1 Peter 2:8).

Problems with Predestination

Pentecostals struggle with this teaching. Many Christians get so frustrated, trying to wrap their heads around this: How can the God who said: ‘Choose this day whom you will serve,’ turn around and say, ‘You didn’t choose me, but I chose you’? People struggle, trying to reconcile in the Bible human responsibility and divine sovereignty. But both the responsibility of people and the sovereignty of God over them are taught side by side in the Bible. In fact, in Scripture the two are married together, such that it is impossible to separate them—why then should we struggle to reconcile them?

Clearly, our problem with the Bible’s teaching on God’s sovereign grace for salvation is not a problem of truth, but one of belief. It is not a pastoral problem, but an intellectual one. It is not a problem with the Bible; it is a problem with our own lack of willingness to accept it.

John Stott has called ‘election,’ “a divine revelation, not a human speculation.” Martin Lloyde Jones has referred to this teaching as “a statement, not an argument.” Jim Paker has argued that all Christians do believe in the sovereignty of God in salvation, even though many deny it, for at least two reasons: One, we give God thanks for our conversion (Why do you do that? Because we know in our heart that God was entirely responsible for it. We did not save ourselves. He saved us). Two, we pray for the conversion of others (We pray that God would work in them everything necessary for their salvation because we know that that is the only hope of them being saved). “On our feet, we might have arguments about it, but on our knees, we all agree”.

Questioning God

We must never play down or ignore anything that the Bible teaches, certainly not what the Bible teaches about the sovereign grace of God. We must never blur the edges of Scripture; we must never blunt the sharpness of anything God has revealed to us; we must never alter what God has said in the hope that it will make it easier to understand. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16).” Who are we to doubt or question God’s sovereignty in salvation because we do not like it? Are we wiser than God? Are we greater than God?

This is precisely how the Apostle Paul speaks: ‘One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?” But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ “Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use (Romans 9:19-21)? And in what he says next he sums up in a few sentences God’s entire plan from all eternity past: ‘What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory—even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles (Romans 9:22-23)?’ God, before time began, chose to make himself known, both in justice and in mercy.

The source of our problem

Our problem is not that we do not understand the justice of God, or even that we do not understand the (so-called) free will of mankind, but our real problem is that we do not understand the fall. Though we may think the problem lies with this teaching on election itself, actually, our problem is with what the Bible teaches about sin – the human sin that makes it necessary for God to choose us in the first place.

How far did mankind fall when he fell? Were we lucky in our fall so as to land upwards, still standing upright? Or did we fall so as to end up better off than we ever were in the first place? This is the view of secular evolutionists, humanism and much of the new age: We’re getting better and better and one day we’ll catch up to become God himself. No Christian though would agree that we are better people because of sin or advancing because of sin.

Did mankind only fall part of the way, so that we were damaged by sin, but not ruined? According to this view, every person has been ‘affected’ by sin, but nevertheless, we are still able to choose to turn away from sin and capable of loving God. In other words, people would be capable of ‘freely’ choosing to accept Jesus as their Lord. It is not so much that God comes looking for us, but we go looking for God. Revelation 3:20 is often quoted: “Behold I stand at the door and knock, if anyone opens the door, I will come in…” (The Lord Jesus was actually speaking to a Church in this Scripture).

The extent of our problem

Was there some good left in mankind after the fall of Adam and Eve, so that when the opportunity arises we may still choose to reach out to God in love? This is not what the Bible teaches. When Adam and Eve fell into sin they went all the way: it was total destruction, complete ruin and spiritual death.

Ephesians 2:1-2 puts it clearly: “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” We all at one time followed the world and the devil. We were dead! Can the dead walk? Can the dead love? Can they exercise freedom of choice? Romans 3:10-12 puts it another way: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Genesis 6:5 is very severe about the detrimental effect of the fall: “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” Jeremiah 17:9 is similar: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.”

This being the case, what good could God possibly foresee in hearts that are dead in sin, and inclined to evil all of the time? Since the fall, people are simply not capable of even the slightest movement back towards God. God himself only can first reach down and performs a miracle of rebirth through the Holy Spirit to cause our hearts to respond to him in faith and repentance.

