Judging God
5th June 2005
I started to comment on an post over at Dead Man Blogging, however, I felt my comment warranted an entry here.
Good question, Meg. It’s one thing to demonstrate that sometimes God exercises His sovereignty. It’s entirely another thing to demonstrate that God is always sovereign, particularly in spiritual matters.
I don’t think this is the case at all. In fact, I think it is more difficult to demonstrate that God is only Sovereign sometimes or doesn’t always exercise His Sovereignty. I think that this incorrect idea stems from the very reason I am making this post (which I will get to in a few lines).
God’s nature constrains Him as well. If any entity is free, God is. But the Bible says that God cannot lie and He cannot reject His children. It’s against His nature to sin. But is He free? He must be. We can’t be more free than God, and if His nature binds Him, then our natures bind us. What we have to do is recognize the nature of an unregenerate person.
This statement concerns me quite a bit. God is not constrained in any form or fashion. He is not bound or limited by anyone or anything. God was, God is, and God does. God does not “want” as we think in terms of wanting.
In addition, sin is not applicable to God. It isn’t that He can’t sin (which I hear all too often), it is that sin does not apply to Him. It is that He, and He alone, is God. He, and He alone, is Sovereign. Man never was and never will be God’s judge. Many doctrines are born from man’s judgement of God (I will save that discussion for another time).
That brings me to my point. We have a tendency to judge God without even knowing it. Man filters everything through his perception of right and wrong. We must retrain ourselves to not filter thoughts and statements about God through this perception. We must strive to take every thought captive. We must regain the fear of the Lord and learn what it truly means.
God reveals some of His nature to us through His Word so that we may know Him better, not so that we can judge His actions. Let us revere Him and give thanks to Him always for His great mercy on us. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
AMDG
June 8th, 2005 at 14:17
Hey, It’s me, Meg. The person you mention in this post. I think you need to explain your position better. I agree that we cannot judge what God does as right or wrong, nor can we judge Him as right or wrong. But I don’t understand how this applies to the original post regarding soverignty. Are you saying God it utterly soverign? Perpetually and Continually exercising His sovereignty? Why does the Bible talk about a choice if there is none?
I am all into having fear of the Lord, and knowing Him as best we can from how He reveals Himself in His word. Everyday I am amazed by His hugeness, and His immutability. By His power, and might, and Absoluteness. The beginning and the end, and everything in between.
But I was always taught that God, constrains Himself from evil, because He is holy. Are you saying that we have no right to discern good from evil? Or only when God does it? What does it mean that sin does not apply to God? How is that different from God never sins?
Like I said, I think you need to explain yourself better, this post is too short for such a profound topic. I need more info…
Waiting on Him,
Meg
June 8th, 2005 at 16:05
Hi Meg.
My blockquotes were actually from the blog author responding to you.
As you can see most of my entries are “thinkers”, for lack of a better term. They are not always black and white and hopefully require people to check the Word of God.
At any rate, I don’t mind expounding on my posts at all if people comment. I love any sort of discussion about our Lord and Savior.
I am saying God is utterly and 100% Soveriegn over everything at all times. This is also implied, as God holds every molecule of the universe together at all times. You may want to see my other post with a bit more discussion on the subject.
The Bible talks about choice because in our view, we have choices. We do not have the liberty to see things outside of space and time as God does. Decisions that I face are genuine and I am making those decisions. However, I also know that my will never thwarts God’s will. His will is always done and everything I do is inside of His will even though I am 100% accountable for it and I am making the decisions myself. This can be hard for many people to comprehend. However, our best answer is from the Word of God in Romans 9 (Specifically, Romans 9:19-20). The “logical” conclusion of every human is to say, “How can God still find fault with me when I am always doing His will and there is nothing I can do to go against His will?”. The answer is basically that as God’s creation, we have no right to even question God.
Your next question brings me to why I made the post in the first place. I think that it is incorrect thinking to say God constrains himself from evil. That is a judgement on God. Evil is a human trait, not applicable to God. I will ask a question that follows the logic to my point. Is it “wrong” or “evil” to kill someone? If so, how can God order killing as He did throughout the Scripture? Does that not make God evil or wrong? …or let us approach it from more of a “hands off” approach. It is “evil” and “wrong” to let children die if we have the power to stop it. Is not God evil for letting the death of children happen every day since He has the power to stop it?
What happens here is that I am judging God with that line of reasoning, to top it off, I am even using Scripture to define “right” and “wrong”, and yet it is still incorrect. The flaw in the above reasoning is thinking we are somehow capable of judging God (by standards he set out for us no less).
You have to ask yourself, where does Scripture teach that there is a measuring stick to which I can apply to God? Where does Scripture teach that God is accountable to me and my judgement for His actions? On the other hand, His Sovereignty is clearly taught throughout.
The point of my original post was to get people to start thinking differently. Stop judging God with a measuring stick that was created for us. Sometime we pass judgement even without really thinking about it (how many times have you heard someone say, how could God let this happen, or how could God do that).
Hopefully, I made my point a bit more clear. Please feel free to comment and let me know what you think.
AMDG
June 13th, 2005 at 18:15
P.S. If I get some time I will try to compile a list of verses where God reveals some of His Sovereign nature to us. (i.e. Numbers 23:19)
June 28th, 2005 at 02:04
[…] t it was worthy of a trackback as some of the discussion is related to a post I made about judging God. Essentially what we have here is man trying to humanize God and it is a very dan […]