The only way that people can be saved is by the sovereign activity of God. He reaches out and chooses to save people through faith in the finished work of His Son. He brings people to faith. This faith is not of ourselves; it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8). To be sure, God does not refuse anybody who comes to him. However, unless God moves first and gives people the inclination to come to Him—nobody will! The Bible makes it clear that people are willing sinners, responsible sinners, who every day choose the path they tread. In justice, God chooses to leave somewhere they want to be: in their Godlessness. It is when God takes the initiative and has mercy on someone out of his own will and for his own pleasure and changes someone’s heart that they respond with the obedience of faith.

The blessing of predestination

Election is a blessing, not a curse! If you have been brought by God to faith in Christ then God has chosen you to be saved. This is something to rejoice about, not grumble. The just thing for God to do would have been to condemn us for our rebellion against Him. But in mercy ‘he chose us in him’ (Ephesians 1:4) to be saved through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. How should this teaching affect us?

Does this teaching encourage ‘arrogance’, since the ‘chosen’ ones will boast about their special position with God? Not at all! This teaching should humble us! Far from causing boasting, it excludes it. In fact, this teaching is the only way to eliminate arrogance. It is only when salvation is wholly attributed to God that there is nothing to boast about. Our very faith is an undeserved gift from God. When we really understand this teaching we will be forever astonished and humbled that God has had mercy on detestable sinners like us.

Does this teaching encourage ‘uncertainty’, since believers will become unsure as to whether they are ‘chosen’ ones or not. Not at all! This teaching gives us great assurance! We are going to get there not because we will do it ourselves, but because God will do it, and he will never let us go. We are not one day ‘falling away’ from God and another coming back to him; we are not one day with him and the next day ‘away from God’; we are not one day on an ‘up’ and the next day on the ‘down.’ No, if God has brought us to faith in Christ, he has put His Spirit in us as a guarantee and he will work in us to complete his work of salvation in us. Even when we pass through periods of doubt, we can have the security that in the end, our salvation is based purely in the predestined will of God.

Does this teaching encourage ‘apathy’, since if salvation is entirely God’s work, our responsibility before him is eliminated? Not at all! This teaching undergirds Christian responsibility. It is when we are taking responsibility for our sin that it is evident to us that our faith is real and God is at work in us by His Spirit. This is our evidence that we are chosen by him, because we live according to the Spirit, and not according to the sinful nature. Also, God’s election is the true motivation for holiness. We were chosen in him in order to ‘be holy and blameless in his sight’ (Ephesians 1:4). We have been predestined to be conformed into the likeness of Jesus. There is no room for complacency.

Does this teaching encourage narrow-mindedness, since God’s ‘chosen’ may become totally absorbed in themselves: ‘no one can be saved unless God chooses, and therefore there is no point in our efforts to win the lost.’ Not at all! God’s predestination shows us that salvation is so much bigger than we could have ever imagined on our own. It is bigger than us. God’s election is our motivation to share the gospel. The reason God chose Abraham and Israel and especially Christ and His people is to bring salvation to the ends of the earth! Far from stifling evangelism, God’s sovereign grace is the real fuel for evangelism and missions. It is only when we understand this teaching that there is any point in evangelism: God is working with us and therefore our work will be effective since God has ordained that through the preaching of the gospel he will call people to salvation. We know that our labour is not in vain because Christ will build his church. As will always be the case, we can praise God, saying ‘all those who were appointed for eternal life believed’ (Acts 13:48).

Conclusion

I want to plead with Pentecostals, don’t get angry or frustrated with Christians who believe in God’s predestination, his election of believers and his sovereign grace. Prayerfully read Ephesians 1 and Romans 9. It is God’s Word to us. We must not separate Biblical truth from Biblical truth; that is, we cannot accept some parts of the Bible without accepting all it’s doctrine. The Bible is one book, one message from one God. If it is from God, we must accept the lot.

Please understand that the Bible’s truth about God’s sovereign grace is a blessing for all Christians! It is the very reason why we are blessed in Christ. It will humble us. It will give us assurance. It will make us aware of our responsibility before God. It will challenge us with our purpose: to live a holy life. And it will motivate us to get moving in line with God’s plan of bringing others to salvation.

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Adaptated from a sermon given by Rob White, St John’s Presbyterian Church, Hobart.

God, Evil & Sovereignty: A Pentecostal dilemma

The Black Hole in Pentecostalism

If God is in control of everything, it follows that he is in control of evil as well as good. That may be a comforting thought to some but troubling to others. And if God controls evil, is he then responsible for it? In other words, if God controls evil, does he therefore to some extent cause evil? Some have attempted to explain the answer thus: he only 'allows' evil to occur. But if it is in God's power to act, even permitting evil to occur leaves open the question as to how God could allow evil to occur without being responsible for its cause.

The very existence of evil raises many questions, especially regarding the extent to which we believe that God is sovereign: if God is all-controlling, did he plan a world to fall into wickedness? And if God is all-powerful, why will he allow sin and suffering to eternally exist in hell? Because he is not good? Surely not! That God is good is fundamental to the Bible's revelation of God's nature and axiomatic to Christianity.

Pentecostalism is part of a movement that has for centuries concluded that the answer to this basic conundrum is that God cannot be in control of everything. He does not control evil. He does not cause disaster. He does not decree wickedness. And suffering occurs outside his 'intended' will. In fact, since God is perfectly good he cannot be all-knowing, nor all-powerful. He did not plan the world to be as it is today. No, God created people free to choose their destiny. He does not (or cannot) now override their freedom. But our sin and the awful consequences of our choices are never his intention. He does not control us and therefore nor does he control the future. Hell is simply inevitable and heaven his last miracle.

But according to this 'logic' God is not God at all; he is stripped of all his divine attributes, including his 'goodness' (for a god who does not now rule perfectly anything he has created is not 'good'). On this logic Christianity slides into dualism; the future is determined by an uncertain struggle between God and evil. Although God 'desires' our 'good'--health, wealth, success, eternal life--our destiny is ultimately in our hands; it comes down to our faith, our sovereignty.

This article does not hope to answer these questions entirely, nor attempt to 'solve' the 'problem' of God, evil and sovereignty. What it does intend to do is encourage Pentecostals to think again, based on the biblical data.

Essential good and evil as perversion

The Bible affirms the essential goodness of everything that exists. God created everything that exists and everything God created is created good. Since only God and his creation exist, everything is good (Rev 4:11).

However, from Genesis 3 to Revelation 22 the Bible also affirms the existence of evil. ‘The whole world is under the control of the evil one’; ‘this is the present evil age’; ‘every inclination of [man’s] heart was only evil all of the time.’

Therefore evil has no independent existence but is a perversion and corruption of what is good; sin is the greatest evil and is the root of all evil. This fact makes evil all the worse than it would have been if it had an independent existence.

God both hates and decrees evil

Evil is totally alien to God, whose ‘eyes are too pure to look on evil’; ‘he is light, in him there is no darkness at all.’ The Bible again and again affirms that God is perfectly upright and righteous and good and holy.

However, God himself says, ‘I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster’ (Isa 45:7); ‘when disaster comes to a house, has not the LORD caused it?’ (Amos 3:6). Also, God uses evil for his purposes. The Lord sends evil spirits who do his work: 1 Samuel 16:14 says, ‘Now the Spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD tormented him.’

Although ‘God cannot be tempted by evil nor does he tempt anyone,’ the Lord sends evil spirits to tempt people to sin: ‘The LORD said, 'Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?' "One suggested this, and another that. Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the LORD and said, 'I will entice him.' " 'By what means?' the LORD asked. " 'I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,' he said. " 'You will succeed in enticing him,' said the LORD. 'Go and do it.' "So now the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The LORD has decreed disaster for you." (1 Kings 22:20-23). Although God ‘sends’ evil spirits to do the tempting, the temptation is also attributable to God: God says, "‘if the [false] prophet is enticed to utter a prophecy, I the LORD have enticed that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and destroy him from among my people Israel (Ezekiel 14:9).

It is also true that God sends evil spirits to tempt ‘his own’ people to sin. 2 Samuel 24:1 states, ‘the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, "Go and take a census of Israel and Judah,"’ i.e. to commit a sin that 1 Chronicles 21:1 attributes to the influence of Satan: ‘Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.’

This language is not just restricted to the Old Testament. 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 applies this language to the work of Satan and the work of God when the Antichrist appears: ‘…the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing… For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie…’

At Calvary God displayed both his hatred for sin (evil) and his sovereignty over it: "This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross" (Acts 2:23).

God ‘tests’ his own people

The King James Version translates Genesis 22:1 as ‘God did tempt Abraham.’ 2 Chronicles 32:31 says about Hezekiah, ‘God left him to test him and to know everything that was in his heart.’ In 1 Timothy 1:20 Paul hands Hymenaeus and Alexander ‘over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.’ (i.e for their good). Similarly, in 1 Corinthians 5:5 Paul commands regarding a sinful brother, ‘hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed.’ This seems to be somewhat of an extreme measure used by God; hence Jesus instructs us to pray, ‘lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one'’ (Matthew 6:13).

Evil as punishment

One form of judgment is God giving sinners over to their own evil (Rom 1:21). Some of the most frightening evils recorded in Scripture are attributed to God’s judgment. Judgment itself is not evil but is an expression of God’s goodness and his faithfulness to himself. The display of God’s justice glorifies God’s Name: In Exodus 14:4, God says, ‘I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD."’ Similarly, in Ezekiel 28:22 God says: ‘" 'I am against you, O Sidon, and I will gain glory within you. They will know that I am the LORD, when I inflict punishment on her and show myself holy within her.’

The Bible suggests that God’s ultimate purpose for evil is the magnification of his own glory. Proverbs 16:4 says, ‘The LORD works out everything for his own ends-even the wicked for a day of disaster.’ Paul expands on this in Romans 9 – 11: ‘What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath--prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory.’ (Romans 9:22-23). The everlasting nature of hell is a testimony to God’s commitment to his purpose of making his glory known through punishment as well as through everlasting grace.

Evil as divine permission

All of these passages affirm and marry together the Sovereignty of God and the responsibility of people; that is not in question. What is clear is that God’s sovereignty is absolute: he controls and uses evil for his own purposes. These passages magnify God’s sovereignty and rule out creaturely independence. Evil does not proceed from God but does depend on his decrees.

Human actions do not take place independently of God even when those actions are wicked. This does not diminish human responsibility. This fact is clear early on in Biblical history (e.g. the story of Joseph, Genesis 50:20 ‘You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good;’ the accounts of the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, Exodus 9:12, ‘the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not listen to Moses’).

Theologians speak of God’s sovereign permission: when humans do what is evil, God is not at work in them to will and to act according to what is good. Thus, for example, God ‘left’ Hezekiah to test him. However, when humans do what is good, ‘it is God who works in them to will and to act according to his good purpose.’ (Philippians 2:13). This highlights the asymmetry of God’s relationship to evil and good. God stands behind good causing it directly; God stands behind evil indirectly by decreeing secondary agents to cause evil.

God not only knows in advance what humans will do; God decrees the future. He knows what will happen because he controls what happens and directs history to its destination. Proverbs 16:9 puts it clearly: ‘In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.’ This verse suggests that at the level of intention humans bear responsibility for their actions, but whether or not intention comes to fruition is the decision of the Lord. Thus, evil acts are encompassed by God’s active providence, yet humans are accountable for them.

Let God be God

As mentioned, this article does not answer or 'solve' the 'problem' of God, evil and sovereignty. If anything, it raises more questions, many of which the Bible does not answer and so nor can we. But what I hope it does do is encourage Pentecostals to rethink their theology, to hold together God as both absolutely good and completely sovereign. The view that evil is outside of God's control simply will not do, even when motivated by a desire to distance a good God from the existence of evil, whether wickedness or disaster. It is a false dichotomy to maintain that evil exists independently from God's good purposes, and it brings him no glory.

"For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen." (Romans 11:36).

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Alexander, T. D. et al. New Dictionary of Biblical Theology. IVP: 2000. talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.